Mini-reviews: Undeclared by Julianna Keyes (Burnham college #2)

Hi everyone, Rachel and I have very similar tastes when it comes to reading, so much so that we're often reading the same books at the same time without realising it. So we thought it'd be a cool idea to share our reviews on books that we had both been reading recently. Today we're sharing our thoughts on Undeclared by Julianna Keyes.

Undeclared by Julianna Keyes (Burnham college #2)
Publication date: February 27th 2017
Our ratings: 3 stars (Jasprit) /  3 stars (Rachel)
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo 

Kellan McVey is Burnham College’s most prolific athlete, partier, and ladies’ man—and that’s just how he likes it. Returning to reign for his third year, he wants nothing to change. Then Andrea Walsh shows up. It wasn’t too long ago that Andi and Kellan were lifelong friends, mortal enemies, and, for one hot summer, more. Then Kellan left and Andi stayed behind. Kellan thought he’d moved past that last summer’s heartbreak, but with Andi sitting next to him in class, befriending his friends, and battling for the same once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity, he’s starting to remember why he hated her…and why he loved her. Kellan has a long list of reasons that falling for Andi again is a terrible idea, though every new moment together challenges that theory. But Andi’s all too familiar with Kellan’s love ’em and leave ’em approach—and she’s found someone else to get serious about. Burnham’s campus king has never had to fight for a girl, but if he wants Andi to give him another chance, he’ll have to do the one thing he’s never had the nerve to do: admit it.

I loved Undecided! Crosbie and Nora’s romance just ticked all the boxes for me.  I read and enjoyed Undeclared, Kellan’s story, in 24 hours, but I didn’t love it, and that basically came down to Kellan. Still, like I said I read the book in a short amount of time, hooked by the story. 

I adored Andi, and felt bad for her, because it was inferred that Kellan somehow broke her heart before he left for college. She wasn’t mean to Kellan, when she really could’ve been.  Andi’s priority was college, having had to wait two years while saving money to go, you could tell it was important to her. 

I didn’t like Kellan in Undecided.  Yeah, I get that I’m not supposed to be judgmental if a guy sleeps with a bunch of girls, without promising them anything other than a good time, but hooking up with sixty-three girls without even bothering to find out a good majority of their names doesn’t stir up feelings of swoon for me.  I was soooo ready to change my opinion of him, especially if his actions were motivated by heartbreak, but Kellan was just so self-absorbed and clueless for much of this book! He had no clue what upset Andi at that baseball game?!! Really?!! Omg, I wanted to smack upside the head, he was so stupid!

I keep reminding myself that Kellan is only twenty-one/twenty-two, so I should give this guy a break.  There are not many twenty-one year old guys out there like Crosbie, with his big heart, most fall into the Kellan range of emotional maturity, but Crosbie set the bar high for me in the first book. Still, I rooting for Kellan to get it right, because even when he kept screwing things up you could tell he loved Andi.  I wanted him to get it right especially for Andi, because she really deserved it! Boy-oh-boy, when they were on the right track they burned up the pages! Julianna Keyes writes some hot stuff!

I do love this world Ms. Keyes has created, and I’d love more stories at Burnham.  I was thrilled to “see” Crosbie and Nora together and happy; leaving no doubt they’re in it for good. Marcela was delightfully wicked and hilarious, and I enjoyed her “adversarial” relationship with Kellan.  The book had some fun, clever humor. I cracked up over the Halloween pun costumes!  But most of all, I loved how everything turned out with Kellan and Andi.  I got some insight into why he kept screwing things up, and I finally fell for him.

 

I was a massive fan of Keyes book Undecided, the relationship between Crosbie and Nora was one of my favourites, I loved how it came about with neither of them expecting it. And whilst I was a fan of Kellan too I was eager for him to finally get his own story. If you know me by now you know I’m a massive fan of second chance romances and I was eager for more of Kellan and Andi when I’d learnt about their earlier relationship. It was clear to me that Kellan and Andi were meant to be, bits of their backstory that we were given over time, and the way they were around each other, I just wanted them to drop everything and just be together already. Also with everything that Kellan had dealt with last year, I liked the more responsible, considerate Kellan we got to see this time, even though a lot of the times he just wanted to jump right in with Andi. Keyes once again wrote a smoking hot romance; the scenes between Kellan and Andi were totally swoonworthy, that I wish we had a lot more of these scenes, rather than the obstacles and miscommunications that we got along the way. But this minor detail aside, I loved seeing the development of the beautiful relationship between Kellan and Andi and getting to know some great secondary characters, Dane, Choo and Bertrand were a delight! I just wish I was able to enjoy this book as much as I did Undecided, nevertheless, I will be looking forward with eager anticipation to more from Keyes in the future.