My Kind of Crazy by Robin Reul – eARC Review

Publication Date:

April 5th, 2016

Publisher:

Sourcebooks Fire

Despite the best of intentions, seventeen-year old, wisecracking Hank Kirby can’t quite seem to catch a break. It’s not that he means to screw things up all the time, it just happens. A lot. Case in point: his attempt to ask out the girl he likes literally goes up in flames when he spells “Prom” in sparklers on her lawn…and nearly burns down her house.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Peyton Breedlove, a brooding loner and budding pyromaniac, witnesses the whole thing. Much to Hank’s dismay, Peyton takes an interest in him-and his “work.” The two are thrust into an unusual friendship, but their boundaries are tested when Hank learns that Peyton is hiding some dark secrets, secrets that may change everything he thought he knew about Peyton.

Review:

*I was provided a copy by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

When I first read the blurb for this book I got really interested in this book. It looked really interesting and a really good book but for something reason there were a few things that didn’t work for me. Don’t take me wrong, I really enjoyed this book and the story but the beginning was just too slow. But let’s start from the beginning, I really liked the characters. Both Hank and Peyton have problems and aren’t perfect. I really liked how when they met they were not all over each other like it normally happens in YA books. In the beginning Hank doesn’t want to have nothing to do with Peyton (because she’s kind of crazy) but as they start talking they start to really care about each other and trust each other. I also liked some of the side characters, especially Monica (Hank’s father girlfriend). While in the beginning I thought she wouldn’t be important in the story I was happy to understand how wrong I was and how she helped Hank with a few things.

Another thing I did like was the story because it was different from what I’ve read before. Yes it was too slow at the beginning but it got better and I really enjoyed to see Hank and Peyton’s journey. However this book is not only about Hank and Peyton’s relationship, it also deals with their problems with their families and let me tell you that these two have a lot of family problems, especially Peyton. While the book dealt with some difficult situations it still had a few funny moments that would make me laugh, starting in Hank’s failed promposal. Sometimes this book was too funny. One think I really enjoyed in this book was that it was told from Hank’s POV. This is not something you normally see in YA so I was pleasantly surprised to read this book in his POV.

Overall, I really did enjoy this book. My only problem with it is how slow it was in the beginning and that’s the reason I only rated this book 3.5 stars. However, I do recommend this book to everyone that loves YA contemporary and I hope to read more books from Robin Reul.