* * * 1/2
Take a chance and change your life…
College was supposed to be where Hannah’s hard work paid off, but the major in honors chemistry she’s been working towards since childhood is slipping away. Worse, she’s not sure she wants it anymore. Salvation comes from an unlikely place—a used bookstore and Ben, the passionate college senior who works there.
Ben’s trapped in a life mapped out for him. Trapped in a future career as a lawyer to make his father happy. Trapped pursuing a girl he doesn't even like because she fits into a world he doesn’t want, but can’t escape. But then he meets Hannah. And for the first time, he knows what it means to truly want something.
So he gives in to being her friend. Then to wanting her. Then to kissing her. And within the freedom of his impulsivity, both of their carefully planned lives begin to fall apart...
Review:
After receiving a failing grade on her first honors chemistry test and then being caught in a downpour on her way back to her dorm room, Hannah takes unexpected refuge at Prometheus Books. A small independent used bookstore in town. For a girl that has spent the past 8 years living and breathing science so she can become a chemist, the act of reading for pleasure is foreign. So when the cute bookstore employee finds out Hannah has never read for pleasure, he takes it upon himself to find the perfect first book. Hannah leaves the store with a copy of The Book Thief and a crush that just won't quit.
While working on his undergraduate degree, Ben has been able to hide on campus and pretend that his dreams of the future don't coincide with is father's demands. But the end of his senior year is looming and pretty soon he will be leaving his dreams behind to pursue the law degree his father insists is the future for him. When he meets Hannah, he finds someone who sees him and believes that he has every right to pursue his dreams of studying literature and becoming a professor. The only problem is Ben doesn't share Hannah's confidence that pursuing what he loves most is the right choice.
As the school year progresses they encourage each other to pursue the paths they love while attempting to garner the approval of their parents. A hurdle that is considerably easier for Hannah than it is for Ben.
This was a super cute and satisfying romance. I'm a huge sucker for a bookstore romance. Seriously, used bookstores beg for romances to happen and I love it when an author agrees. That first scene with Ben had me falling in love with him. He's so passionate about reading and wants everyone else to love it as much as he does. But in the end, Hannah is the one that stole my heart. Here is a young woman that is confronting so many changes in her life yet never once does she forget her self-worth. Not only does she not forget it, she demands it. Throughout the story, she watches Ben struggle to make a commitment and fight for what he wants and loves and she has no illusions that if he won't fight for that then he won't fight for her.
I won't tell you how that turns out, you'll just have to read and see. I will tell you that you won't be disappointed in Hannah as a heroine or in Hannah and Ben's love story. In fact, I can guarantee that it will leave you contentedly smiling throughout the day.
Nat
Beth Bolden lives in Portland,Oregon with one cat and one
fiance. She wholly believes in Keeping Portland Weird, but wishes she didn’t
have to make the yearly pilgrimage up to Seattle to watch her Boston Red Sox
play baseball. After graduating from university with a degree in English, Beth
unsurprisingly had no idea what to do with her life, and spent the next few
years working for a medical equipment supplier, a technology company, and an
accounting firm. Now Beth runs her own business as a Girl Friday for small
business owners, assisting them with administration, bookkeeping and their
general sanity.
T.M. Franklin started out her career writing nonfiction in
a television newsroom. Graduating with a B.A. in Communications specializing in
broadcast journalism and production, she worked for nine years as a major
market television news producer, and garnered two regional Emmy Awards, before
she resigned to be a full-time mom and part-time freelance writer. Her first
published novel, MORE, was born out of a challenge to
write a novel in thirty days issued during National Novel Writing month.
MORE was well received, selected as a finalist in the 2013
Kindle Book Review Best Indie Book Awards, and won the Suspense/Thriller division
of the Blogger Book Fair Reader’s Choice Awards.
Bev
Elle is the author of sweet and spicy contemporary romance,
women’s fiction and historical paranormal romance. A love of books--many
already written, and those she harbors in her very active imagination. Writing
is a passion she’s had for many years, but was unable to act upon. Bev Elle is
the mother of three human children and two canines. She is also the lover of
one husband. When Bev isn’t writing in her spare time after work, she is
thinking of doing so.
