Finding It by Cora Carmack

Finding It by Cora Carmack
Series: Losing It #3
Published by: William Morrow on October 1, 2013
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 320
Source: Edelweiss
Buy on Amazon • Book Details
Rating: ★½

Most girls would kill to spend months traveling around Europe after college graduation with no responsibility, no parents, and no-limit credit cards. Kelsey Summers is no exception. She's having the time of her life...or that's what she keeps telling herself.

It's a lonely business trying to find out who you are, especially when you're afraid you won't like what you discover. No amount of drinking or dancing can chase away Kelsey's loneliness, but maybe Jackson Hunt can. After a few chance meetings, he convinces her to take a journey of adventure instead of alcohol. With each new city and experience, Kelsey's mind becomes a little clearer and her heart a little less hers. Jackson helps her unravel her own dreams and desires. But the more she learns about herself, the more Kelsey realizes how little she knows about Jackson.

The first thing you should know about Finding It is that it’s nothing like Losing It or Faking It. I thought Losing It and Faking It were great for a few reasons: the characters felt real, the scenes were hilariously awkward, and the relationships with slow-building. Finding It has none of those things.

Kelsey is not a likable character. She uses alcohol and sex to solve every single one of her problems, and I never feel like that changes—not even at the end of the book. Every move she makes is in an effort to sexually seduce Jackson and get him to have sex with her. This made it really hard for me to connect with Kelsey. I never sympathized with her or even liked her that much. She always seemed like such a shallow character. And she always talked about how she was “Done with [her] dad controlling [her] life”, but she had no problem running around Europe on his money. *rolls eyes*

“God, I love when people love me.”
Kelsey

My killer stilettos kept my legs in decent shape.
Kelsey

And Kelsey couldn’t even go a few days without sex without complaining. I get that she was a party girl, but geeze. I don’t think I was prepared to handle all her crap. I think I thought that she’d get better or she wouldn’t really be that bad, but she was.

..my body aching from neglect. After a few nights, I couldn’t take it anymore.
Kelsey

In general, the whole story felt quick, fleeting, and shallow. I never truly got invested in the story or characters. Kelsey and Jackson’s relationship was insta-love from the very beginning. She saw him, drooled over his abs, and wanted to get in his pants. He saw her, thought she was sexy, but tried to hold back and wanted a relationship. But immediately that attraction was there, and that’s all it ever felt like—physical attraction. They rarely talked or got to know each other… they just went bungee jumping and drooled over each other.

“Well, Jackson Hunt. Stop being a pansy, and just take my clothes off.
Kelsey

And talk about making it easy to seduce Hunt. If I couldn’t do it in Italy, someone should take away my vagina because I didn’t deserve it.
Kelsey

Also there were a few small things that bugged me.. Like the fact that Kelsey was able to get a work visa in Europe SO easily—in less than a month. What the hell??? You can’t just waltz into Europe and get a work visa, believe me… I’d know.

Finding It had none of the elements that I loved in Cora Carmack’s other two books. In Losing It and Faking It I LOVED laughing at the hilarious, awkward scenes. Well Finding It isn’t funny or awkward. That’s just not part of the book at all, which surprised me since it was so prominent in the other two books. And similarly, I loved the romances in Losing It and Faking It. In both cases, they were super slow burning, passionate, and just great romances to read about. But in Finding It it felt so shallow. I never felt like I knew or cared about the characters (or their relationship) at all. It felt like pure attraction and pure sex, but not a real relationship. Kelsey and Jackson didn’t even know each other.. I didn’t even know them. And as a result, I just couldn’t get into their relationship at all.

Finding It is more a book about “I have super intense problems and I’m damaged and z0mg I need a man to fix me.” But even with that in mind, I don’t feel like Kelsey properly deals with her problems. At the beginning, her main problem is that she runs away from her problems, and I feel like she’s still doing that at the end. It kind of gave the whole story a “What’s the point?” feeling.

So, ultimately, I’m really disappointed in Finding It. I thought this book would be a slam dunk since I loved the other two books.. but Finding It was nothing like the rest of the series. The book was supposed to be all about a great romance, but it didn’t even have that. It was too insta-lovey and too focused on physical attraction rather than real feelings and emotional connection.

The Verdict