Book Review of "Overprotected"

Yesterday I read the book "Overprotected" by Jennifer Laurens. The book is a Young Adult novel that will be in bookstores in February 2012, but is already available on Kindle and Nook, which is how I found it. The book was a quick read, taking me less than 24 hours to read through it at a leisurely rate (meaning the total reading time was probably four-six hours). While I thought the book had an interesting story line I had several problems with.

Overview of the Book:
Ashlyn is a 17 Upper East Side New Yorker. When she was a child her nanny kidnapped her and threatened to kill her. Since her return to her parents, Ashlyn has been under 24 hour surveillance by her parents (mostly her overprotective father) and bodyguards hired to live in the house and keep tabs on her every movement. At the beginning of the story Ashlyn is assigned a new bodyguard, Collin. Collin is an old childhood friend who used to tease and taunt Ashlyn. Based on those memories Ashlyn initially resents and hates Collin. But the couple gets closer and romance blossoms.

Critique of Plot:
I had several problems with the plot. First of all, the narrative seemed rushed. Character development is rushed so that many characters become stereotypes. Ashlyn's mother is a cliche character straight out of "Real Wives of ...". Even at the end of the novel when the mom's character developed and changed I was not invested enough in the character to care.
Along with character development I thought the hatred Ashlyn felt for Collin and the resolution to be contrived. First, I didn't believe that anything Collin did to Ashlyn would warrant strong hatred (chasing someone around with a live crab at the beach isn't enough for me). Second of all, Ashlyn only had to see the "gorgeous" Collin to forgive him.
Another major problem with the plot was that it dealt with some very dark issues (suicide attempt, kidnapping, attempted rape, stalking, adultery, unhealthy parental control which I felt became abusive) in a casual manner. Overall, the book failed in trying to be a light beach read because of all the dark plot points, but it also failed at being a book I could take seriously because it seemed so rushed.

Side Note:
Another aspect that made the book seemed rushed was the complete lack of editing. As I was never the model English student I try not to be too critical about grammar mistakes. However, as I read Overprotected I came across many continuity errors. While describing the weather Jennifer Laurens skips between November and January. A party (and significant point in the book)originally takes place on a Friday night but in the next chapter when the characters are discussing the events of the night refer to it as Saturday. This editing mistakes are something I would expect in a manuscript but not in a published work.

Overall Impression 
I think there was some good potential for Overprotected but it wasn't fully discovered. There were some unique devices that Jennifer Laurens used to signify a shift in Ashlyn's attitude, but they were overshadowed by the problems she had in the book.