The Hazards of Skinny Dipping by Alyssa Rose Ivy

This isn't a deep book about first loves or self-discovery. If you want a book like that, I'd be happy to recommend one, but I don't have that kind of story to tell. Instead my story is about rash decisions and finding out that your dream guy is bad in bed. It's the story of when I finally went skinny dipping, and how my life was never the same again. Oh, and it's also the story of my freshman year of college and realizing Mr. Right might have been there all along.

First, a special thank you to Alyssa for providing a copy of The Hazards of Skinny Dipping for me to review!

Now, on to the book!

The Hazards of Skinny Dipping was my first “New Adult” read. While personally I have no interest in the whole “New Adult” vs. “Contemporary Adult” vs. “Adult” debate I can honestly say that no matter what you choose to call it I have to be in a certain mood to read it. Luckily for me, I found myself in the perfect mood for The Hazards of Skinny Dipping. I found myself laughing, sighing, cussing, grinning, and occasionally twitter ranting throughout the book. Which of course means there were things I liked…..and things I didn’t.

I didn’t like all the swooning. I mean ok I get it Juliet (our MC) is gorgeous and all the boys want to jump into her pants. But EVERY SINGLE TIME she walked into a room every penis in the vicinity would stand at attention and the horrible pick up lines would start! She went to a frat party and this was every man that looked at her:

And if having every penis imaginable thrown at you wasn’t odd, how about the fact that the one she does decide to sleep with was HORRIBLE in bed?! Cue crazy possessive boyfriend Dylan.

From the moment he barged into her pool I hated him. Then he sucked (and I mean oh my gosh did you even do anything?) in bed, and the final nail in the “I hate Dylan” coffin was hit. I get why Juliet was attracted to him. He is older and super hot but there isn’t a six pack defined enough or pockets deep enough to cover up a horrible lay in my opinion. But instead of her saying um no this will not happen again, she actually blames herself (at first) for it being so horrible! Squeeze me?! Then to top it off she decides to be his girlfriend and put up with his poopy sex for MONTHS! And don’t you go judging me! I know it’s not right to dump someone just because they aren’t the best in the sack, but not only was he horrible in bed he was a giant JERK! That, in my opinion, is a perfectly good reason to drop his ass! But she doesn’t! She keeps idolizing him and making excuses for his utter creepiness! There was actually a point where he told her to quit her job so he could take care of her! Luckily, as time passed she grew and came to her senses.

Another thing that really bothered me was the pace. A lot of stuff happened in just one semester of school. Love was found, then lost, then found again, and even though there was character growth I don’t think it was timed right.

But Octavia why did you rate it Library Worthy if it had so many problems?!

What a wonderful question for you to ask! The simplest answer is that I actually enjoyed this book. Even with the issues above I loved the writing, the character growth and the lack of unrealistic drama. Was it perfect? Umm no. Is it a nice summery read that would be a perfect “pick me up” after suffering a book hangover? Why yes. Yes it is.

*I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for a honest review*