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kaylareadsbooks's review
5.0
*Before I dive into my review, I want to thank NetGalley and Entangled Teen Crush for sending me an E-arc of this book in exchange for a review.*
I am not usually a fan of e-books, I love the feeling of reading and holding a book. But when I started this one on my Kindle, I couldn’t put it down. I was reading it at every opportunity I had. I read it on the train to and from school, I read it in between classes. I even found myself trying to find time to run back to my dorm room so I could read it. The one downside I find with e-books is that I can’t take good book pictures of them because my Kindle is in black and white and the pictures don’t come out good.
Isabelle needs a partner of the fall ballet and Garret needs someone to give him ballet lessons, due to his coaches orders. Isabelle agrees to do it for him in exchange for him to be her partner, but neither of them really expected to connect the way they do during these lessons.
If you have read my reviews before, you’ll know that something I focus on a lot in YA novels is character development. While in this story I saw some character development, but not a lot, I still really enjoyed it. I saw more development in Isabelle’s dad than I did in her, which I think was really important. We do see some development in Isabelle and Garret, but I don’t think that was the most important part of the story.
The more important themes in the story are addiction, father -child relationships and class differences. Isabelle is the daughter of a congressmen who has tons of money. Garret is the son of a salvage yard owner and doesn’t have a ton of money. This plays a big role when their relationship becomes more than ballet instructor and student. Garret’s dad is an alcoholic and Isabelle’s mom died from a drug overdose.
I would have liked to have seen more scenes with Garret’s family, because we do get a nice amount of time with Isabelle’s dad.
This book had the perfect mix of romance, family life, friendship and everything else. It was a steamy romance without having to be straight out steamy, there were hints to the way the characters felt about each other sexually without it having to be written out. It was nice.
I would definitely recommend this book to fans of Catching Jordan or anyone who loves some sports romance.
I am not usually a fan of e-books, I love the feeling of reading and holding a book. But when I started this one on my Kindle, I couldn’t put it down. I was reading it at every opportunity I had. I read it on the train to and from school, I read it in between classes. I even found myself trying to find time to run back to my dorm room so I could read it. The one downside I find with e-books is that I can’t take good book pictures of them because my Kindle is in black and white and the pictures don’t come out good.
Isabelle needs a partner of the fall ballet and Garret needs someone to give him ballet lessons, due to his coaches orders. Isabelle agrees to do it for him in exchange for him to be her partner, but neither of them really expected to connect the way they do during these lessons.
If you have read my reviews before, you’ll know that something I focus on a lot in YA novels is character development. While in this story I saw some character development, but not a lot, I still really enjoyed it. I saw more development in Isabelle’s dad than I did in her, which I think was really important. We do see some development in Isabelle and Garret, but I don’t think that was the most important part of the story.
The more important themes in the story are addiction, father -child relationships and class differences. Isabelle is the daughter of a congressmen who has tons of money. Garret is the son of a salvage yard owner and doesn’t have a ton of money. This plays a big role when their relationship becomes more than ballet instructor and student. Garret’s dad is an alcoholic and Isabelle’s mom died from a drug overdose.
I would have liked to have seen more scenes with Garret’s family, because we do get a nice amount of time with Isabelle’s dad.
This book had the perfect mix of romance, family life, friendship and everything else. It was a steamy romance without having to be straight out steamy, there were hints to the way the characters felt about each other sexually without it having to be written out. It was nice.
I would definitely recommend this book to fans of Catching Jordan or anyone who loves some sports romance.
ladykelsier's review
3.0
I received this books from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange of an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Discovering this book on NetGalley I was immediately intrigued by the synopsis. I was immediately drawn in by the Enemies to Lovers trope and wanted to know how the author would realise the blackmail factor.
Starting the books I didn't have any high expectations but I was still happy that it wasn't difficult to find my way into the storyline and I quickly noticed that this book was going to be a very quick read. I didn't even realise how many pages I read in a short amout of time and within 20-30 minutes I probably had read about 15% of the book.
The story and the course of action weren't something entirely new. What I really liked was the combination of a ballet dancer and a Football player because thats something I haven't seen yet in a book. Even though I've never read about a Football player and a ballet dancer before the book was very cliché-ridden but that never bugged me in any way because it was done in a very great way and didn't leave me bored. Even though the book was quite predictable and I always had the feeling that I knew what was going to happen next I always felt very entertained. Unfortunately I felt like the storyline went off a little too fast at some points and that it could've been more developed. Sometimes a scene ended so sudden and we switched to another that I had a few problems to orient myself for a moment. Towards the end I also believe that the story was a little rushed and that it definitely could've needed a few more pages to wrap things up more smoothly.
The characters were absolutely likeable and well developed but unfortunately they were also clishé-ridden. There is nothing wrong with that and you still were able to like the characters. What bugged me the most is that I didn't feel the chemistry between Garret and Isabelle. Only at the very end I started to feel some chemistry but otherwise they were just really good friends in my opinion. It aso didnt feel like an enemies to lovers kind of relationship. I had more of a feeling that the both had nothing to do with each other until Garret turned up in the dance studio and from then on everything started to develop, so it felt like strangers to friends to lovers.
Conclusion
Overall I really liked the book and it was fun to read, even tho I had some critique on it. I can definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a quick and light read and who doesn't mind clishé-ridden books. I definitely will consider checking out more books by the author (if she has any) or the publisher in the future.
Discovering this book on NetGalley I was immediately intrigued by the synopsis. I was immediately drawn in by the Enemies to Lovers trope and wanted to know how the author would realise the blackmail factor.
Starting the books I didn't have any high expectations but I was still happy that it wasn't difficult to find my way into the storyline and I quickly noticed that this book was going to be a very quick read. I didn't even realise how many pages I read in a short amout of time and within 20-30 minutes I probably had read about 15% of the book.
The story and the course of action weren't something entirely new. What I really liked was the combination of a ballet dancer and a Football player because thats something I haven't seen yet in a book. Even though I've never read about a Football player and a ballet dancer before the book was very cliché-ridden but that never bugged me in any way because it was done in a very great way and didn't leave me bored. Even though the book was quite predictable and I always had the feeling that I knew what was going to happen next I always felt very entertained. Unfortunately I felt like the storyline went off a little too fast at some points and that it could've been more developed. Sometimes a scene ended so sudden and we switched to another that I had a few problems to orient myself for a moment. Towards the end I also believe that the story was a little rushed and that it definitely could've needed a few more pages to wrap things up more smoothly.
The characters were absolutely likeable and well developed but unfortunately they were also clishé-ridden. There is nothing wrong with that and you still were able to like the characters. What bugged me the most is that I didn't feel the chemistry between Garret and Isabelle. Only at the very end I started to feel some chemistry but otherwise they were just really good friends in my opinion. It aso didnt feel like an enemies to lovers kind of relationship. I had more of a feeling that the both had nothing to do with each other until Garret turned up in the dance studio and from then on everything started to develop, so it felt like strangers to friends to lovers.
Conclusion
Overall I really liked the book and it was fun to read, even tho I had some critique on it. I can definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a quick and light read and who doesn't mind clishé-ridden books. I definitely will consider checking out more books by the author (if she has any) or the publisher in the future.
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