I got Wait For You (to be released September 3, 2013) at the American Library Association conference. I saw the name of the author, Jennifer Armentrout, immediately connected her with a totally different romance author I’d heard of (Jennifer Armintrout - you can see where the confusion arose), and decided it was about time to give this whole romance thing another whirl. Lucky me, I grabbed the book before I realized I was thinking of a totally different Jennifer Arm(i/e)ntrout. But Armentrout turned out to be a great find.
Wait For You is a new adult romance novel featuring Avery, who has left her childhood home in Texas to go to college halfway across the country in West Virginia. She is recovering from some serious trauma, but tentatively taking steps to heal herself by leaving the town that has shunned her. She meets the handsome, ripped, kind, funny, Cam on her first day of class (in a well-executed “meet cute,” no less!) and finds herself attracted in spite of herself. Because seriously, who wouldn’t be? If I have any complaint about Wait For You it’s that Cam is too perfect, so much so that he veers into the unbelievable. But somehow, Armentrout makes it work (mostly by making Cam so dynamic and lovable you can forgive his lack of faults) so that it never bugged me too much.
Character is definitely the biggest strength of Wait For You. Avery has DEPTH y’all. She has experienced trauma, yes, which is important to the plot and her character. But she is not defined by it. She also likes history, is sarcastic, appreciates zombies, likes to dance, etc. etc. She is not defined by being “feisty” or “fragile” or anything like that, she is a fully fleshed out person. Her struggles are not only trauma-based, but also based on her family dynamics (a problem pre-dating any one major event) and her own personality and flaws. Cam, despite his over-perfection, is also a well-rounded character. He bakes, loves his family, parties, watches UFC, owns a tortoise, yadda yadda yadda. I think the reason these characters work is that whatever traits they have, and however cheesy and “quirky” Cam’s baking habit or Avery’s bad movie tendencies could be, these character traits all seem really organic to Avery and Cam. I don’t get the sense that Armentrout sat down trying to write delightfully unique and endearing characters. Rather, I get the feeling she sat down to write characters who rang true to her, and this is what happened. Even Avery’s friends, Jacob and Brittany (distinctly “best friend” side characters) have unique personalities and turns-of-phrase, and made me want to hear more about them.
Another thing that really made me love Wait For You was the treatment of sex and, yes, sexual assault. The sexual assault in Avery’s past is not fully defined at the beginning of the story, though it’s easy enough for readers to figure out the basics. But since the book is from Avery’s point-of-view, and Avery doesn’t like to think or talk about what happened, it takes a while for all the details to come out. But the gist of what happened – she was sexually assaulted in some way, but at a party and in a situation where she was vulnerable, somehow her whole town and social circle determined she lied and shunned her for it – is familiar. I liked that Armentrout portrayed a situation that was not a stranger-in-a-dark-alley assault, but rather a more common scenario involving partying teenagers, flirting, and alcohol. But she never shies away from the realities of what happened or that the fault lies, always, with the assaulter, not the assaulted. I’m probably not describing this well, and I don’t want to give everything away, but what I’m trying to get at is that the traumatizing event is, to me at least, sensitively and appropriately handled in every way.
And lastly, this book was so freaking sex-positive, and it did an incredible job of making consent hot. Don’t get me wrong, there are some romance tropes. For instance, Cam pursues Avery doggedly, despite her avowed disinterest in him romantically – but never to the point where he makes her uncomfortable, and with her permission to be her friend and spend time with her. And when she really tells him to go away, he does. When their relationship begins to be sexual, Cam checks in frequently with Avery about what he’s doing, and if it’s okay. He asks her before he takes off her bra for the first time. And it’s sexy. And the first time Cam and Avery go beyond making out, the agency is all Avery’s. She makes the moves, she tells Cam what she wants, and it is awesome. So the next time someone tries to argue that creepy/stalkery/rapey romance is the only way to make it hot, you can rub this in their face and assure them that they are wrong.
So there you have it. Probably the first romance novel I have ever recommended to anyone. So you should check out Wait For You by Jennifer Armentrout.
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