Slammed
Author: Colleen Hoover
Series: Slammed #1
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: September 18. 2012
Publisher: Atria Books
Summary:
One young man brings change to all of his. After moving across the country, Layken meets her attractive twenty-one-year old neighbor who has an intriguing passion for slams. Within days of their introduction, Will and Layken form an intense connection, leaving Layken with a renewed sense of hope.
Not long after a heart-stopping first date, they are slammed to the core when a shocking revelation forces their new relationship to a sudden halt. Daily interactions become impossibly painful as they struggle to find a balance between the feelings that pull them together and the forces that tear them apart.
First Sentence: Kel and I load the last two boxes into the U-Haul.
My Review:
I’ve heard so many never-ending good things about Colleen Hoover’s Slammed and what an awesome, terrific book it is. People were praising Slammed left and right, worshiping it, and recommending it to everyone. I’ll be honest, I hardly read self-published books, especially New Adult self-published books, so when I heard about Slammed and how good it was, I was not so eager to give it a chance, but decided to anyway. The result? I enjoyed it, but I’m not really impressed by it.
Before I started reading Slammed, I already knew that Slammed was focused on a student-teacher relationship, which was similar to Aria’s situation in the first couple of books in the Pretty Little Liars series that I read in high school. I could only hope that Slammed didn’t gross me out and make me want to throw the book against a wall. Thank goodness it didn’t come to that. In fact, I suprisingly enjoyed reading Slammed, even though it featured a student-teacher relationship due to Layken and Will’s unique circumstances.
“How did I not see this? You’re still in high school?” (65)
What I mainly liked about Slammed is Kel and Caulder, Layken and Will’s younger siblings. Kel and Caulder literally brightened up the book for me and bought a lot of humor into it, especially in one of the scenes near the end of the book. It is safe to say that if Kel and Caulder didn’t exist, I would probably be liking Slammed a lot less.
“Ms. Cohen,” Principal Brill says. “They’re dressed as cancerous lungs!” She shakes her head in disbelief.
“I thought they were rotten kidney beans,” Eddie says.
We both laugh. (291)
The one and only thing that really annoyed me in Slammed is Layken, the main character and the person who is telling the story. She is just so annoying, narrow-minded, and just ugh! Her whole “carving the pumpkins” thing made me want to slap her and tell her to grow up already. I can’t explain this any further or this review will contain some major spoilers, but all I can say is that Layken doesn’t know how good she has it, avoiding her own problems, especially when there are other characters she meets in the book that have way less.
“We’re just carving pumpkins tonight. That’s all we’re doing. Just carving pumpkins.” (230)
Despite how much I enjoyed reading Slammed, there is just something – I can’t put my finger to what it is – but there is just something that prevents me from giving it a rating that’s higher than a 3.5 star rating. Maybe it’s because this student-teacher idea has been done already. Maybe it’s because of Layken’s attitude. Maybe it’s because of the annoying italics that wasn’t needed in chapter 20, pages 300 and 301 that just made a good speech feel weird. Maybe it’s because I didn’t truly feel Layken and Will’s pain on not being together. I just don’t know.
Overall, sure, I’ll recommend Slammed, but with a warning attached: if you won’t enjoy reading about student-teacher relationships, then Slammed is definitely not the book for you. Otherwise, why not give Slammed a chance?
I’m not a stranger to student-teacher relationships in a sense that I’ve seen it many times in the (anime) shows I watch and mangas I read. Depending on the maturity of the characters and the way it is executed, I can believe or be grossed out by such relationships. If I remember correctly, someone recommended Slammed to me because of the poetry. About the ocean, I think. Or maybe I mistook this book for another hmm…
Anyway, I’m glad you enjoyed this book despite not liking it entirely! Great review, Kelly :D
Thank you Gellie! :D
Slammed is not exactly a poetry book, just a book containing slams, which is an unique type of poetry. I’m not sure if there were any slams about the ocean though. o:
Hmm I am kind of up in the air on this one. I have also heard good things and have it floating around in the back of my mind as a book I’ll get to someday, maybe. After reading your review, it’ll probably stay that way. No rush for me to read it. I don’t have a strong opinion either way about student-teacher relationships. It just needs to be well done. And I do like contemporaries. But I can be picky about female leads. I really like a strong female character, so if the character comes of weak or whiny that can have a big affect for me. It sounds like Layken can easily end up having that affect. Thanks for the review!
