ARC Review: On the Floor by Jennifer LaCross

General information:

Title: On the Floor

Author: Jennifer LaCross

Release date: April 2014

Genre: New Adult Romance

Series?: First in a series about band members, can be read as a stand alone.

Ending: HEA

Pages: 245

Blurb: Rachel Harris has been closed off since high school, when her mother passed away. Worrying about her family has made her own happiness her second priority.

Jake Price has had family issues of his own, leaving him incapable of having anything more than a physical relationship.
When Rachel meets Jake on the dance floor, sparks fly. Fires burn. Their worlds change. 
And then he walks away with no more than a thank you...
Through a twist of fate, they are brought back together when Jake shows up the next day as Rachel’s new co-worker. They reluctantly decide to put aside their attraction for each other so they can work as friends. 
But when that attraction becomes something more, will Rachel and Jake be able to figure out how to work together, be together, and open up to each other? Or will their old issues be something that destroys everything they have built?

Meet Rachel,  a student at a Music and Art school, who has not had a boyfriend for a while. She's been through quite a lot in her life and you follow her through most of the book. I liked Rachel. She's not a holy virgin, but not slutty either. She takes responsilibity and she takes great care of the kids on her floor. I've never heard of Resident Adivsors or Academic Mentors before, but that could just be because we don't have them here in the Netherlands. Rachel is passionate about (teaching) music and helping the younger 'kids'. Her AM - Ty - is horrible and after he makes the millionth mistake, he is fired. I'm very glad that he wasn't her love interest, because he was awful and the prospect of having him for the whole book didn't exactly fill me with joy. But thank god, he isn't! 

"He would be my perfect boyfriend, except for the fact that he already has one."  

Rachel and her best friend Jenna go out dancing. Once, there Rachel has a wonderful dance with the mysterious hot 'Mike'.....and I was hooked. Sadly, he walks away and you're left wondering when they'll meet up again. You don't have to wait very long, because 'Mike' turns out to be none other than Jake, the new AM who'll live across the hall from her. What follows is their wonderful story. I won't tell you anything else about the story beyond that, so you can experience it for yourself.

Jake was an interesting character. I loved him at some points in the book and could slap him silly in other moments. He's hot and seems to care about Rachel and he does have his funny and sexy moments. He hasn't had a very easy life either and it's interesting to watch him grow throughout the book. I liked his personality and what he does and plans to in life. He seems perfect in some ways, but flawed in others - which I love. I'm not a fan of the typical perfect guy or the big manwhoring asshole. He's perfectly balanced and I'm sure other readers beside myself will love him too.

The book contains a few entertaining and great secondary characters. I love Jenna - Rachel's best friend. She was funny, supportive and very um.. vocal about sex. She's Rachel's family away from home and I mostly enjoyed their exchanges a lot. There are also Jake's band mates who make interesting characters and I also really enjoyed Rachel's and Jake's family (well.. for the most part).

Why not 5 hearts?
I had some trouble getting into the story in the beginning. I struggled a bit to get used to the writing style in the beginning and it just took me a while before I really 'felt' the story. But I got used to it or the writing changed a bit after the first chapter, since I was hooked from chapter 2. I'm not entirely sure why that is. Maybe I just really didn't like Ty or I just had to get used to Rachels' 'voice in the beginning'. It's only a minor thing though, since I really loved the rest. So if you feel yourself struggling a little in the beginning, do yourself a favor and just read on a little, because I'm sure that you'll all be hooked from chapter 2.

Overall
I really enjoyed this book and I stayed up very very well, early ^^ to finish it. The characters feel real and I loved being a witness to the love story of Rachel and Jake. It was fun, sexy and emotional. It has a HEA ending and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys NA books and doesn't might a lot of steamy and sexy scenes - that are at times quite explicit. The book is mostly told from the POV from Rachel, with a little bit from the POV of Jake at the end. I'm looking forward to reading the books about the other band members - they seemed like an interesting group of guys. I'm especially looking forward to Nate's story.

