What a Boy Wants & What a Boy Needs by Nyrae Dawn

What a Boy Wants #1
Published April 2012
119 pages
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Genre: YA Contemporary Romance
Series: 1. What a Boy Wants* 2. What a Boy Needs
Source: Purchased
Rating: Liked It

Courtesy of watching his mom’s relationships, Sebastian Hawkins knows what girls need to do to get a guy. He has what he considers a PHD in hooking up. When he needs extra cash for a car, Sebastian starts up an online venture as The Hook-up Doctor, to anonymously help girls land the guy of their dreams. Of course, his services don’t offer a happily-ever-after guarantee. He’s seen firsthand getting together never means staying together.

And then he falls in love…

With the last girl he would expect…

Totally not in his game plan.

Suddenly, Sebastian finds himself muddled in the game he’s always prided himself on. He can’t even pick up girls at parties anymore! Why would anyone want to be in love when it turns you into a stuttering, screwed-up, mess with really lame stalker tendencies? Stalking? Totally not his gig.

But the Hook-up Doctor won’t let himself go down easily. He’s always known how to give a girl what she wants and now it’s time to figure out what a boy wants… and he definitely plans on getting it. (Source: Goodreads)

Nyrae does a phenomenal job getting you to know the characters in this book very quickly. These are quick reads, so you need to buy into their dilemma fast. You immediately understand that Sebastian is jaded by his mother’s failed relationships. So jaded, that he is only about the “hook up.” No strings. He has become such a master of the “hook up” that he starts selling advice. Sebastian was a hard character for me. I felt for him and really appreciated how he supported his mother, but his jaded-cocky-hook-up side was pretty brass.

Because he has focused his whole existence on the “hook-up”, his attempt at the “real deal” crashes and burns in epic fashion. His heart was in the right place, but I kind of enjoyed watching him wallow in his own misery of his own making.

Nothing like LOVE gone right, then wrong, then right again to make you believe that IT really can triumph over all.

What a Boy Wants #2
Published June 2012
124 pages
Genre: YA Contemporary Romance
Series: 1. What a Boy Wants 2. What a Boy Needs*
Source: Purchased
Rating: Liked It more than #1

A companion novel to WHAT A BOY WANTS.

Jaden Sinclair knows he’ll never amount to anything…so why would he deserve a girl like Priscilla Mendoza?

Since last summer, things have been screwed up between Jaden and Pris. He knows it’s his fault, but that doesn’t stop him from wanting to go a few rounds with her new boyfriend. He also knows he’s the loser his dad calls him, but it doesn’t stop him from wanting her.

After getting a huge bomb dropped on him, Jaden lashes out and lands himself in jail. Everything in his chaotic life is turned upside down and to make it worse, his mom kicks him out in order to side with his dad. Yeah, he’s totally a prize for a girl like Pris.

Sebastian, Aspen, and Pris are all going places in their lives…and he knows he can’t keep tagging along for the ride.

The group has one last chance for The Epic Adventure they’ve been looking for: a road trip to New York, where Jaden’s friends will be going to college. Unfortunately, the more time Jaden hangs around Pris, the harder it is to keep the carefully constructed walls between them so she doesn’t find out what a train wreck he really is.

When the trip ends, Jaden has to decide if he’s ready to say goodbye to his friends, and the girl he loves. He knows what he needs, but will he be man enough to go for it?

Contains mature themes. Some sexual situations and language. (Source: Goodreads)

I really enjoyed this companion novel, because of the magic of their foursome friendship. It starts in the first book with the PPP, Pre-Party Plans, and continues through their epic adventure to New York. I love “friends” storylines when they really show and support how a “good” friend would act and be.

I also really liked Jaden. Talk about your damaged boy. He really has been beat down by his parents. Luckily he doesn’t let their getting down on him affect what kind of person he is, but he does let affect the relationships he doesn’t feel he deserves. I enjoyed following Jaden and Pris’s journey to air out their demons and let the other be there for them. Even though these two have been friends forever, that last piece of their heart has to be earned.

There is nothing like a Road Trip to facilitate a journey of the heart.