Review: Anything to Have You by Paige Harbison

Anything to Have You by Paige Harbison
Publisher: MIRA Ink
Publication date: 7th February 2014
My rating: 4 stars 

Nothing should come between best friends, not even boys. ESPECIALLY not boys. Natalie and Brooke have had each other's backs forever. Natalie is the quiet one, college bound and happy to stay home and watch old movies. Brooke is the life of every party, the girl everyone wants to be. Then it happens - one crazy night that Natalie can't remember and Brooke's boyfriend, Aiden, can't forget. Suddenly there's a question mark in Natalie and Brooke's friendship that tests everything they thought they knew about each other and has both girls discovering what true friendship really means.

Anything to Have You was a really surprising read. Despite some obvious flaws, I whipped through this book in one day. I normally don’t do cheating books, but books which involve two best friends and one of their boyfriends I find highly addicting. (I blame my obsession with programmes such as Sunset Beach and The OC for this).

Natalie is the stay at home type of girl, she prefers spending quiet time reading or knitting whereas her friend Brooke is always at parties and getting crazy drunk. Brooke decided that this year would be different, it was their senior year at school and Natalie had to be a little spontaneous. So Natalie agrees to go to Alexa’s party and it does end up being a memorable party for a long time to come. Natalie wakes up in bed next to Brooke’s boyfriend Aiden; she remembers kissing Eric that night so knows that she couldn’t have slept with Aiden. Also she’d woken up beside him half decent, but she can’t shake the niggling feeling that she slept with somebody else.

This is where Natalie messed up if I was in her shoes I would be committed in trying to find out who I slept with. But she asks one person who denies it and then automatically assumes it’s the other guy without confirming it and then ends up telling her best friend. This was a stupid thing to do and of course there were several tell tales signs of what was to come (highlight to view spoiler) (she was pregnant), but I was largely able to overlook this because of the gorgeous relationship which emerged between Natalie and Aiden. Yes Aiden was her best friend Brooke’s boyfriend, but Brooke seriously didn’t give a toss about their relationship, she would openly flirt with other guys in front of Aiden and even though Aiden confronted her several times about this she said she would stop, but would start right back up. Also we learn a vital titbit when we’re given insights into Brooke and Natalie’s past and this had me utterly convinced that Aiden and Natalie should be together. Seriously which friend does this?

And Brooke’s behaviour didn’t get any better as the story progressed. We were given chapters from her in the middle of the book (as I wasn’t a huge fan of hers in the first place, I really did want to skip over these and get back to what was happening with Aiden and Natalie). Aiden and Natalie didn’t go cheating behind Brooke’s back, but it was clear that they had some sort of connection which definitely went further than the relationship Brooke and Aiden had going on. The time they spent together was sweet and it was nice to see both of them who had been going through their fair share of crap with Brooke have a good time. Also Brooke wasn’t the sweet and innocent party she was making herself out to be either. Natalie and Aiden definitely made this story for me.

Harbison’s writing had a very addictive feel to it, despite there being glaringly obvious things characters should have picked up on and a sort of rushed wrapped up neat ending. I had a really fun time reading this book, it’s a book where I didn’t need to over think things, but just sit back relax and completely lose myself in this story.