Book Review: The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott

Published March 16th, 2010
Simon Pulse
210 pages (Hardcover)

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... (From Goodreads)

I've got several issues with this book.  While it was a quick and light read, it fell way below my expectations, which weren't that high to start with.

I think The Unwritten Rule would have made a great novella.  Half of the book felt like filler.  Get rid of the filler, keep the main plot of girl-likes-boy, boy-likes-girl, abusive-BFF-in-the-middle and we're getting somewhere.

This book needed some humour.  Or action.  Or anything really.  Ryan added a little bit of humour at points, but not enough.  I started finding moments that really shouldn't have been funny hilarious.  For me, this is generally a sign that I'm really not committed to the story.

The characters also lack a significant amount of basic details.  If any of them were ever described in any detail, I missed it.  Yet, we have all this back story and flashbacks that felt unnecessary.

I think a younger audience may enjoy this book much more than I did.  It is a quick read, but overall, didn't grab me at all.

Much love, Samantha