Review: Believe by Erin McCarthy

Title: Believe (True Believers #3)
Author: Erin McCarthy
Published: January 21st 2014
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Robin used to be a party girl… until she got black out drunk and woke up in bed with her best friend's boyfriend. Now she's faced with being THAT girl, and couldn't be more disgusted with herself. She can't even tell her friends the reason for her sudden sobriety and she avoids everyone until she meets Phoenix—quiet, tattooed, and different in every way that's good and oh, so bad…
Phoenix is two days out of jail when he meets Robin at his cousin's house, and he knows that he has no business talking to her, but he's drawn to her quiet demeanor, sweet smile, and artistic talent. She doesn't care that he's done time, or that he only has five bucks to his name, and she supports his goal to be a tattoo artist.
But Phoenix knows Robin has a secret, and that it's a naïve dream to believe that his record won't catch up with them at some point. Though neither is prepared for the explosive result when the past collides with the present…

I like how Erin McCarthy’s New Adult debut series is made of companion novels so we get to concentrate on a different couple in every book. That’s pretty awesome since all of their stories are so very different and driven by unique pasts and happenings compared to the rest of the couples. Believe tells the story of Robin & Phoenix and if you’ve read the ending of Sweet? How could you not be intrigued by these two :)

"I missed the whole summer," he murmured. "But none of it would have been as good as today was anyways."

So it is about the aftermath of a cheating incidence. Robin accidentally slept with her best friend’s boyfriend and it’s even worse because she can’t remember anything of it. She has isolated herself from her friends, has been sober ever since (she used to be the party girl so that’s huge for her) and the guy she was with keeps harassing her to do more. She doesn’t want to tell her friends because she doesn’t want to break her best friend’s heart and I really felt for her which isn’t something I thought I would do—I wasn’t expecting to sympathize with Robin. It helped that she was utterly disgusted by her actions even if she couldn’t remember them.

Then we have Phoenix who is an ex-convict and has just gotten out of jail. They meet during an awkward moment in the Manning’s house (Phoenix is Riley and Tyler’s cousin). I really liked their chemistry and the bond they formed over art—it was extremely cute. However, it was a little insta-love-ish. Ok a lot, insta-love-ish, because the L-bomb was dropped too early in my opinion (and even though I liked Phoenix, he sounded a little like a creep in his POV at first), but it kind of felt natural at the same time because they were so similar and the attraction was definitely there from the start.

Phoenix has a secret of his own though—his illness that he’s trying so hard to work through and that’s basically all anyone can ever ask for. I’m very pleased that the author decided to write this into the story. Phoenix has a lot of tattoos and the one he got during this novel kind of creeped me out. Okay, not kind of, but actually like a lot. O.o Then again, it goes with these two since they’re very intense in their relationship. It was me that was a bit put off by this tattoo.

One more thing, Robin’s family was awesome, though at the same time Phoenix’s mom was very wtf for me. I don’t understand how she could give such good advice considering she was a drug addict and based on Phoenix’s memories she wasn’t a very good mother. It didn’t feel that consistent regarding the story and the characters, but someone had to take away Phoenix’s insecurities and I guess that’s why the pep talk scene was there.

I felt so bad for the girl who got cheated on, but I’m looking forward to her journey towards happiness and the sneak peek at the end of Believe indicated that we have yet another type of story in our hands soon and that’s pretty darn exciting. Even though I wasn’t as big of a fan of this book as I was of True, I still enjoyed it and can’t wait for more.

Rating: 3.3 out of 5.0
Stars: ★★★

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