The Rules of Persuasion - Amity Hope

Title: The Rules of Persuasion
Author: Amity Hope
Rating: 3.5 - 4/5

Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing, LLC for letting me receive a digital copy of this book before its official release date.

1) Take things slow (her rule)

2) Make it believable (his rule)

After tragedy hit her family, Meg Matthews officially crossed the line from “good girl” to “bad girl.” Motorcycle? Check. Graffiti? Check. The only thing Meg hadn’t planned on was blackmail. Too bad now a certain infuriating boy holds Meg’s future in his hands…

When Luke Prescott—star pitcher and town golden boy—catches Meg vandalizing the school, she’s given two choices: face the consequences or enter into a fake relationship with him to get his parents and his ex off his back.

But as Meg and Luke grow closer, they both realize they’ve been keeping secrets from each other. Their fake relationship might be doomed from the start—if they can’t learn to open up to the one person they never thought they’d trust.

The thing about different opinions is that you'll never understand the others'. I read some not very nice words about this novel and after finishing it, I can safely say that I don't agree in the least and I just don't understand how anyone can give this book only two stars. But then again, I don't have to understand. Opinions are different and that's a good thing (you just have to convince yourself of that).

Anyway... I always wanted to read Ditched by Amity Hope and never really found the time to do so. When I saw that The Rules of Persuasion was also written by her, I immediately took the chance and requested it on NetGalley. I am so glad I got accepted and was able to read this one before its official release. Now I know for sure that I'll be diving into Ditched the second I find the time to, because Amity Hope's writing style is fabulous! This novel was exactly the kind of sweet and light romance that I love from a publisher like Entangled.

The characters were super cute. Surprisingly, I even liked Meg and I sometimes have a hard time understanding the female main character's motives, but I liked Meg right from page one. And when we got to Luke's point of view, it was a done deal. The story itself isn't a new one. We all know there are a lot of novels out there that deal with fake relationships, but most of them are now being new adult reads, so I enjoyed something a little lighter. And though I always say light, light, light, there's also some depth to it. Like, Meg is dealing with a lot of pain and Luke's just.. Yeah, alright, he's dealing with rich kid problems, but you still feel sorry for him.

I thought their chemistry was great and I liked the balance between their scenes and the scenes with their friends or parents, because reading about them the whole time would have bored some readers (not me, but still...). Whenever we got to read about Luke's parents, I wanted to crawl into my phone and punch them, or grab them by the shoulders and shake them at least. Gosh, they were so frustrating. I'm glad Luke wasn't one of these characters that bought whatever they said but mostly stood his ground. And then there was Luke's ex-girlfriend who was too annoying to find any words. But she kept the story alive at some point, so I can't complain about her too much.

Another refreshing thing was that neither of them got into a fight with their best friends. Oh, I didn't realize how much I missed that harmony until I read this book. What is it with fights between best friends? I can see there has to be some kind of conflict for the plot to be exciting, but The Rules of Persuasion managed without it just fine.

Meg's reason for doing what she did was very sweet, too. I'd be lying if I said I haven't shed a tear when she confessed her story to Luke. It makes me sort of mad reading how some think there's no real developement of the characters, because that background story right there says otherwise. Luke might not deal with as heavy problems as Meg, but that's not even necessary. That's why they fit together so perfectly.

I liked this book a lot and it was even better than I expected - the perfect kind of summer romance for young adult readers.