Publisher: Samhain
Publish Date: Out Now
How I got this book: review copy from author
She needs an escape…and he’s exactly what she had in mind.
College senior Ellen Price spends every spare minute studying to get into medical school. Until spring break yawns before her, as empty as her wallet.
With no money to hit the beach, she fills her empty to-do list with a plan: for just one week, she will become the kind of take-no-prisoners woman she secretly wishes to be, starting with the hot guy at the bar. It’s a no-risk situation: at the end of break, he’ll head back to his campus, and she’ll go back to hers. No muss, no fuss.
At first, Josh Markley isn’t sure what to think when the quiet, intense beauty from his pre-med classes approaches him for a night of casual sex. Even more mystifying, she doesn’t seem to return his recognition. But if she wants to play “strangers in a bar”, he’s game.
Their passionate night is a welcome respite from life’s stress, but afterward, Josh realizes he wants more—from himself, from life, from Ellen. Except she still thinks he’s a one-off she’ll never see again. Confessing the truth now—before she figures it out on her own—could shatter the fragile beginnings of just what the doctor ordered. A forever love.
Warning: Contains mistaken identities, a sometimes-glasses-wearing hottie, deep questions about figuring out what you want from life, and a red-hot college romance.
*Blurb from Goodreads*
When I originally agreed to do a review for this book, I hadn’t even heard of the New Adult genre. Now that I’ve read some, and fallen in love with quite a few, I was surprised at how much this did and didn’t fit within the genre.
Ellen is a senior and getting ready to head off to med school. When all her friends go off on spring break and leave her alone in town, Ellen vows to spend the week doing the wild and crazy things that she never expected to do, starting with picking up a stranger in a bar. She’s determined to live the week wild and fancy free, without any messy entanglements.
Josh had loved Ellen from the first moment he saw her years ago. When she picks him up at the bar, seemingly oblivious to who he is, he plays along with her charade. As the week progresses and Ellen and Josh spend more time together, Josh falls for her even harder, and is determined to make sure that Ellen feels the same. But as the truth about them both comes out, will their new found relationship have a leg left to stand on?
While I really enjoyed this read, it didn’t have the same feel as some of the other new adult books I’ve read. The characters acted much older, they were more sure of themselves, what they wanted and how to go about getting it. They acted more like adults, and less like the younger college aged kids from the other NA books I’ve picked up. In a lot of ways I really liked it, and in others I didn’t. While I supposed based on age alone this could be classified as NA, it really didn’t read that way for me.
I liked that despite Ellen’s reservations and typical shy nature, she really took life by the horns and ran with the new, spring break version of herself. She was assertive and daring yet also retained some of that sweet and innocence that she claimed to have had before. While we never really got to see that side of her, as the book starts at the beginning of her spring break, it was neat to see her friends reaction to her at the end of the story.
This book was very sexy. Ellen and Josh are quick to hop between the sheets, and I loved it. It was flirty and hot and sexy and more than I could have hoped for. I loved that they were both able to really let loose in the bedroom, and although they started somewhat cavalier about their relationship, they also saw just how amazing they could be together, and weren’t afraid to go for it.
There were a few things that I didn’t love about this book. For one, the pacing seemed to be a little sluggish at the beginning. It seemed like we jumped into the story at an odd time, and it took me awhile to really get the groove of the story. I also thought that Josh and Ellen were a little quick with their love for one another. I could somewhat understand Josh’s easy time with the revelation, since he had already been crushing on Ellen big time, however Ellen was a little quick on the “love you” trigger.
All in all I enjoyed this story. It’s a fairly quick read (only 100 or so pages), and it is super sexy, fun and romantic. I enjoyed the dates that Josh took Ellen on, and thought it made their romance that much sweeter. I can’t wait to see what else Grey has for us in future books!
I give Take What You Want a B-