Nicole @ The Quiet Concert
You’ll definitely dislike Layken. She’s not bad in the beginning, but when there were challenges she had to face, Layken acts like OH I’M NOT DEALING WITH THIS BLAH BLAH BLAH IT’S NOT HAPPENING BLAH BLAH BLAH and it just annoys me so much.
THANK YOU! I haven’t read this book yet, but I keep reading all these self-pub N.A. books that everyone just gushes over and I think are just alright. I totally agree with you on that. I will probably end up checking this out at some point, I just can’t bring myself to spend $8 on something that I will probably only think of as decent.
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Yeah, I definitely recommend you to borrow it first, and if you like it enough, then buy it. So far all the NA books I’ve read never really impressed me, so I rather play it safe.
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I’ve been hearing nothing but good things on this book and I’m definitely interested thought I’m not a massive NA fan. Looks great and the cover is superb too.
I personally think that the cover can be better but -shrugs-, that’s just my opinion.
And i can’t wait to see what you think of it Ashfa! :D
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I totally thought of Aria and Ezra from PLL too when I read about the student and teacher relationship! I’m also so enamored with Kel and Caulder, they’re absolutely hilarious! I hope you enjoy reading Point of Retreat next :)
Yes, I totally can’t wait to read more about Kel and Caulder! They brightened up the entire book! :D
And I won’t be reading Point of Retreat anytime soon, my library doesn’t have it yet. ):
Kelly recently posted…Book Review: The Goddess Inheritance – Aimee Carter
I have also heard a lot about Colleen Hover, but I have yet to read any of her books. I am not sure that this would be a book to grab my attention though. I am also a pretty little liars fan! The books are great (I am just ready to find out the end!) Anyway back to Slammed, I just think that I would not find this book relatable. Thank you for sharing your review.
I’m afraid that Pretty Little Liars would NEVER end. I was into her other series, forgot what they are called at the moment, but when I heard that the series was to be extended, I was just like NO. Just, NO.
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I loved Slammed series. Student-teacher relationships can sometimes be a little weird to read about, but in this series I liked it because Layken and Will’s situation was special. They didn’t know about one another when they’ve met. I like how the story grows and especially how Will tries to do everything right by Layken. The third book in this series is from Will’s POV and when I finnished reading it, I liked Will even more that before.
Losing It by Cora Carmack is another student-teacher relationship book where the student and teacher met before they knew that the other person is a student/teacher, but I’ve never read it yet.
I definitely have to read Will’s POV. :D
Kelly recently posted…Book Review: The Eternity Cure – Julie Kagawa
I read Slammed Series 7& i fell in love with it. Well, it is typical student – teacher relationship but in a wholesome way. HAHAHHA ~
This is a great review for the book! I like it! <3
Thank you! (:
Kelly recently posted…Book Review: The Eternity Cure – Julie Kagawa
I thought Slammed was decent, but I wasn’t all fangirly about it like other people are. I did read all 3 books and I enjoyed them, they just weren’t 5 stars for me. The last book especially seemed redundant for me…
I so agree with you Rachel. I’ve only read Slammed, but what I’ve read so far doesn’t really convince me to read on and continue the series.
And oh no, the last book was? I was thinking about giving it a chance since I love reading books told from a guy’s point of view, but as of now, nah. Thanks for the info! :D
Kelly recently posted…Let’s Speculate: How Setting Causes A Reading Slump
This book has just translated into my language, and I’m so excited to read it!
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I hope you enjoyed it better than I did Najwa! :D
Kelly recently posted…Let’s Speculate: How Setting Causes A Reading Slump
Great review! There was a lot of hype over this book. Sometimes I am impressed sometimes not.
Thanks Cali! :D
This is the one example where I’m sadly not impressed by a hyped-up book. :l
But who knows, maybe you’ll LOVE this one like how other people did.
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [54]
Student-teacher relationships ick me out so I think I’ll pass!
Ha ha, I totally get you Susan. :P
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [54]
This book made me cry so much!! I just couldn’t stop my tears, I loved every page of it! *___*
I love this book totally, every page of it! It’s able to made me cry so much *___*
CRAZY GIO recently posted…Recensione “Le coincidenze dell’amore” di Colleen Hoover
I love the Slammed series!! But I can understand your thoughts in your review. I would recommend you to read Making Faces by Amy Harmon. The book is really awesome!! :)