When sixteen-year-old Eden Munro agrees to spend the summer with her estranged father in the beachfront city of Santa Monica, California, she has no idea what she’s letting herself in for. Eden’s parents are divorced and have gone their separate ways, and now her father has a brand new family. For Eden, this means she’s about to meet three new step-brothers. The eldest of the three is Tyler Bruce, a troubled teenager with a short temper and a huge ego.
Complete polar opposites, Eden quickly finds herself thrust into a world full of new experiences as Tyler’s group of friends take her under their wing. But the one thing she just can’t understand is Tyler, and the more she presses to figure out the truth about him, the more she finds herself falling for the one person she shouldn’t her step-brother.
Throw in Tyler’s clingy girlfriend and a guy who has his eyes set on Eden, and there’s secrets, lies and a whole lot of drama. But how can Eden keep her feelings under control? And can she ever work out the truth about Tyler? Did I Mention I Love You is the first book in the phenomenal DIMILY trilogy, following the lives of Eden Munro and Tyler Bruce as they try to find their way in an increasingly confusing world.
I know that reading young adult novels is not related to age but there was at least one time I couldn’t escape the thought of ‘I’m too old for this’ flashing through my mind.
Would you feel attracted to a moody teenager who can’t say a single nice word to you? Me neither but when Eden arrives at her father’s new place and meets his new family she can’t help being very interested in Tyler. Too much for her own good btw as he’s a) already taken and b) euhm.. family. She must have seen something in his eyes that I obviously didn’t share because I couldn’t immediately see past his arrogant, egotistical attitude. I had my eyes on another guy right away, someone who was more of a gentleman but of course Eden has a penchant for a bad boy type of guy.
I get it though, Tyler’s mysterious ways are a serious X-factor and of course he’s not the incredible badass that he claims to be. I did enjoy the story in the end and my own feelings towards Tyler started thawing when he finally gave some insight into his behaviour. The last part has a few twists in what was otherwise quite a straightforward storyline of slow burning attraction between Eden and Tyler, and made me race through it to know how they would handle their ‘situation’. Would they end up together or not?
If you enjoy dark brooding guys, a somewhat taboo relationship and a good dose of instalove then this is definitely a read you don’t want to miss. Even though I didn’t really fall in love with this read, the guy was too wishywashy for my taste, I am actually a little curious about the sequel, so you never know that I give it a chance in the future anyway.
I won a free paperback copy of this novel via a giveaway. This is my honest opinion.
The Belgian Reviewer 
Moody teenagers aren’t my jam either. On the other hand, when i was a teenager, i was attracted to the weirdest dudes 😀
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He was the bad guy a little too long for me but I understand that it’s a successful novel. Maybe I’d think so too if I were younger :-). Now you do have me wondering about those dudes Norrie… I thought you were such a good girl all your life!
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That’s the official story 😉 😀
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I totally agree about moody teenagers!!
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Thanks Nicki, happy to see I’m not alone!
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Angsty teenagers are not my ting, which is why I read only a couple of YA titles every decade! 😉 But seriously, excellent review, you were fair and balanced and this is your opinion, others might enjoy it better.
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I do like YA even if I stick with the same authors all the time.. There’s normally a bit of niceness shining through even though they act tough but that wasn’t really the case here, it took too long for him to be nice.. but as I said I understand that others don’t mind. Oh I’ve got a couple more reviews coming up and I hope it’ll be as balanced as this one then, I’m not sure. If I don’t like something, in real life or other you know all right ;-). Thank you for your kind comment!!
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We don’t always like how an author approaches the story she or he wants to tell, but if there is depth to the characters, good or bad, then we can accept them whether or not we like them. The annoying characters are there for a reason, but sometimes an author isn’t that great at characters as they are say a story telling. We can forgive a great deal if, at the end, we’ve enjoyed the story (for the most part) but we do need to connect with certain aspects otherwise it doesn’t work.
And bad writing is still bad writing.
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The taboo relationship would bother me but I really like that Tyler’s character development was well done, in such a way that he eventually became ‘understood’. This sounds like an interesting YA, Inge.
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Thanks Diana, the relationship wasn’t too weird for me.. she doesn’t know him at all and just comes to spend the holidays with her father’s new family where he is so it’s not like there was a brother-sister bond already (I did read a book like that btw but that’s another story) they were strangers to each other, it’s just the thought that it’s weird. Thank you Diana!
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I love your honest and refreshing review! I always think ‘I’m too old for this’ when I read YA. I’m an old cynical boring lady xD I once watched a disturbing Japanese drama about a brother and a sister in love and since then I have steered clear of this kind of taboo stories!
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Haha you’re still so young, you can’t ever be too old! I do like dreaming of a perfect love but there were too many hostile feelings here to enjoy the read. The taboo wasn’t what bothered me most though, they don’t actually know each other so it is as if they were two strangers really, but even so I do understand it’s not for everyone. Thank you sweetheart!
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She must have seen something in his eyes that I obviously didn’t share… hahaha
That’s just how it goes sometimes. But I totally get what you mean. You kinda want the guy to be one you can actually like too!
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Yes exactly, I don’t think we’d fall for the same guy ;-). It reminds me of that other series After by Anna Todd, which I had similar feelings about.
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ahhh… it’s always the bad boy, hey!? 😀 I mean, personally, the bad boys are generally good to look at but they’re too much bloody work so I prefer a gentleman every time.
I get your point as well, about ‘I’m too old for4 this’ because the character’s problems or the way they approach them or behave are just something we’ve long since moved on from ourselves, however- it can be fun to read about and maybe hate on it a bit 🙂 Brilliant review… if you do decide to continue with the sequel, I hope you enjoy 🙂
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It’s the first time this happened to me but you’re right, their way of thinking about a problem is not how I would approach it anymore. I do like the bad boy a little bit, but he has to be somewhat nice at the same time and at first he just wasn’t.. it’s hard to recover from that, with me ;-), I’m bloody unforgiving :-). Thanks love!
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Being bloody unforgiving is really in a way a great method to look after yourself- I always think if one forgives too easily, it allows others to abuse that characteristic…
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