Novel Review: Be With Me (Wait for You, #2) by J. Lynn/Jennifer L. Armentrout

Rating (Out of 5): ~4-4.5

Genre: NA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: William Morrow (HarperCollins)

Release Date: February 2014

Spoilers?: Not really.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Teresa Hamilton is having a rough year—she’s in love with her big brother’s best friend, but he hasn’t spoken to her since they shared a truly amazing, mind-blowing, change-your-life kiss. She got out of a terrible relationship. And now an injury is threatening to end her dance career for good. It’s time for Plan B – college. And maybe a chance to convince Jase that what they have together is real.

Jase Winstead has a huge secret that he’s not telling anyone. Especially not his best friend’s incredibly beautiful sister. Even though he and Teresa shared the hottest kiss of his life, he knows that his responsibilities must take priority. He certainly doesn’t have time for a relationship. But it doesn’t help that all he can think about kissing the one girl who could ruin everything for him.

As they’re thrown together more and more, Jase and Tess can’t keep denying their feelings for each other. But a familiar danger looms and tragedy strikes. As the campus recovers, the star-crossed couple must decide what they’re willing to risk to be together, and what they’re willing to lose if they’re not…

The Cover:

I'm not really a fan of this cover. It just doesn't look very pretty to me, the colors don't really work, and it just doesn't feel right for the book. I don't know, it just doesn't work for me.

Quotes:

•  "'Actually, it’s experience. Things come along you don’t expect all the time, Tess. Trust me. Things that change everything about your life—about what you thought you wanted, who you thought you were. Things that make you reevaluate everything and even if it doesn’t sound like a good thing in the beginning? […] Sometimes they turn out better than you could’ve ever imagined.’” (Paperback, pg. 87)
• "'Silence is not a fucking virtue. It’s a disease—a cancer that eats away at you and fucks with your head. I know that now.’” (Pg. 90)
• "Both of them deserved the kind of love they shared, but I wanted to know what that felt like. To know firsthand the kind of love that healed instead of harmed.” (Pg. 131)

Review:

I was actually surprised by how much I liked this book.

I rather enjoyed the first one in this series, but there was a lot of drama and woe-is-me moments. In this one, there was more smut, a lot of nice attention to the romance, but also enough focus on the family relationships and serious stuff.

The chemistry between Teresa and Jase was hot. They were really cute together, but also very steamy. And the steamy stuff was very nice. There was also quite a bit of it, definitely more than in Wait For You, and I liked that. It was definitely my favorite part of the book. Jase was frustrating several times, because he kept trying not to like her way too hard, but he got better about halfway through.

I liked seeing Cam and Avery again, as well as seeing Cam as the big brother, even when he was frustrating and overbearing and a bit of a jerk. And those two are very cute together, and it was funny seeing them from Teresa’s eyes.

The serious stuff also got some really good attention. Teresa is a dancer, but she hurt her knee, and that caused her to re-think her future plans. I think she handled it pretty well, and came to a good conclusion for herself. There was also some domestic abuse stuff, and those were depressing and rather horrible, but I think handled relatively well. There was also a surprise from Jase that I wasn’t expecting and so won’t spoil, but I think it was going in a good direction by the end of the book.

Overall, I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I wasn’t expecting to like it so much more than the first one, but now I’m really glad that I picked it up. And I hope to pick up another of her books when I get the chance, especially the next in this series.