Why I read it:  Jane from Dear Author told me about this one and that she thought I would like it (she was right).  So I begged asked the publicist for a review copy.  Lucky for me, she said yes.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads)  Cami Broussard has her future all figured out. She’ll finish her senior year of high school, then go to work full-time as an apprentice chef in her father’s French restaurant, alongside her boyfriend, Luke. But then twenty-year-old ex-Marine Julian Wyatt comes to live with Cami’s family while recovering from serious injuries. And suddenly Cami finds herself questioning everything she thought she wanted.

Julian’s all attitude, challenges and intense green-brown eyes. But beneath that abrasive exterior is a man who just might be as lost as Cami’s starting to feel. And Cami can’t stop thinking about him. Talking to him. Wanting to kiss him. He’s got her seriously stirred up. Her senior year has just gotten a lot more complicated….

What worked for me (and what didn’t):  Stir Me Up covers Cami Broussard’s senior year of high school. Just about to turn 18, her French chef father is pressuring her to go to college after she graduates.  Cami wants to be a chef but her father thinks that job takes too much away from family time and wants her to have another option to fall back on should (okay, when) she get[s] married and have/has children.  Cami’s father didn’t have the opportunity to go to college and it is clear he feels regret about not being around for her more.

Cami wants to cook. She’s been working in her father’s restaurant since she was 10 years old. She doesn’t need to go to cooking school and going to college won’t get her where she wants to go.  For all, that Cami isn’t exactly sure what kind of chef she wants to be.  She doesn’t want to work in her father’s restaurant for the rest of her life; she knows she wants to cook, but beyond that?  Well, she’s got some things to work out, assuming she can convince her father she’s not going to college.

Cami is in a relationship with fellow cook, Luke and has been for about 8 months.  He lives close by and has just finished high school.  He comes across as a fairly nice guy actually, if a little pushy when it comes to sex.  I say a little because they have been dating for a fair while and he is not ignoring her wishes. He is just putting his case. And, as is often the case, when one milestone is crossed (ie third base), there’s no going back.  Cami is thinking through a lot of things and her relationship with Luke is one of them. He’s good looking and (mostly) good to her but she’s not so sure she wants the kind of relationship Luke clearly does.  She doesn’t want to move in with him after high school anymore than she wants to go to college. (For those who may be worried about a cheating storyline, fear not).  Luke comes across as immature and less ambitious than Cami but he wasn’t a complete tool.

Her father’s new wife is Estella.  How she is his “new wife” when Cami doesn’t really seem to know her isn’t really explained in the book.  The way it came across to me, Estella just kind of appeared in the house one day.  I wouldn’t have minded a little more in the text to give me some context to their relationship.  It seemed that Cami barely knew Estella but presumably her father had dated her for a while and they’d spent some time together?   Small niggle only.   Estella raised her son and  her nephew, Julian, as her own after he (Julian)  was orphaned.  As the book starts, Estella discovers that Julian was severely injured while serving in Afghanistan.  Once he recovers sufficiently, he will come to live with them and, because he has had a below knee amputation of his right leg and will be in a wheelchair at least to start, Cami is to be put out of her bedroome (which is downstairs) and relegated to an upstairs “alcove” – no door.  This doesn’t thrill Cami but she tries to be sympathetic and take it in good stead.  She did a lot better than I would have done I think.

When we first meet Julian, he is in a lot of pain and is very angry.  He pushes people away and isn’t very nice.  This seemed quite realistic.  HIs left leg was broken in a number of places and he’d lost half of his right leg.  He’d lost brothers-in-arms and he’s suffering from PTSD.   As the book progresses, Julian starts to heal – he eventually gets a prosthesis and walks with crutches, then a cane, until finally he can walk unaided.  These stages also signify other stages of his recovery. I don’t know a lot about war injuries but it seemed to me that it was sensitively and fairly treated.  Julian’s disability wasn’t given weight but it didn’t define him either and it became clear by the end of the book that he was planning a very active life and was determined not to be hampered by his injury.  That said, he had what I’d consider to be fairly usual reactions to Cami seeing his stump, his scars and to her touching them etc when they first became intimate and he had to work through it. By the end however, he and Cami were able to joke about it “poor you only having five toes” and this seemed authentic to me as well.

