Review | One Night by A.J. Pine

One Night by A.J. Pine
Series: Only You #1
Published by InterMix
Publish Date: April 21, 2015
Source: Publisher
Find It: Goodreads / Amazon 

When she lost it all, Jess decided to cope by living a lie. 

But you can’t keep on pretending forever…

Twenty-one-year-old Jess used to have everything—a loyal best friend, a boyfriend she loved, and a future that was right on track. But in a single night, her whole world changed.

Now, Jess lives for the impersonal connection of drunken hook-ups and to-go coffee cups in the morning. All she needs is one night to pretend everything is fine…until she meets Adam.

Thanks to a sports injury, gorgeous, charming basketball star Adam Carson is stuck in physical therapy at the hospital where Jess interns—giving her the perfect opportunity to see his sweet, considerate nature and making her realize that maybe she does want something more.

But while Adam might be the best thing that’s happened to Jess in a long time, letting him past her carefully constructed walls means letting him know what happened…and why he’d never want her for more than one night.  (Goodreads)

My Thoughts:  One Night by A.J. Pine is the story of Adam, injured star of his college basketball team, and Jess, physical therapy student with a broken past and huge commitment issues. When Jess is assigned to work with Adam during her physical therapy rotation, things begin slowly and innocently enough. As with many relationships, friendship-feelings turn into stronger feelings, which means that Jess is forced to confront her issues if she wants to keep this guy that she loves. 

This book is enjoyable with fun characters. It’s a quick read and progresses well. It is an issue book. I enjoy stories with a “broken” character, in which one of the love interests (or sometimes both) has to help the other through some past issue. In this case, Jess is the one with the issues, fairly big ones, and Adam is the super-sweet and patient guy that is willing to work with her through them. 

And I like Adam for this. Although Jess is very slow to talk to Adam about her past, he accepts her and never judges her. He takes her friends as his own, and is really the picture of what I would consider a swoony college guy. He is a great athlete too, not too overbearing, but really very cool. 

Jess, though. Phew. She has had some things happen to her that are really just awful and I truly feel for her, but she just frustrates me so many times. Her behaviors are like a roller-coaster with regard to the feelings of her friends, very up-and-down, and if I personally was frustrated with her, then they certainly must have felt frustrated. 

But the way Jess connects with people is a huge part of the story. 

THIS is something that Author AJ Pine wrote so well, I think, Jess’ disconnect. I honestly have no idea how it would feel to go through any of the things that Jess went through, nor deal with the aftermath of anything like it. But I could feel her struggle, I think, and how she just pushed everyone away. She felt fear: fear of life repeating itself, fear of rejection, fear of getting too close, fear of everything. While I couldn’t stand what Jess was doing as a result of all of this, I LOVED that I had the strong reactions that I did, and I think it was great story-telling to bring that out. 

And yes, Jess has development and growth. I’m glad for this. There is support written into the story with her family and friends. Her roommate Zoe is fantastic, love her! Along with Adam, Zoe is my favorite part of the book. 

I’m looking forward to Zoe’s story because she’s such a neat character. I recommend One Night by A.J. Pine to readers that enjoy contemporary romance with issues, great friendships, and stories with sports in them (Adam plays basketball!).