Review: Nothing Like You by Lauren Strasnick

When Holly loses her virginity to Paul, a guy she barely knows, she assumes their encounter is a one-night stand. After all, Paul is too popular to even be speaking to Holly... and he happens to have a long-term girlfriend, Saskia. But ever since Holly's mom died six months ago, Holly has been numb to the world, and she's getting desperate to feel something, anything—so when Paul keeps pursuing her, Holly relents. Paul's kisses are a welcome diversion... and it's nice to feel like the kind of girl that a guy like Paul would choose.

But things aren't so simple with Saskia around. Paul's real girlfriend is willowy and perfect... and nothing like Holly. To make matters worse, she and Holly are becoming friends. Suddenly the consequences of Holly's choices are all too real, and Holly stands to lose more than she ever realized she had. ~from Goodreads


This is one of those stories where you know how it will end but you still love the journey of the main character getting there. Your heart aches with her and Paul, seeing how he is and what he becomes, then again when she befriends Saskia. She justifies sleeping with him because she likes being wanted. She believes Paul really cares more about her than his girlfriend. Her friendship with Nils is nice. They have this little shack they hang out in and they talk about almost everything. Holly can’t bring herself to tell him what’s going on. So she constantly bottles it up even though she’s bursting at the seams to tell him.

Truly a coming of age, learning a hard life lesson while dealing with grief. The note it ends on isn’t exactly where you anticipate a book to end, but it fits. As heartbreaking as it is, it is still a very well written book. Not to mention there was a Billy Joel reference, about “Vienna” of all songs, which is awesome to me. That’s a very good song, in case you haven’t heard it before. Go listen to it now, and read this book.