One Night by A.J. Pine

Title: One Night (Only You #1)

Author: A.J. Pine

Publisher: InterMix

Release Date: April 21, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

When she lost it all, Jess decided to cope by living a lie.

But you can’t keep on pretending forever…

Twenty-one-year-old Jess used to have everything—a loyal best friend, a boyfriend she loved, and a future that was right on track. But in a single night, her whole world changed.

Now, Jess lives for the impersonal connection of drunken hook-ups and to-go coffee cups in the morning. All she needs is one night to pretend everything is fine…until she meets Adam.

Thanks to a sports injury, gorgeous, charming basketball star Adam Carson is stuck in physical therapy at the hospital where Jess interns—giving her the perfect opportunity to see his sweet, considerate nature and making her realize that maybe she does want something more.

But while Adam might be the best thing that’s happened to Jess in a long time, letting him past her carefully constructed walls means letting him know what happened…and why he’d never want her more than one night.

It’s absolutely no secret that I’ve come to absolutely love New Adult in the last couple of years. I just can’t seem to get enough. So whenever I hear of a new one coming out, I jump on it, even when I don’t necessarily know that much about it. And that’s how I found myself reading and high enjoying A.J. Pine’s One Night.

After what happened on that single night, everything changed for Jess. She used to have everything she wanted. Now she just goes on one day at a time, not forming any lasting attachments to anyone around her. It’s easier to deal with impersonal, one night, drunken hookups than to get attached. Because getting attached will mean getting hurt again. But then Jess meets Adam and she starts wondering if she might still want more than just one night. After meeting Jess in physical therapy, Adam can’t stop thinking about Jess. There, he sees a side of her no one else gets to see. And that only makes him more determined to break down the walls she puts up around her heart. But Jess isn’t ready to take down those walls, even if Adam could be the best thing that’s happened to her. After everything, how could anyone want Jess for more than one night?

Honestly, I knew nothing about One Night when I saw that it was available to be requested on NetGalley. All I knew that it was being identified as New Adult and the description made it sound like something I would enjoy. Even as the release date came closer, I didn’t really hear that many people talking about this book. So when I finally read it, I went in with a completely open mind and absolutely no idea what I should have expected. To give you an idea, despite it being mentioned in the synopsis, I hadn’t even picked up on the fact that sports were a part of this story. So yeah, I was going in with a very open mind. And I ended up being rewarded for that. When I first started reading, I thought the story was going to go in one direction, but that’s not where it went and I’m happy for that. If it had, it would have been a little too predictable for my liking. Instead, I got a heartfelt story about two people trying to pick up the pieces after suffering their own tragedies. A story about two people learning to open themselves up to others when they thought they wouldn’t be able to do so again. And despite what I’m making it sound like, One Night wasn’t a heavy story. Sure, there were some deep issues, but it didn’t overwhelm me when I was reading. Because that’s not what it was about. It was just about Adam and Jess and them finding and accepting themselves and each other.

Even though she was the one telling the story, it took me a while to get a handle on Jess. I knew right away that she wasn’t the one-night-stand girl she pretended to be. She just didn’t come across that way even if that’s what she insisted on doing. I just couldn’t seem to figure out why she was putting on that front. It just didn’t make sense. But the more I got to know her, the more I started to put the pieces together and make guesses at what she could be hiding both from me and from the people around her. Once I figured it all out though, my heart broke for her. I didn’t necessarily agree with what she was doing, but I could understand why she was doing it. And then Jess met Adam and things changed. Adam wasn’t who I thought he was going to be. Honestly, I expected him to be your typical cocky college athlete. And he was. But he also wasn’t. Which really doesn’t tell you anything about him. All you really need to know is that Adam was a pretty fantastic guy and it didn’t take long at all for him to charm me. The other character who was a standout for me was Zoe. Zoe was Jess’s roommate and so not what I expected. I loved her personality and how she was with Jess even when she didn’t know her that well. Don’t get me wrong, the romance between Adam and Jess was great, but Zoe and Jess’s friendship was even better for me. Maybe I’ll get a book all about Zoe in the future…?

A.J. Pine’s One Night was a pleasant surprise. I love when I can read a book without any prejudice and be happy with the result. This story was more than I thought it was going to be, and I’m definitely keeping my fingers crossed in terms of who the sequel, One Life, is going to be about.