Book Review: Anything to Have You by Paige Harbison

Let’s be honest here. I wouldn’t do anything to get Anything to Have You. (Yes, I tried to make that a pun.) Even though I was interested enough in the novel because I judged the book by its cover, I had no idea what Anything to Have You was about. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. In fact, it kinda sucked.

Anything to Have You is about two girls, Natalie and Brooke. They’ve been best friends for quite a while. Natalie’s the good, quiet girl. Brooke, on the other hand, is the popular, lively, rebellious girl. What happens one night when Natalie and Brooke’s boyfriend Aidan get involved? And when Brooke begins to descend into a living nightmare? Basically, this is about the undoing of the lives of both Natalie and Brooke. And how they somewhat piece their lives back together.

Good news first: Paige Harbison has a pretty good writing style. Her writing is sassy and concise, although slightly annoying at times. (Or maybe it’s good compared to the rest of the book. I really can’t tell.) Either way, Harbison’s writing is bearable. However, that’s not to say that I enjoyed it.

As for the characters, they’re all messes. I don’t care if the characters are selfish. I don’t care if they start off as complete jerks. However, they need to develop or else they’re total boards. Additionally, if all the characters are jerks, it really induces the reader to want to pull his or her hair out.

Basically, one sentence can describe all of them: THEY ARE ALL JERKS. AND THEY DON’T DEVELOP. AND DID I MENTION THEY’RE JERKS? Oops, that was three sentences.

Moving on! The plot is cliche in the “this is the bad stuff that happens to teenagers who don’t practice safe sex way”. It’s also cliche in the “all teens go to parties and this is what parties are like kind of way”. I think it’s been quite some time since Harbison was a teen because honestly, this plot kind of sounds like all those reality shows on TV. Note to everyone, if you’re going to write a book about adolescence, don’t model high school after what you see on “Teen Mom” or “Jersey Shore”.

Okay, just to wrap things up, Anything to Have You definitely isn’t as good as the other YA novels out there. Cracked Up to Be and Speechless are much better novels. Just a suggestion!

Rating: 3 out of 10

Publisher: Harlequin Teen (January 28, 2014)

Length: 304 pages (Paperback)

Source: Netgalley