Anywhere with You, Christina Elle

Teegan was cute and quirky if painfully shy and awkward.  She was equally endearing and pitiful.  I'm kind of on the fence about liking her because from the start she was a ball of neuroses and vulnerability with sparks of strength and determination.  There were far more moments where her character was likable than there were with Wes though.

From the very beginning Wes didn't have a ton of redeemable actions.  He was tolerable throughout the story and marginally likable, but not enough for me to not want to constantly roll my eyes in disgust at his motivations and obsession with Juliet.  Not enough of his supposed goodness was talked about or shown so I'm left to guess that at one point he was a great guy.  All we really have to go on is that he saved dances for the shy, sweet Teegan at various dances they were both attending.  Not exactly a ringing endorsement, you know?  SPOILER ALERT UNTIL THE END OF THE PARAGRAPH...SKIP AHEAD IF YOU SO CHOOSE.  And what is it with men in these stories that have to kiss their ex or get some kind of physical with them to determine that they're over them?  Why can't they be honest with themselves and use their heads and hearts?  Seriously getting burned out on these types of men's actions in moments like these.

Misty's hovering during Wes' attempts to make amends made his groveling and their reconciliation seem rushed and insufficient for the hurtful things that were said.  He really was a huge jerk and the things he said about his motivations concerning Juliet as well as why he even came with Teegan were awful.  It was going to take a lot to come back from that and Misty's orchestration up to this point to get Teegan to listen were helpful, but completely detracted from and truncated a whole lot of the things he could have and should have said to prove that a "forgive and move forward" was justified.

There was a majorly unsatisfying conclusion regarding Juliet.  The parting thoughts from her via Wes were out of character and felt like a way to quickly take care of her loose end.  I mean, look at what she did to Wes.  Not to mention her described character traits that haven't really changed since college.

As a side note, the scene when Wes came to his sister to find Teegan and to gain her advice for how to fix things was off-putting and detracted from the flow of the story's falling action and dénouement.  Her sexual stuff when Wes went to her room was probably added to relieve some of the tension and lingering hurt Wes caused during his epic screw-up but came off as awkward and unnecessary.  She didn't have to describe what she wanted her husband to do in such detail from the entryway while standing with Wes.  Her husband was worried about his reaction to the face paint and instead of saying something like, "I'll be right there, then you can eat me like the good zombie you are," she went into detail about the scenario she wanted and that tipped things into creepy, not because of their kink, but because the timing and audience wasn't appropriate.

Overall the story was alright.  There was a lot of passion between them and also quite a bit of romantic potential as well.  With an ending that was more of an HFN than an HEA, it was both hopeful for their future and disappointing that we don't really get to see if they can live up to the promise they were beginning to show after reconciliation.

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