“I’m no hero.”

I come up behind Julian and touch the back of his chair. “A hero is just an ordinary person placed in extraordinary circumstances.”

“Who said that,” Julian asks, looking up at me, “Emerson?”

“Actually, I think it was Spider-Man.”

His mouth twitches into almost a smile.

Near the end of the book Cami thinks to herself that Julian didn’t share a lot with her about how he was feeling in relation to his war experiences – he was still fairly closed off about any negative emotions.  While it was also clear that Julian was having counselling, because the book was told from Cami’s POV, the reader didn’t really get to see it.  I would have liked more of Julian opening up to Cami about his experiences because it’s the sort of thing which, if left, could impact negatively on their future.

Cami and Julian are initially “frenemies” I guess.  She tries to be nice, he pushes her away, she bites back.  But slowly, as Cami persists (she is basically a very empathetic person) and Julian heals, a different kind of tension enters their relationship and this causes problems for Cami with Luke and forces her to make a decision.   The banter between Cami and Julian is a lot of fun and it was a barometer of their relationship – as it went from fairly barbed to teasing, so did their relationship progress towards an eventual happy ending.

“Look, I made you breakfast. You insulted my dog and boyfriend and then called me out of work without asking.”

“Interesting you put the dog before the boyfriend there.”

I continue as if he hasn’t spoken. “So let’s just call it even with the good deeds and go back to pointed remarks and mutual contempt for each other, which of course won’t be a problem for me after you…WHAT are you staring at?”

“Nothing,” he says. He’s still studying my face.

“WHAT?”

“You have freckles.”

Cami’s and Julian’s relationship progresses slowly.  They become friends first and then more.  Even though Julian is concerned they ought not be together because he’s too messed up, eventually the pull of their mutual attraction is too much.  The intimate scenes were not terribly explicit, which fit the tone of the book I thought.  But they were intimate and that satisfied this romance reader. And there was humour and laughter and lots of fun banter as well.  I had a big smile on my face for a lot of their scenes together.

Cami also has an abiding friendship with BFF Taryn and their interaction was another highlight of the book.  I wonder if we will get a book featuring Taryn and her Hollywood adventures? (*hint hint*). I liked the somewhat complicated but nonetheless loving relationship Cami had with her father and also how her relationship with Estella grew over the course of the story as well.

The review wouldn’t be complete without a mention of the cooking.  Cami’s relationship with cooking and food is also very intimate and it is one way she connects with Julian – she makes him muffins for breakfast (the recipe is in the back of the book) and then throws one at him because he’s being horrid.  (After that, there was no chance for either of them!)  I liked the way that food and the restaurant was integrated into the story.

What else? This is a new adult book so it is also a coming of age story.  Julian and Cami make a “pact” not to tell the other of their plans for the following year (after Cami finishes high school) so that neither one is tempted to accept anything less than what they really want, just to be with the other.  This worked for me up to a point but toward the end it felt a little manipulative rather than organic to the book and [redacted due to spoiler].  However, I did love that Cami decided what she wanted and I loved that Julian didn’t want to influence her decision – he wanted her to do what was best for her and they would find a way to make things work between them whatever she decided.

And there was this (which I adored):

It’s not enough to know I don’t want college; it’s not enough… What I need to do is go out there and find out who I am… And then … not step into a footprint my father or boyfriend or anyone else made for me, but find my own way to make a footprint myself.

The book’s happy ending fits the age of the characters.  It is hopeful and happy without there being anything particularly formal (yet).

This is Ms. Elkins’ debut.  The writing is very strong and the characters came to life on the page for me.  I only had a few niggles – for the most part this story was a big win for me.  This kind of book is why I’m enjoying the hell out of New Adult.  More please.

Grade: B+

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