Despite what her name might suggest, Heart has zero interest in complicated romance. So when her brilliant plan to go to prom with a group of friends is disrupted by two surprise invites, Heart knows there's only one drama-free solution: flip a coin. Heads: The jock. He might spend all night staring at his ex or throw up in the limo, but how bad can her brother's best friend really be? Tails: The theater geek...with a secret. What could be better than a guy who shares all Heart's interests--even if he wants to share all his feelings? Heart's simple coin flip has somehow given her the chance to live out both dates. But where her prom night ends up might be the most surprising thing of all..
I swear, if people start falling over themselves over Schroeder like the people fan-girling over immortal stalkers like Edward Cullen, I'm going to scream!
This book literally only had a handful of guys I actually liked. And only one of them was a secondary character who was actually developed past his name and relationship to the protagonist. That was Ryan. Ryan is the first guy (actually the only guy) that asks Heart (I think this author won the award for wildest, most out there names for YA protagonists) to prom. He actually is gay and I think he's going it to cover up the truth. I'm not exactly sure. Anyway, he and Heart are actually cool, they bond over French and are both drama geeks. He was the only one who didn't walk around with typical sexist thoughts and ideas and kept calling Heart out on her gayist (? I don't know what to call this) remarks towards him during their night.
The other three guys who got frequent page-time were straight up jackasses.
First, you got Phil, the epitome of misogynistic guys. He's Heart's brother, a football player and typical to most YA stories: with parents who are never around (their dad is busy with his carpet business and their mom ditched them a long time ago). Anyway, Phil promises his recently dumped football buddy, Troy, that his sister will go with him to prom so he doesn't have to experience it alone. He doesn't even ask Heart and she has a problem because she tries to make as many people happy at once. However, she doesn't realize or care that it comes at the expense of herself.
In the life where Heart chooses to go to prom with Troy, her brother is a complete jackass. There's this point where a drunken Troy forces his lips on a unwilling Heart and her brother has the audacity to tell her she's "overreacting" and stop being such a baby when she tries to tell him that she didn't want it. Phil even goes on to say, "he probably thought you wanted it."
And that, my dear children, is what you call rape culture. And it only gets worse as the story goes on. Heart begs him to take her home and he refuses. Heart spends the rest of the prom with her friends until he manipulates her into being Troy's babysitter since he's drunk out of his mind and spending the rest of the night taking care of him.
Heart's original plan was to go to prom with her big group of friends, including her real love interest Schroeder. He calls her different parts of the human body and she also addresses him by a nickname. His real name is Chase but he reminds Heart of this kid:
Now I hated his character. He is a straight up jackass. And the reasons given to explain his screwed up behavior don't sit well with me. He has a problem with Heart choosing to deviate from the original plan of going to the prom with her friends because he doesn't have the balls to ask her out himself. Sure, Heart has this poorly developed idea that she won't date therefore she can't end up like her mother: getting pregnant and starting a family you aren't ready for and skip the town on.
However, he spends most of the book mad at her because she went to prom with other guys. When some condoms come out of her purse (that her aunt provided in her prom-goodie bag) and she and Ryan laugh about it, he looks at her with disappointment. I really hope that look was because he was jealous and not that he was putting her down for having sex with Ryan on prom night.
Either way, the exchange he and Heart have about her drinking in a car with Troy after he tried to tongue-her-down really sealed the deal about my feelings towards him:
"I can't believe you," he said.
I drew back with a pissy look. "Excuse me?"
"I just can't believe you'd be that stupid....It didn't occur to you that being incapacitated might be dangerous around Troy."
Oh yeah, dude, because if Troy had raped her, it would've been Heart's fault for getting into a car with him as well as getting intoxicated around him which invited the rape onto herself. It's her prom night too and if she wants to drink she should get to without having to worry about having to fight off attackers. How about telling him not to rape her, instead of blaming for putting herself at risks. He even tells her that she got lucky because Troy could've raped her, he just didn't.
Ugh, in the end, Ryan makes her realize that she has feelings for Schroedur but he's too busy being stupid that they can't work it out. So their friends lock them in a trunk to work out their problems. And they do, annoyingly enough. Heart realizes that her no-dating rule is a little strict and decides to give way to Schroedur. They start dating on the end of both sides of Heart's choices. We never learn which one she really chose but at the end Heart gets deja vu about things that she's experienced in both lives. But either way she ends up at the lake with her friends and Schroedur.
Ugh, please do not waste the time I did reading this book.
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