Review: "This One's For You" by Brandy Jellum (New Adult, Contemporary Romance)

	This One's For You by Brandy Jellum Publisher: Booktrope Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance Publication date: July 22, 2015 (Affiliate links)
Description from Publisher: All alone in a new state, Brennan Daniels has only the memories of her best friend, Reagan, to keep her company as she starts college. Reagan is the reason for everything Brennan does—before she died, she made Brennan promise to stay good until she found a man worth keeping. No boys, no dating, and definitely no falling in love—those were the rules for college, and Brennan carved them into the brick walls guarding her heart… But there’s a fire burning behind those walls, and when Brennan meets Owen Scott, the (mysterious) new guy across the hall, she can’t deny the pull between them. He is everything she should never want. Everyone warns her to stay away—even Owen himself—but the heart wants what the heart wants, even if it knows that it’s going to get hurt—even if it means throwing old promises to new flames…
My Rating:
I received a digital ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.com for an honest, unbiased review. My opinion is my own. I absolutely loved this. I was immediately sucked into Brennan's world and loved basically every minute. That said, a few critiques (that kept this from being 5 stars): - The drama at the end (at about 95%) was quite unnecessary. The story was quite enjoyable as it was and I felt that the reveals (both Brennan's and Owen's... and Amelia's, for that matter) were more than sufficient amounts of "drama." Everything from the confrontation at the party on seemed very forced and a bit unbelievable. - I also would have liked to have had a bit more day to day after everyone returns from Christmas. Much of this felt rushed and I had so enjoyed all of the moments up to it that it had me missing them at this point. - The bit with the brothers the first few days of Christmas break was, I think, over-the-top. I found myself annoyed with them multiple times. - Last criticism would be that there was an awful lot of hair being pushed back behind the ears. Aside from those, relatively minor, issues, this was absolutely a wonderful read. The characters were well-written, the dialogue felt very natural, and there was a great mix of emotions... lots of humor, lots of touching scenes... The build up of sexual tension felt just right. When I think about it, even many of my criticisms can be forgiven because some of them likely helped me get into Brennan's mindset that much more and feel what she was feeling.