Dumping Dallas Winston

Dear Molly

By: M.F. Lorson, Jessica Bucher

Narrated by: Joyce Oben

An outsider with an image to protect.

Harper loves to cause trouble - especially since her dad is the Chief of Police. Which makes dating a leather-jacket-wearing, motorcycle-riding Dallas Winston wannabe so much fun!

There's no harm in stirring up a little trouble, right?

Wrong. After one little slip-up, Harper's dad assigns her community service with the preppy scum turned police intern - Landon Maxwell.

Now, her bad-boy boyfriend has a wicked revenge plan that might actually get her dad's attention, but Landon won't let her out of his sight. Not when he suspects she's up to no good, and especially not when he realizes keeping Harper in line feels a lot like falling for her.

Dumping Dallas Winston is the second book in a series of romantic comedies centering around everybody's favorite 80s movies. The Dear Molly series can be listened to in any order.

©2020 Jennifer Costley (P)2020 Jennifer Costley

Cute YA

Dumping Dallas Winston is a cute YA that has a lot of references to the 80’s and The Outsiders, which I loved. The story is well written and the characters are interesting. The narrator gave a delightful performance and made it a fun listen.

A Story About finding your place in the world

I’ve never seen’The Outsiders’, so I don’t know whether Dallas Winston needed dumping or not. I looked him up and I was surprised at how good looking he was. I pictured a more hipster wannabe. That being said, I really enjoyed Harper’s story.
Harper struggles with the typical second child problem of wanting the same approval of daddy that she perceives her older sister getting. This family dynamic is cliche for a reason. Like many second children (who are the same gender as the first) she chooses to act out for attention; to prove to her father her unique place in the family.
Landon has the exact same issue, plus he lost his mother at a very young age. Together they discover what truly makes them special and unique, as well as helping their fathers see their common need for more attention.
The narrator gave voice to their playful banter and angst with beautiful clarity.

Not certain what to think

I really enjoyed the first book in this series and was curious to see how things would go with these two characters, but it just didn't quite work for me.

Landon was an unlikeable, entitled bully in the first book in the series. Somehow, the switch has been flipped and he starts out being a bit more likeable at the start of this book with no real explanation. So, the character arc was a bit lacking there.

Harper was someone who I liked much more in the first book than this one, and that's unfortunate since she's the main character here.

While Sloane and Gabe play a minor role in this book as well, they're seen through Harper and Landon's uncharitable viewpoints, coming across as much weaker and unlikeable characters than they were in the first book.

Overall, I enjoyed Landon the most in this story, but it's hard to reconcile with how much I disliked him in the first book, especially with no real explanation for his transformation. His unwavering respect for and desire to please Hunt seem to come out of nowhere. So, perhaps some inciting incident could have explained it, but we don't see that.

I think perhaps I would have enjoyed this story more if it were a standalone story (or I hadn't read the first book), and you can certainly read it that way.

I will admit that I'm looking forward to Reagan's story since her favorite '80s movie was Dirty Dancing. Harpers was The Outsiders, which I never enjoyed all that much myself. So that too may be my disconnect with this story line. I can't be certain.