Craves The Angst: REVIEW - FLAT-OUT MATT (Flat-Out Love #1.5) by Jessica Park:

TITLE: Flat-Out Matt
SERIES: Flat-Out Love
SERIES PLACEMENT: #1.5
AUTHOR: Jessica Park
AGE GROUP: New Adult
GENRE: Romance
RELEASE DATE: March 25, 2013
PUBLISHED BY: SPA
FORMAT: eBook and Paperback
ePAGES: Approx. 106

MY GOODREADS REVIEW LINK
RATING: ★★★★★
CLIFFHANGER: No
HEA: Yes

BOOK BLURB:
Matt is a junior at MIT. He’s geeky, he's witty, he's brilliant.

And he’s also very, very stupid.

When beautiful, cool, insightful Julie moves in with Matt’s family, why (oh why!) does he pretend to be his absent brother Finn for her alleged benefit?

It seems harmless enough until her short-term stay becomes permanent. And until it snowballs into heart-squeezing insanity. And until he falls in love with Julie, and Julie falls in love with Finn.

But … Matt is the right one for her. If only he can make Julie see it. Without telling her the truth, without shattering them all. Particularly his fragile sister Celeste, who may need Julie the most.

You saw Matt through Julie’s eyes in FLAT-OUT LOVE. Now go deeper into Matt’s world in this FLAT-OUT MATT novella. Live his side of the story, break when his heart breaks, and fall for the unlikely hero all over again.

Take an emotional skydive for two prequel chapters and seven Flat-Out Love chapters retold from his perspective, and then land with a brand-new steamy finale chapter from Julie.

5 Lovely, Heartbreaking, Delightful Stars!

I Don’t Think I Will Ever Get Enough Of These Characters... Their Story Is Timeless!

The Review:

Could I fall anymore in love with this story and these characters? Yes! And I did, with this outstanding novella! First, you must read book one in this series, Flat-Out Love, since this is a companion book. As in, its pieces of the first book shown from Matt’s POV, with a new beginning and new ending not previously seen.

Now.. for the good stuff...

In this short read of about 106 pages, we get snippets of the “Julie and Matt” story through the male perspective. Flat-Out Matt covered all the critical points of Flat-Out Love from Matt’s heartbreaking, ridiculously intelligent POV with more insight into how Flat Finn came to be and his struggle to help Celeste. This book is just as smart and quippy as the first book and I loved the new Facebook status updates from Matt, Finn and Julie that were added in to keep this book fresh and entertaining.

Story/Characters...

This book opens with a short look into the affectionate bond between brothers Matt and Finn as they share a meaningful conversation about life and family. Finn truly was the light they all thought he was as even in that short chapter we see how much he cares for his brother and sister, as well as his parents who both brothers recognize as not being the most attentive.

And then, the entire Witkins family is suffering the tragic loss of the older, fun loving Finn. He was the beloved son, brother and best friend that left their world way too soon. Matt never got the chance to fully grieve as he immediately had to pick up the fragile pieces of his devastated, younger sisters life and try to bring some sense of stability to her and their two despondent parents.

In the following chapters we get a better insight into how Matt felt, at his anguished loss and what was going on in his head as he tried to be the parent and adult guiding the family back from the shattered world they were living in and the utter and complete despair he felt when he found himself failing.

We got a closer look at how deeply he felt for Julie and how the ruse of being Finn started and how the guilt almost overtook him as the pretending continued. There were many times when my heart just broke for him because he truly believed if it had of been him to die in Finn’s place, his family would have grieved less and that Celeste would have been more stable if the “brother she loved most” were still around. He never really saw his own value and what he brought to the family.

But even with all this grieving, the author still managed to keep the light tone from book one that we all loved so much. This was a perfect addition to an already remarkable and fascinating story.

And the bonus ending scene in Julie’s POV was both steamy and respectful and really added something even more wonderful to our view of Matt, his vulnerability and how deeply in love he is with Julie. I loved the ending.

This book... this series... Is Perfection! I can’t wait to read book three, Flat-Out Celeste to see how the youngest Witkins story ends.