The Temptation of Adam by Dave Connis

🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis:
Adam Hawthorne is fine.

Yeah, his mother left, his older sister went with her, and his dad would rather read Nicholas Sparks novels than talk to him. And yeah, he spends his nights watching self-curated porn video playlists.

But Adam is fine.

When a family friend discovers Adam’s porn addiction, he’s forced to join an addiction support group: the self-proclaimed Knights of Vice. He goes because he has to, but the honesty of the Knights starts to slip past his defenses. Combine that with his sister’s out-of-the-blue return and the attention of a girl he meets in an AA meeting, and all the work Adam has put into being fine begins to unravel.

Now Adam has to face the causes and effects of his addiction, before he loses his new friends, his prodigal sister, and his almost semi-sort-of girlfriend. 

^{*I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*}

I appreciate the fact that the author attempted to write a story surrounding the topic of addiction particularly porn addiction. This is not a topic that I have seen done in the YA world and I was interested to see what direction the author would take it in. I would like to see this topic and other difficult topics like it written about in Young Adult books because it is something that some of them struggle with. 
It felt like the author beat around the bush with the topic at hand which was addiction to porn. I think that is why this book just didn't work for me. Addiction isn't something that you can pussy foot around and expect readers to take something away from it. I'm not saying that I wanted descriptions of what Adam was watching in detail but it would have been nice if the author would have went deeper other than feeling guilty that it happened again.
I wish that I would have been able to feel the struggle within Adam more so throughout the story. He was a bit of a meh character for me. He seemed to be in denial about a lot of things for the majority of the book. I also didn't like the relationship between him and Dez. I felt that it was toxic for him and I wanted him to kick her to the curb. The only character that I can say that I liked was Mr. Cratcher. He was caring and straightforward about his own flaws. He genuinely wanted to help others especially Adam.
I wanted the story to focus on Adam and what he was going through but it focused quite a bit on the backstory of Cratcher as well as other characters and their issues (Dez). I liked Cratcher but the book was supposed to be about Adam and I wasn't sure why the author took that direction. It didn't seem like anything was really resolved with the characters in the end with the exception of Cratcher. It felt like the author was forcing conclusions for each of them in such a way that it didn't feel realistic but rather rushed instead.
I think the book was trying too hard to be different by adding certain elements like Adam's formulas and the pixie manic dream girl crap (Dez). I know that I have been beating the author up about her but she annoyed me with her "I'm so unique" and "I don't really have ONE problem like the rest of you".