The important message right at the beginning: it's not gonna be a review about how much I enjoyed this book or something like that ... because I didn't. Honestly? It was a torture and I know this is mean but it was boring and I just didn't like it!

Before I started the book I saw the pilot of the series that got cancelled ... basically I already knew what would happen since this one episode is the whole book ... and still I enjoyed the episode so much more! I loved it, actually! I was hooked, wanted to read the book and because everyone rated it so good I had high expectations ... but obviously mine were too high.

The general idea of love as a disease was interesting and I was curious right from the beginning ... I wanted to know why people think it's a disease, why it's bad to love or feel something at all but I got tired of it -and the rest of the book - pretty quickly.

Lena did bother me a lot. She was annoying and her thoughts and actions always differed - one moment she thinks something is good and she should do it and the next it's bad and against the system and so she can't do it ... She was so frustrating and there was no real character development ... you could say that in the end she changed a bit but no. She's still the same naive and stubborn girl. And seriously, I've never read a book where beauty seemed so important that it really annoyed me ... Lena is plain and normal, not "good-looking" but not ugly and to Alex she's just beautiful - everyone seemed to bother about her beauty but WHY? Was it important? I didn't get it then ...

Alex was the only good thing in this book - he was the only character I REALLY liked and cared about - he seemed normal and nice and yes, sometimes although he also annoyed me from time to time with his "oh Lena, I understand, don't worry. Whatever you do I'm not mad" he was the one person that kept me reading.

Spoiler

Of course, i knew what would happen to him, but still ...

I really tried to love this book as much as everyone else, but I just couldn't. There were some good scenes that I enjoyed, some talks that made me smile but I didn't feel it, you know? I didn't care about Lena or Carol or Rachel or whoever it is and I don't know why. Maybe because of the writing style of Lauren? Because I already knew what would happen? But that wouldn't explain why I loved the pilot but not the book.

Well, whatever it is I'm glad now that I finally finished it and I doubt that I'll ever read the other 2 books - at least not now or in the near future.

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