*ARC kindly provided by the author in exchange for beta read and an honest review*

ARC Review: Breathe Into Me by Sara Fawkes

General information:
Title: Breathe Into Me
Author: Sara Fawkes
Publisher: St. Martin's Press 
Genre: New Adult
Series?: Stand alone
Ending: HEA
Pages: 288

Blurb: How did my life get so broken?  It’s a question Lacey St. James asks herself every day.  Stuck raising her little brother in a trailer park while she works a dead end job at a grocery store, she has a stalker exboyfriend, a bad reputation, and no way out.
And then, she meets Everett, who changes her entire existence.

Everett is an outsider who’s housesitting his family’s mansion off the coast, and for reasons Lacey can’t understand, he’s completely transfixed by her. He seems determined to show her that life can offer more than she’d ever hoped for, if only she believes in herself.  She desperately yearns to trust him, but what happens when she finds out that everything he’s told her is a lie?







I feel like I must warn you. I don't mean to sound like the Lemony Snicket books - but this book is most definitely not a feel good book. It's ugly and difficult and pretty much highlights everyone's greatest character flaws. Does that make it a bad book? No.

"“You seem eager to get rid of me.” “Maybe.” There was no conviction in the word. It had been a long time since I’d just talked to a boy like this, and it was nicer than I cared to admit. Most were after only one thing, which made the game old and depressing. Everett had come to my rescue in the bar, however, something that deserved more than the cold shoulder. Unfortunately, old habits die hard.
“Why?” He lifted one arm and took a dramatic sniff. “Do I smell?”"

Lacey hasn't had the most easiest life. After her father died she, her mother and 4 year old brother moved into her grandmothers trailer at a trailer park. She has a horrible relationship with her grandmother and her mother is nothing but a useless drunk. A slew of horrible and even more terrible guys have come and gone in the last couple of years and when we first meet Lacey in chapter 1, she is with the worst of them all; Macon.

The first two chapters are very troubling and didn't make me feel very good. Honestly, I wanted to smack Lacey with all the rotten salmon in the world. Why in the world would you even want to be with a guy like that? During one of the outbursts from Macon, she meets Everett.

Everett is an interesting character. He seems decent, but I was suspicious of him and thought he may not be all who he seems to be. You'll have to read it yourself to find out if I was right. Overall, I liked Everett, but I do think that Sara Fawkes wants to have the exremely horrible and abusive a-holes in one corner and the perfect can do no wrong love interest in the other corner. A lot of the guys in this book are massive jerks and Everett just seems to be a little too perfect during most of the book. Understandebly, Lacey has trust issues and has a hard time trusting that Everett is not out to use and hurt her. I think the idea is that we as readers MUST understand that he really is trustworthy and that's why it's all a little too much of the goodness. It makes Everett appear less than human and that was one of the things that bothered me.

"“you’re a tough nut to crack.” I gave him a bemused stare. Pot, meet kettle."

Lacey herself was an interesting main character. I struggled with her sometimes - as the beginning is not the only time I'd liked to have slapped her silly. She doesn't really make the best choices in life. But she does have a very hard day to day life - having to do it all on her own. She also has some issues from her past that she hasn't really worked through. She seemes a bit overly dramatic at times and I just found that I sometimes had a hard time connecting to Lacey. It was nice to see her take steps to try and better her life.

This book has some nice secondary characters. Horrible people like Macon and former friend Ashley and nice people like Clare, Trent, Cherise and Andrew.

The writing style of the book is perfectly fine, and for the most part I liked reading it. It got better as the story moved along, but I never reached a level of loving it. I'm not entirely sure if it's due to the characters, the setting of the story itself. I don't mind some struggles or darkness in my books, but this book really is chock-full of them and sometimes it felt like the story was drowning a bit in all the misery.

Overall, I liked reading this book and I think that readers who love new adult books and don't mind a bit - well.. a lot - of darkness to their story will love this book.

“Never be ashamed to go your own path. Sure as hell ain’t easy. I’ll tell you that, but it makes life worth living.”