Only One Opinion (The Unwritten Rule)

Review of The Unwritten Rule, by Elizabeth Scott. 

Quickie: Not a bad story, wasn't pleased with the babbly-writing though.

Full: Sarah likes Ryan. Brianna is Sarah's best friend. Ryan and Brianna are dating. Ryan likes Sarah back. Ouch.

The plot is a simple one, but it's very real and fraught with emotion and pain. Sarah has liked Ryan since the 8th grade, but somehow her best friend Brianna ended up dating him. If I had to classify Sarah and Brianna's friendship, I'd call it "The Garden" kind of friendship. Sarah is the gardner, never seen, but always there to tend and support The Rose, aka Brianna. Brianna just eats up the attention. What I loathed about their friendship though, is how Brianna is constantly slamming Sarah, and Sarah just takes it. I was pretty mad at both of them through the whole thing. I sided with Sarah, of course, because even though I sympathized with Brianna about her cold-hearted parents, it wasn't an excuse for her to treat Sarah like dirt.

And poor Sarah. She tried so hard to be there and support Brianna, even when she was desperately in love with Brianna's boyfriend. I can't even imagine it. Watching them kiss, being forced to tag along as the third wheel, the whole time wishing he was hers. Brianna treated them both horribly. She was just playing with Ryan, she obviously didn't care a bit about him.

And Ryan, what was the deal with him? He liked Sarah for forever... but went out with Brianna because it was easier? Because Brianna showed an interest? Please. That's a mega-lame excuse. "Oh, well, I've liked you since we first met, but your best friend flirted with me, so I decided to date her and make out with her instead. Sorry for not even trying." Lame!!

Brianna was a horrible, horrible friend all around. She acted like Sarah was her personal assistant, not her best friend. Yeah, I get that they've shared some good times. But telling your friend she "might get a freshman guy"to go out with her because she's not hot and no other guy would notice her- That's so uncool. Her parental situation was awful. I felt for her there and I didn't want her to lose Sarah's friendship, because clearly she really needed somebody to love her. But she went about it in the worst way possible.

Sarah was sweet and supportive and was really torn up about the whole situation. I didn't really see what she saw in Ryan, but hey. That wasn't really the point. He was nice enough, and I liked their conversations, but his weak personality didn't appeal to me at all.

My biggest beef was the rambly writing. In some places it worked, but there were a lot of spots where some clear and concise writing could have really improved it. I understand that it was an emotion-based book, but does the entire thing have to read like a run-on sentence?

I didn't not like it. But it doesn't compare to other books I've given four stars to, so I'm giving it-

3 1/2 stars out of 5.