This is a touching romance between a strong, sensitive man and a wild party girl with deep emotional scars, who must bring out the best in each other and heal each others fears, insecurities, regrets and past wounds. This snazzy romance between an American girl named Cath and a British banking heir named Nev takes place in glamorous London. Cath is a fun-loving wild girl with tattoos and an attitude. She loves to drink and dance and party, and leads on strings of boys, only to break their hearts. Her catnip is the Nev type: rich, preppy bankers. This is despite the fact that she doesn't actually like suits as people, because they're too strait-laced for her and would never understand Cath's artsy, free-spirited side.
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Oddly enough, Nev is anything but a typical banker. He feels constrained by his image, and feels like has to hide his secret desire to wear skinny jeans and horn-rimmed glasses and indulge in his fascination for painting and sculpture.
When they meet at a London nightclub the relationship is purely physical and they have incredible chemistry. But Cath resists getting close, because she's been cheated on in the past, raped, and abused emotionally and physically in other ways, and it has left deep emotional scars, and Nev slowly, gently, makes her learn how it feels to be liked and cared for again. She doesn't allow Nev to take her on dates, or hold her hand in public, or chat idly with her on the phone - she resists "couply" gestures. However, as Nev and Cath grow steadily more comfortable with each other, it becomes harder and harder for the barriers to stay up naturally and Cath realizes she is falling for Nev and is terrified. She attempts to run away, but in the end realizes on her own - without Nev's intervention - that she has to face her fears and accept that this man truly is as wonderful, trustworthy, good and safe as he appears to be and that she needs to stop being afraid. Similarly, when she returns to Nev she finds a man who has found the one person in the world with whom he is comfortable expressing his whole being, and that is how they know that they are made for each other.
Best part of story, including ending:
I like that they are adults and both very mature despite their problems, and the story doesn't rely on silly contrived obstacles in order to make the plot move forward.
Best scene in story:
When Cath explains the story behind her tattoos the Nev - it's a show of how the intimacy has grown between them.
Opinion about the main character:
I love that Cath is an extremely well developed character, even better than Nev.
