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kaylareadsbooks's review against another edition
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.
lxnxsx_'s review against another edition
3.0
3.5
This book was a really interesting one. It was not really great, but also not really bad either. I am going to forget it in a couple of days though. So that's why I have ranked it so low.
This book was a really interesting one. It was not really great, but also not really bad either. I am going to forget it in a couple of days though. So that's why I have ranked it so low.
brianna_meshelle's review against another edition
3.0
3.5// really enjoyed this book such a cute read. very quick story and definitely a young tone to it. Izzy’s dogs were my favorite bc I have a lovable French mastiff at home as well. Garret was such a good sport with everything but I feel like this book has he ability to add more into the plot.
jess's review against another edition
4.0
“It was as if someone had cast a spell over them. For the first time she understood what people meant when they said someone looked like they were floating on air. They could do no wrong. Every movement, every turn, every leap was perfect”
brookiecowles's review against another edition
5.0
This book took me a total of four hours to read. Maybe. I don’t actually know how long (I tried to read through a World Series game… bad idea) so I stayed up late to finish it. I loved reading about Garret’s transformation from football star solely concerned about his scholarship, to caring about Izzy and her ballet performance.
I also loved Izzy’s faux goth style. Her fake nose rings and ear rings. Her purple hair. The complete opposite of what you imagine a ballerina to look like.
What TOTALLY worked for me:
The football/ballerina romance *swoon*
The conflict between what Garret wants vs what Izzy wants.
The way Garret gets his whole team to help clean out the salvage yard… that was awesome.
What didn’t quite work for me:
The best friend. Izzy hates Garret because of something her best friend told her. I didn’t feel like it stood and the whole thing made me like the best friend less.
Garret’s dad…just because he’s the worst. So I guess that means he was well written 🙂
I also loved Izzy’s faux goth style. Her fake nose rings and ear rings. Her purple hair. The complete opposite of what you imagine a ballerina to look like.
What TOTALLY worked for me:
The football/ballerina romance *swoon*
The conflict between what Garret wants vs what Izzy wants.
The way Garret gets his whole team to help clean out the salvage yard… that was awesome.
What didn’t quite work for me:
The best friend. Izzy hates Garret because of something her best friend told her. I didn’t feel like it stood and the whole thing made me like the best friend less.
Garret’s dad…just because he’s the worst. So I guess that means he was well written 🙂
dani_reviews's review against another edition
DNF'ing at 12% because this was me on every page:
I could give you more, but instead I'll quickly sum up why this hasn't worked for me.
It's too rushed.
No time is spent setting up scenes or characters, so they just Do Crazy Shit without a motive properly explained, leaving me confused and rolling my eyes and wondering if I should care. Everything is told instead of shown. This is a rare case where the book could have benefitted from 100 extra pages rather than having 100 pages removed. I thought 202 pages meant it would be a quick read, but it's quick because it's all wham bam thank you ma'am with every scene.
So thank you for the review copy, but this is a big nope for me.
I could give you more, but instead I'll quickly sum up why this hasn't worked for me.
It's too rushed.
No time is spent setting up scenes or characters, so they just Do Crazy Shit without a motive properly explained, leaving me confused and rolling my eyes and wondering if I should care. Everything is told instead of shown. This is a rare case where the book could have benefitted from 100 extra pages rather than having 100 pages removed. I thought 202 pages meant it would be a quick read, but it's quick because it's all wham bam thank you ma'am with every scene.
So thank you for the review copy, but this is a big nope for me.
jseymour2000's review against another edition
4.0
***I received this book through Netgalley for an honest review***
I gave this book 3.5 stars. I liked the book, it was short and sweet.
This book was surprisingly short, I was at work and took my fifteen-minute break and I was reading this during that break and I somehow read about 15% of the book in that time alone. It helped that it was a real page-turner, I wanted to keep reading, but man that was fast.
Because of how short it was I feel like there was a lot of things plot-wise that were left open-ended. A lot of things the reader wonders about aren’t ever resolved. It’s something that often bothers me about contemporary novels. I know contemporaries are supposed to be more realistic so something won’t get resolved, but in some of these books, such as this one, they lead you to believe that something will be done to fix them and when it doesn’t happen during the duration of the book its kind of annoying.
The climax of the story was kind of predictable, but I didn’t actually predict it so I guess it succeeded in being a good climax. At the same time, I also felt that the climax was resolved a bit too easily. The person that was causing the problem in the first place gave in despite being so against going in in the first place which felt like a cop-out.
Despite the few things that bothered me, the characters were incredibly relatable and good-hearted, you couldn’t hate them. The atmosphere of the book was cheerful, it never made me want to cry or thrown things. It was a nice read, good for contemporary lovers.
beckymmoe's review against another edition
4.0
Another cute YA romance, this one about two people who know what they want after high school but need a little help (from each other, of course) to get there.
I really liked both Izzy and Garret--the whole blackmail bit started them off on shaky ground, but fortunately they moved on from that pretty quickly. They're both really good together (not to mention a freaking adorable couple) and each soon comes to respect the other for what they're capable of and realize that when they use their strengths together they can each help to bring the other even closer to their goals. The ending was especially adorable--even though things get resolved a bit quickly and we don't find out for sure what they'll both be doing after high school, there's definite hope for a future together and we see them both moving toward what it was they individually wanted.
Plus, football players attempting ballet. Just the images in my mind... :)
Offsetting Penalties is a sweet standalone from an author I'll definitely be on the lookout for more from!
Rating: 4 stars / B+
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
I really liked both Izzy and Garret--the whole blackmail bit started them off on shaky ground, but fortunately they moved on from that pretty quickly. They're both really good together (not to mention a freaking adorable couple) and each soon comes to respect the other for what they're capable of and realize that when they use their strengths together they can each help to bring the other even closer to their goals. The ending was especially adorable--even though things get resolved a bit quickly and we don't find out for sure what they'll both be doing after high school, there's definite hope for a future together and we see them both moving toward what it was they individually wanted.
Plus, football players attempting ballet. Just the images in my mind... :)
Offsetting Penalties is a sweet standalone from an author I'll definitely be on the lookout for more from!
Rating: 4 stars / B+
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
lifeofaliterarynerd's review against another edition
3.0
This was such a fun and lighthearted contemporary read. It's one of those books that are perfect to read to relax and take your mind off of things. This was like a YA version of Step Up and it worked very well. I liked that the blackmail issue was over with fairly quickly, and Isabelle and Garett started to have more open and honest communication. Their relationship was sweet and progressed nicely. I thought the resolution at the end of the story happened too quickly, so it felt like a bit of a let down, Overall, this was a fun and super quick read.
I received a copy of the book from Entangled Teen via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received a copy of the book from Entangled Teen via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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