Oliver Stoneridge loves order and plans, especially when they’re laid out on a perfectly formatted spreadsheet. But when his girlfriend, Violet, dumps him, Oliver’s strategy for the future slips away. Desperate to win her back, he begs Taryn, his archenemy and Violet’s beauty queen roommate, for help. Taryn’s gorgeous, thinks he’s a nerd, and wouldn’t know a plan from a prom dress, but Oliver … soon finds himself tangled in her web of sexy. Suddenly, Ollie’s falling for Taryn and losing track of everything he thought he wanted.
Taryn Markos knows that agreeing to help Ollie win back her best friend is a dumb idea. Not only because he’s all wrong for Violet but because the more time she spends with him, the more confused she gets. Who knew Nerdilicious himself could challenge her with a single look, even from underneath those unruly eyebrows in dire need of a tweeze? How could she have known that he would accept her and defend her when she needed it the most? Taryn’s hated Oliver for three years. Why does the sight of him now make her come alive?
As things heat up between the frenemies, sparks begin to fly. But Ollie and Taryn know their love-hate flirtationship has to stop—before someone ends up with a broken heart.
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Jessica Calla strikes again with another can’t-put-down and well-written New Adult romance. From the moment we first meet Ollie and Taryn, their chemistry leaps off the page. I for cheered them throughout the whole story. I loved that they grew to be their better and true selves together and discovered how wrong they were about each other in the beginning. Highly recommend.
Ollie has his life planned out with his girlfriend Vi. They are going to graduate, move to Cambridge while he goes to law school, graduate, get a job in NYC… he’s got it all mapped out until Vi breaks up with him before she takes off on a trip to Austria.
Turning to Vi’s roommate, Taryn, Ollie begs her to help him get Vi back. Only one problem — as they spend time together, they both find friendship and more. Both Ollie and Vi don’t want to hurt Vi, and they know it’s wrong, but they eventually give in to their physical attraction only to find there’s something much deeper between them.
I did like the light tone of the this story, and Ollie was sort of cute most of the time (except when his drinking got in the way). Taryn was a more complex character, and endearingly likable, even though she’s falling for her roommate’s ex. They were “on a break” after all.
I liked this story but the uneven pacing did have me taking longer than usual to finish. It does deal with a sensitive issue of falling for a friend’s ex, which can be painful, and there’s plenty of that to go around between Vi, Taryn and Ollie.
Overall, I thought this was a good start to the series, and I’m interested in reading more set in this world.
An ARC was provided for review.
I have the utmost love for this story. Oliver And Tar are crazy awesome characters with a thirst for something neither of them expected to find in one another. This is the perfect opposite attract story blended with humor and angst and a delicious amount of sweetness I couldn’t get enough of. Jessica Calla is a go to author for me in new adult and Breaking the Plan certifies that. Highly recommended!
I didn’t know what to expect when I started this book. This is a new to me author and I am so glad I took a chance on this book. The cover and the blurb really grabbed my attention.
Oliver has a plan for his future and plans on marrying his long time girlfriend. All things were starting to fall into place until Violet tells him she needs space and leaves for six weeks to go to Italy. Oliver feels lost and doesn’t know what to do. He turns to Taryn, Violet’s roommate and best friend. He is hoping she will help him get Violet back.
The chemistry between these two is amazing and there are times they have to try and stop what’s happening between them. These two seem to be drawn to each other, there is a strong pull.
I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the next book in this series.
Jessica Calla is not a new author to me, since I loved her Sheridan Hall series. With this new one we’re still in New Jersey, following the story of Ollie and Taryn.
Oliver is a nerd who is trying to stick to his plan, which consists in becoming a lawyer and marry his longtime girlfriend Violet. But when Violet breaks up with him and goes abroad for something related to her major, Oliver is heartbroken and can’t accept that his future plans are basically ruined. Taryn is Violet’s roomate. She’s carefree and unlike Oliver, she doesn’t know what to do with her life. Despite she and Oliver never got along, she decides to help him get his ex girl back, but her plan backfires. As Taryn gets to know Ollie, she’ll realize he’s not that bad as she thought and he’ll do the same.
The relationship between Ollie and Taryn is weird, but in the good sense. They’re different, yet they have some things in common. They start hanging out because she wants to help him get Violet back and wants him to help her write an important paper. They both dread to be around each other because they never agreed on anything, but when they see how they are comfortable when they are together – and they get each other out of their friend-zone – their perspective on what they are, which type of relationship is blooming between them, changes suddenly. Ollie realizes that Taryn isn’t just a beautiful girl who likes to evade by going to parties, and Taryn sees that Ollie isn’t just a nerd.
Ollie is adorable. He’s not the usual alpha male we see in many romance novels. He’s a nerd, he’s been with just one woman in his life, because that was his plan. He is complicated because he has a logical mind and thinks before he acts, but he’ll also surprise you and act impulsively and throwing his plans out of the window. Taryn may seem like the type of character who screws around, but we see she’s not. She was labeled wrong by Ollie, and as he gets to know her, he realizes that she may be who he wants to be with.
I liked how their relationship was built slowly. They took their time to understand that they liked each other and to jump on each other. It didn’t feel rushed and the timing was OK for this kind of story.
Ok, that’s it! If you love new adult and college romances like I do, you gotta read this. And if you haven’t, go read the Sheridan Hall series too. I can’t wait for the following book!
I tore into this book. Oliver was the perfect amount of nerdiness. Taryn was nice after you understood her walls she had up. Loved the pace of the two getting together and when they did, wow! Hated when the book ended. I wanted to see more of what happens with them. Wasn’t a fan of Violet but hope she redeems herself in the next book. Josh – what a great friend and I can guess who he likes. She better deserve him. Overall this book is a 5K for me and that means it is a keeper and would be on my keeper shelf if it was physical. Also means it is one of the few I would actually reread. Grab this one!
This was a very solid book, and a great choice to read in between other slow or super heavy stories. Just a simple tale of two unlikely people unexpectedly falling in love with each other (with some steaminess to give it a little kick and make it all the more fun!)
Full review: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52106136-breaking-the-plan
Easy reading to just enjoy.