Rowena’s review of All of You by Christina Lee.
Avery has just met her hot upstairs neighbor. He’s irresistible. Tattooed. And a virgin.
Nursing student Avery Michaels wants nothing to do with dating—she’s perfectly happy single. Privy to too many of her mother’s bad decisions and even worse taste in boyfriends, all Avery can handle is a string of uncomplicated hookups whenever the mood strikes.
When she meets smoking hot tattoo artist Bennett, she wants him—for just one night. But he won’t accept a no-strings-attached arrangement. He lives by a straight-laced code of values based on his own troubled upbringing.
Bennett sees something special in Avery and he wants more from her. Way more. As Avery wrestles with her emotions for Bennett, danger and tragedy force them to open up to each other. And Avery must face the terrifying realization that she wants more from him, too.
So she needs to make a choice—let Bennett go or finally let him in?
I’m addicted to New Adult books so when I saw this come up for review, I was all about reading it.
Avery Michaels is a nursing student who lives by herself and is pretty scarred from her mother’s colorful past with men. When I say she’s scarred, I mean she’s not a relationship type of person. Relationships come with expectations and she doesn’t do well with those. If she learned anything from her mother, it’s that you can’t count on anyone but yourself so she steers clear of the strings that come with commitment. She’s a friends with benefits kind of gal or a one night stand kind of woman and she really wouldn’t have it any other way.
The book starts with Avery and her friends at a party and Avery is scoping the scene, looking for her bed partner for the night. She’s in college so it’s not hard to find a willing bed partner for the night. When she comes across the extremely hot Bennett Reynolds, she wants him. Bad. But when he doesn’t give her a second glance, she gives up for the night and heads home…alone. She’s kind of let down because the hot guy didn’t want her but what can you do? Not much.
But when she wakes up the next morning and finds Mr. Hot Guy who Rejected Her moving into her apartment, she’s embarrassed and wants nothing more than to keep on trucking away from him. But before Avery knows what’s what, her and Bennett have become friends. Really good friends. He helps her through an attempted break in and he’s there for her when she needs someone to be there and they get a lot closer than Avery thought she’d get.
Over the course of the book, the relationship between Avery and Bennett deepens. Avery is still the person she was in the beginning of the book but she likes being with Bennett. Bennett’s family life isn’t much different from Avery’s but where Avery has sworn off relationships, Bennett has sworn off casual hookups. Meaning, Bennett is a virgin. He doesn’t do casual hookups and well, that’s all Avery does. Trying to find middle ground between two people that are fiercely attracted to each other but set in their beliefs made for an interesting read and I thought Lee did a fantabulous job of writing Bennett’s character. Avery’s too.
Bennett and Avery have a normal relationship. It’s emotional and it’s physical and I thought she really made it all the more real when Bennett told Avery, “I’m a virgin, Avery, not a saint.”
Seeing these two find their common ground and grow into the people they were at the end of this book was such a treat for me. They were two characters dealing with their lives in such a realistic way that it was so easy for me to connect with the both of them. I loved getting to know them and I really felt as though I was experiencing everything going on in the book right along with them.
I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. Such a good one.
Grade: 4.5 out of 5
This book is available from Intermix. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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