Book Review: Point of Retreat (Slammed #2)

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Title: Point of Retreat
Author: Colleen Hoover
Series: Slammed #2
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Young Adult
Published: 2/25/2012
Format: e-book, 215
 

Synopsis: Layken and Will have managed to overcome the obstacles that threatened to destroy their love, proving that they are destined for one another. What they are about to learn, however, is that the things that have brought them together may be the very things that ruin their connection forever…

Layken is left second-guessing the relationship whilst Will is jumping over hurdles to prove his love for her. What the young lovers discover about themselves along this journey may change their entire world and the lives of those who depend upon them the most...

If you’ve read my previous review of Slammed, the first in the series, you’ll know how much I loved the first book. Colleen Hoover got me hooked and after I finished book 1, I was so into Layken and Will’s lives that I started Point of Retreat right away.

*WARNING: Slammed spoilers. Stop reading now if you haven’t read Slammed yet. *

The book opens with Will’s first entry on his journal, narrating what happened a year after Slammed. Layken’s mom has died of cancer, leaving her in custody of her younger brother Kel. Will pursues a graduate degree in Education and Layken started attending college, still living across each other’s street. It has been a year since they started dating and a year since both of them started raising their younger brothers(in Layken’s case, since Will’s case started 2 years earlier). Everything in their lives seems perfect, from Will’s point of view(yes, this book was told from Will’s POV), aside from the fact that they lost both of their parents and now they have 11 year old boys to raise. The first part of the book shows what happened to Will and Lake, their relationship and responsibilities. Eddie and Gavin has become more of a family now than a friend. They met their new neighbor Kiersten and her mom Sherry that lives diagonally to Will and parallel to Lake. Everything has become a routine in their lives and all that’s left is sex. Apparently, before Julia died she made Will promise not to have sex with her daughter in a year after they date. The couple were very responsible, even after Lake’s mom died, that one of them would declare their “point of retreat” when things get heated whenever they make out. Most of the time it was Will who was the responsible one, not because he was older but because he want’s Lake’s first to be amazing and not rushed. A year after they made their promise had passed and all that’s left is a free weekend. When everything was set, with the boys going to Detroit with Will’s grandparents and a 3 day weekend with just Will and Lake alone, something came crashing down on Will. His past, his ex-girlfriend, Vaughn. Lake was very disappointed and doubted Will’s love for her. Just like what her mother had taught her, she started questioning their love and everything that brought them together. Will was left to prove her love for Lake and prove that they were meant to be together right from the moment they met.

I loved the first book too much that’s why when I started reading this book I finished it then and there, and it was at midnight. This was written in Will’s POV and had some entries of Will’s journal, stating his thoughts and feelings. It contained different emotion compared to Slammed as it was told from Will’s perspective. It was different in a way, wherein he was passionate, desperate and so consumed but it was all contained in him.

“If I were a carpenter, I would build you a window to my soul.

But I would leave that window shut and locked,

so that every time you tried to look through it all you would see is your own reflection.

You would see that my soul is a reflection of you.”

Will loves Lake, he knows it, he feels it, even I was convinced. But after Lake questions his love for her, Will thought this was the end. He thought his kisses, hugs, care and everything he did so far was enough proof to show that he loves her. But on Lake’s view, Will hasn’t showed enough. On the first book, it was Lake’s effort that made them a couple. It was Lake who fought for their love, because Will had too much to lose and Lake had more courage. In this book, Will became someone who didn’t only love Lake, he was someone who loves EVERYTHING about his girl, including Kel.

During the time when their relationship was “on the rocks”, I really thought Will’s way of getting Lake to talk to her was too silly. When Will thought they were sweet, Lake thought they were ridiculous. This point of the story made me more interested, because the way Colleen Hoover wrote it never gave any clues if they will still end together in the end. The story was full of unexpected events that I never thought would happen to the couple’s lives. Will wasn’t only proving his love for Lake, he was also showing the readers that they are, undeniably, meant for each other. This book exceeded my expectations and made me love Colleen Hoover more. She’s indeed one of my favorite authors now. This book was “butterflying” good. And I love it that she even wrote a third book in the series, which I am gonna read right away after writing this review.

5 out of 5