It has been really long ago that I have heard about the book Dearest Clementine by Lex Martin. To be honest, I wasn’t that interested at first, but I’ve put it on my TBR anyway. I even bought the ebook, but eventually never picked it up. I think it has been sitting on my TBR for about four or maybe five years. I just wasn’t sure whether I would still like it or not, because it was not really Talked about. So, recently, I decided to finally read some old books and this one I randomly picked. It was about time after all. Did it surprise me or was I right to leave it behind all along?

About the book

Dearest Clementine by Lex Martin
Series: Dearest #1
Published by Independently published on April 18, 2014
Pages: 368
ISBN: 9780991553426
Genres: Contemporary, New adult, Romance

Twenty-year-old Clementine Avery doesn’t mind being called bitchy and closed off. It’s safe, and after being burned by her high school sweetheart and stalked by a professor her freshman year of college, safe sounds pretty damn good.

Her number one rule for survival? No dating. That is until she accidentally signs up for a romance writing class and needs material for her latest assignment. Sexy RA Gavin Murphy is more than happy to play the part of book boyfriend to help Clem find some inspiration, even if that means making out…in the name of research, of course.

As Gavin and Clem grow closer, they get entangled in the mystery surrounding a missing Boston University student, and Clem unwittingly becomes a possible target. Gavin tries to show Clem she can handle falling in love again, but she knows she has to be careful because her heart’s at stake…and maybe even her life.

DEAREST CLEMENTINE is a stand-alone with two companion novels. Look for book 2, FINDING DANDELION, on July 11, 2014. This contemporary New Adult romance is recommended for readers 18+ due to mature content.

My review

Quite frankly, I didn’t have any expectations before I started reading this book. As I already stated, it has been sitting on my digital bookshelf for maybe four or five years. It seems like this book is forgotten and I didn’t have a good reading experience with new adult novels set in college lately since I can’t resonate with the academic setting and all the things that come with student life anymore. Yes, I’m looking at you Icebreaker. It actually happens to depend on the type of novel with an academic setting, because this one exceeded all my expectations. I have to admit that I was close to putting it aside quite quickly, because I wasn’t drawn into it by the first few chapters only.

As the title already suggests, this story follows Clementine. She’s in her final year of college, which is refreshing in my opinion. Usually, this type of new adult books are centered around first or second years students, who are a bit younger. Therefore, this book contains more serious topics. I’ll come back to this later. At first, I wasn’t the biggest fan of neither Clementine, nor of the other characters. Especially Jenna, one of Clementine’s best friends and rommates annoyed me. However, this changes when we get to know both of them better. Jenna was still quite annoying, but she only wants the best for Clementine and she helps her in reaching this. Clementine keeps her guard up and doesn’t open up to anybody besides her closest friends Jenna and Harper. Even her new roommate Dani gets kind of ignored by her at first. We find out that she has had a lot to deal with in the past and therefore has trust issues. It is only when she meets Graham Murphy and starts to develop feelings for him that she realizes she actually has to open up if she wants to find happiness and a potential relationship. I wasn’t sure whether I liked Graham at first either, but he is sweet to Clementine and protects her without keeping her in a chokehold. He gives her the time and space she needs and this results in lots of character growth for Clementine. She’s a totally different person at the end of the book than she was at the start.

I had a bit of a tough time getting into this book to be honest. It is easy reading material in terms of the writing style, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the banter between the characters at first. The word “dalin’” is overused in my opinion. Also, I had to get used to a single POV narrated romance, I’m so used to multiple POVs now. Honestly, this is a missed chance as I would have liked to know more about Graham and his thoughts since we only follow Clementine. However, this single POV provides a good glimpse of the character development she has gone through.

Although this book is heavily character driven, Martin addresses a lot of serious and quite heavy topics. In the past, Clementine experienced sexual assault and abuse on campus, which has been dealt with at the time. However, the abuser manages to return and the stalking and harassment starts all over again. This has been elaborated in depth in this story, and there’s especially attention for the effects on Clementine’s wellbeing. Unfortunately, she’s not unfamiliar to abuse, because her parents have abused her a lot emotionally in the past. I have to admit that I’m not the best person to judge the representation of such themes but I believe they are handled with care. It sounds quite rude to state that the plot supports the characters in their growth, but apparently it does. I never expected this novel to deal with such heavy topics and therefore I was positively surprised by its depth. From the blurb alone it sounds quite shallow and maybe that’s the main reason why I left it untouched for so long.

Dearest Clementine by Lex Martin is a new adult romance novel wit so much more depth than I initially thought – or even expected. Te characters grow exponentially because they put out the best in one another. I had a rough start with them at first, but as the story progresses, it becomes clear that there is a lot more to them than shown upon first impression. Even though this is a single POV narration, it works well as this provides lots of room for Clementine’s character development. The deeper layers elaborated through several heavy topics that are addressed was an unexpected yet positive surprise to me as well. I regret leaving this book unread for so long, but now I’m definitely going to read the other two books in this series. Don’t worry, they can be read as stand alones as well.