A Little Too Far by Lisa Desroches

A Little Too Far  - Lisa Desrochers

 

Note: Does have spoilers.

 

Lexi Banks has definitely gone a little too far. Two days before she is set to jet off to Rome to study abroad for a year, she rebounds…with her step-brother and best friend, Trent. Confused beyond belief, she leaves feeling unsettled and unsure about their relationship. He’s always been the one she turns to when she needed guidance. Now that she doesn’t have him, she’s lost.

 

So when she gets to Rome, the first thing she does is fess up all her sins like a good Catholic and as penance the priest suggests that she visit a priest-to-be, Rev. Moretti, who organizes projects for those from the church. Though she wasn’t quite expecting Alessandro Moretti to be quite so charming or easy to talk to.

 

Over the following months, she and Alessandro grow closer. His project for her is to lead a group of students around the great museums of Rome to breathe new life into their passion for art. She takes to the project and with his guidance finds a love in addition to art – children. As they work together, their friendship grows. He’s very kind and understanding, even when she blurts out her entire history with Trent, including what happened before she left for Rome.

 

While she’s in Italy, her friendship/lover-ship with Trent has turned completely awkward. Any phone calls or texting conversations they have are completely superficial and lack the substance that they used to. She feels as though she’s lost her best friend. She struggles with the repercussions of what more would mean for their relationship. When she visits for Christmas, he’s even more withdrawn and she’s dismayed to find that he goes on a date with her friend, Sam. After break, she’s even more confused, though she tries to put it behind her.

 

When she gets back to Italy, things between her and Allesandro heat up. His friendship is becoming more and more important to her, and she thinks that it is to him as well. He spills about his past and his motivation for becoming a priest. He invites her to visit his grandparents home in France. While there, he kisses her, which leaves her more confused forever. Could she possibly care for a priest? That would mean that he’d have to give up his whole life’s plan for her! She couldn’t possibly make him do that.

 

A Little Too Far is absolutely everything that I want from the New Adult genre. I loved that I ‘felt’ Lexie right away. She was experiencing new and fresh things, aside from her romantic entanglements, and trying to figure out who she was and what she wanted from life. I loved the fresh setting and the charm of Italy. The sex was hot and the characters were interesting. But the ending came out of left field and basically ruined it for me.

 

I just fell in love with the wrong guy. And, I may be wrong, but after you read the story, I think you’d fall in love with him, too. This is a love triangle. Lexie is clearly torn between two men. I just didn’t get why she was in love with one of them. We’re told she loves Trent, but aside from like 4 scenes, I don’t feel it at all. Alessandro, however, has 95% of the book! I met him, got to know him, became friends with him, started to care about him, worried about caring for him, and fell in love with him.

 

I could feel that Lexie didn’t reciprocate those feelings because she clearly has a mental line drawn about caring for Alessandro because she’s so stuck on Trent, but I never once felt her feelings for him. I was so removed from their emotional relationship that I never got the chance to care. It almost felt as though Trent was there to simply I don’t know, be a complication? How do I know she loves him, when I’m not shown that? Maybe it’s me. It could be me.

 

The ending just caught me so off guard. She almost sleeps with Alessandro who makes a decision about his life to be with her and she rejects him because she still has feelings for Trent. Which is understandable, but she should have never led him on. Never ever ever. Because it was like she was leading me on, too. After that, she bears her heart (freaking finally, after almost a year) to Trent, telling him she loves him. Three days later he shows up in Italy. She decides not to extend her stay in Italy and accepts Trent’s proposal. They tell their parents and CUT.

 

I was like. W. T. F.

 

Team Alessandro. Ugh. All this build up for him, all the flirtation, and tension, and ‘dates’ and teasing and foreshadowing and she chooses the guy who I never even got to know. So yeah. Disappointed because I did love the story, just not the choice.

 

3 ish stars. 

 

Casting: LexieAlessandroTrent

Source: http://missconstruedsreviews.com/?p=1054