Review: Tear (The Seaside #1) by Rachel van Dyken

No one ever said being a teenager was easy. Unfortunately for Natalee Murray, her boring life in Seaside Oregon has just gotten a heck of a lot more interesting - due to the fact that the famous rock-star brothers of AD2 have just moved into town. Suddenly, Natalee is torn between both of the brothers, loving both of them for different reasons. She knows she can't go on like this forever, but her heart is so divided she can't choose. 

Warning: This book does contain some minor swearing and drug usage.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

This book (and its follow up Pull) came highly recommended by a close friend of mine. So when I got the chance to read and review them both in exchange for my honest opinion, I jumped on the chance.

However, I found it very hard to get into this book - at least in the beginning. Right off the bat, the brothers reminded me of Damon and Stefan Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries, something I could easily overlook. The problem for me was the way the text messages were formatted. I understand that its just the way the characters talk, but honestly? Reading things such as "I SUK AT MTH. I ND HLP. I MAY GT A TUTOR… U UP 4 THE JB?" gets old and annoying - Fast.

I found the lack of security and personal protection for the boys throughout most of the book to be very unbelieving. If you are a world famous rock group, you would not be going to high school without body guards (which they do later get, but only for Nat's protection), nor would you be living in a house on the beach with no security. I wish this story was more about Rockstars being Rockstars, and all the partying and whatnot that goes with it, and less like popular high school boys trying to keep their secrets buried.

On the plus side, the characters were well written for the most part (even if Natalee did have a tendency to annoy me by her thoughts and actions), and once the story started focusing on the troubled past of the boys and why they were in fact in Seaside, the story became much more interesting. In fact, I wish there had been more of a back story on Demetri and Alec. It felt as though the author had barely scratched the surface of their characters, the potential was there for them to be amazing - it just never felt like it got to that point.

        You may purchase a copy of Tear (Seaside #1) from Amazon, by clicking HERE.