Review | "All My Life" (First Things #1) By Rucy Ban

This week's review is over another Amazon free download that I recently read while travelling. It has a 3.5 star average on Goodreads, a 2.5 star rating from me, and two companion novels.
Before I go into more details as to my thoughts, though, here is the Goodreads description:

Seventeen-year-old Kari meets Neil Mars. “Neil as in Armstrong and Mars…as in Bruno.” A boy who beats every vampire, werewolf, highlander fantasy Kari has ever had. But she knows she can’t get close to him. Not ever. Because that would mean telling him everything. Coming clean. And Kari can’t bear the idea of changing the way Neil looks at her. Like she’s the only girl in the world. His reverence is something too precious to lose. Perhaps even at the cost of losing him.

But Kari doesn't know why Neil calls her his ‘Angel’ and when she finds out, she realizes what love is all about. Boundless joy, unending longing and a fuckload of heartache.

***
Full length New Adult Contemporary Romance. 

I had a few issues with this book.
That isn't to say it was horrible, but I definitely have a few thing to mention here. 
The writing itself was a little lacking. It read like someone trying too hard to seem like a teenager and the plot contained a lot of faulty reasoning that only served to push the story onward.
Really, this novel could have been wrapped up 20 pages in and it was frustrating to me personally that the characters seemed to lack the common sense to realize that. 
Also, the main character is 17, yet she's being let into clubs and parties that she shouldn't be allowed inside, which threw me off a little (but that's a technicality and could easily be ignored). 
The characters themselves weren't that likable. Kari was annoying, there were major cases of insta-love and insta-friendship (I admit that the latter is very possible, but it wasn't done in a way that seemed organic). 
The storyline all of a sudden goes insane. Twists and and action and plot points that are meant to shock, but once that wears off, just left me confused. 
In the end, I read the book in once sitting. It was a fast read, but I admit I had to skim through some of the more eye-roll worthy parts. 
This is the first book in a series, but it really should have stayed a stand alone, I think- and I don't plan on continuing on with the rest of the books.