The Unwritten Rule Review

Synopsis:Everyone knows the unwritten rule: You don't like your best friend's boyfriend.

Sarah has had a crush on Ryan for years. He's easy to talk to, supersmart, and totally gets her. Lately it even seems like he's paying extra attention to her. Everything would be perfect except for two things: Ryan is Brianna's boyfriend, and Brianna is Sarah's best friend.

Sarah forces herself to avoid Ryan and tries to convince herself not to like him. She feels so guilty for wanting him, and the last thing she wants is to hurt her best friend. But when she's thrown together with Ryan one night, something happens. It's wonderful...and awful.

Sarah is torn apart by guilt, but what she feels is nothing short of addiction, and she can't stop herself from wanting more...

My Thoughts: I’d never read an Elizabeth Scott book before so I didn’t know what to expect, but I thought this book was adorable. Not adorable as in nothing bad happened and everything was all lollipops and cotton candy. When I say adorable, I mean that Sarah, Sarah’s parents, and Ryan were adorable (sometimes). The story was told from Sarah’s view which was evident because at times (many times) it was selflessly bias. There is a type of unwritten rule that says you can’t like your friend’s boyfriend, and if you do like him you can’t do anything about it but Sarah was going overboard! It was as if she could see no wrong in her best friend (there were a lot of wrongs TRUST me) and couldn’t see anything good about herself. When Brianna insulted her, (sometimes unknowingly) Sarah would find a way to “pretend” that Briana was just trying to look out for her or that she really didn’t mean it. In the beginning Brianna would say a things to Sarah that would make me pause and look at the book in a mean way like “no she didn’t” (eye rollin and everything). As the book continued, it became clear with every passing page whether or not Briana was trying to be helpful but being unknowingly mean or just plain mean. As far as Ryan, he was such a cute and beautiful nerd (not like a nerd nerd) who only got on my nerves because he was with Briana instead of Sarah. It was nice to see Sarah grow stronger as time went on and show how love “cast out all fears” (in the end). I was rooting for them from the very beginning and I’m rooting for them now (in a fictional sense).

Things that make this book special (to me):

Sarah’s parents: They appeared in small scenes throughout the whole book but were good reminders of supportive parents (and people in general) and a functional home.

Kissing scenes: The kissing scenes were hot. Not as in hot hot , but as in “I love this guy” or “I love this girl” type kissing.

Flashbacks: They made me understand why Ryan was with Briana instead of Sarah at first and showed the different quirks that made it obvious why Ryan and Sarah belonged together. They also showed some better sides of Briana (in a way).

Messages: I like that there were deeper meanings in the book like being confident and learning how to stand up for yourself.

Update
I’ve decided to stop rating books. I don’t like my current rating system or really anybody else’s (so far), so until I find one I like, I’m not rating anything.