He’s looking at me like – well, like he wants to look at me. Like he likes what he sees, and he’s smiling and his eyes are so blue, even in the faint glow of the porch light they shine, and I nod dumbly, blindly, then grope for the door handle, telling myself to look away and not yet able to do it.
“Sarah,” he says, softly, almost hesitantly, and my cuore slam bangs, beating hard, and this is what it’s like to want someone te can’t have. To want someone te shouldn’t even be looking at.
Sarah is in quite the predicament. She’s riding that rollercoaster of first Amore – the pain, the exhilaration, the ups and downs. Only problem is, she’s doing it solo – unrequited style. She’s been in Amore with Ryan since the eighth grade, but now he’s dating her emotionally stunted best friend, Brianna, and Sarah is forced to stumble through each day, the pain of seeing them together pulling at her insides with every secondo that passes.
Brianna has crappy parents who clearly don’t want her around, and Ryan seems to make Brianna feel like she matters to someone. At least, that’s how it looks to Sarah, which is why Sarah is so hell bent on keeping her feelings completely and totally to herself. How could she take Ryan away from Brianna, when she has so little to start with?
Besides, there’s no way Sarah could compete with the sassy, sexiness that is Brianna – and Brianna makes sure Sarah knows it every single day. Brianna might have crappy parents, but that’s no excuse for the way she treats those around her. Its obvious to the reader that Ryan is nothing più than a self-esteem booster for Brianna, and while she might actually Amore Sarah, she doesn’t know how to mostra it. I couldn’t help but wonder if Brianna only kept Sarah around to make herself feel better.
But then, it seems, Ryan sees through Brianna’s dance, and decides to take his affections elsewhere – right into the garden of Sarah! Turns out, Ryan has kind of been in Amore with Sarah for ages, but got all caught up in the whirlwind that is Brianna and time just got away. But he wont stand for that anymore. He wants Sarah, and nothing – nothing – will stand in his way.
Not even Brianna, when she walks in on Ryan and Sarah lying curled up together in Sarah’s bed.
The Unwritten Rule is interesting exploration through the rules of dating and friendship. Were Ryan and Sarah wrong to pursue each other when Brianna was still so clearly caught in the middle. Did they consider her feelings enough? With the way Brianna was treating the pair of them, should they have considered her feelings at all? When is it okay to break the rules of friendship for matters of the heart? These are all domande I asked myself repeatedly throughout this story.
Sarah and Ryan are both likable characters, but I found Brianna to be shallow, callous and difficult to read. She’s clearly got some emotional issues, but the way she treats those around her makes my stomach squirm. You’d think, with her home life being so terrible and all, she’d value the Amore of her Friends a little more.
The Unwritten Rule is a home run for Elizabeth Scott. This is a great, contemporary chick lit read!
Publication date: 2010
Pages: 210
Rating::
Teaser Quote: “I wasn’t happy with you? Brianna says. “Almost eight weeks, Ryan. And then te go and – ” she glares at me. “Is this my anniversary present? te could have at least picked someone decent. Someone I’d believe te want and not just who te used to make yourself feel better.”