Tracy’s review of Take What You Want by Jeanette Grey
She needs an escape…and he’s exactly what she had in mind.
College senior Ellen Price spends every spare minute studying to get into medical school. Until spring break yawns before her, as empty as her wallet.
With no money to hit the beach, she fills her empty to-do list with a plan: for just one week, she will become the kind of take-no-prisoners woman she secretly wishes to be, starting with the hot guy at the bar. It’s a no-risk situation: at the end of break, he’ll head back to his campus, and she’ll go back to hers. No muss, no fuss.
At first, Josh Markley isn’t sure what to think when the quiet, intense beauty from his pre-med classes approaches him for a night of casual sex. Even more mystifying, she doesn’t seem to return his recognition. But if she wants to play “strangers in a bar”, he’s game.
Their passionate night is a welcome respite from life’s stress, but afterward, Josh realizes he wants more—from himself, from life, from Ellen. Except she still thinks he’s a one-off she’ll never see again. Confessing the truth now—before she figures it out on her own—could shatter the fragile beginnings of just what the doctor ordered. A forever love.
Between scholarships, grants and a part time job Ellen is putting herself through college. There’s just not a whole lot of extra cash so when Ellen’s 3 closest friends decide to head to the Caribbean for spring break Ellen stays home. She’s a little resentful even though she knows her friends didn’t mean to make her feel bad. Ellen, making a decision of her own, decides to break out of her shy and unassuming shell and be a new person. She buys some clothes she wouldn’t normally wear and heads to a bar to pick up a man. She sees Josh and eventually makes her move. They end up in bed together and have an amazing night. The next night they manage to meet up yet again and then Josh shows up at her work. Josh asks her out and the two end up spending an incredible week together. But there are things the other doesn’t know and while they’ve helped each other grow in just a week they’re each afraid to come clean for fear that the other will end the relationship.
This ended up being a different book than I thought it would be. I expected a hot week with lots of sex and then an I love you at the end. Yes, there was plenty of sex but it wasn’t constant and there was a whole lot of story in between.
The story is really about these two people finding each other and then helping each other grow and become the people they wanted to be but were afraid for some reason. They wanted to grab on to that brass ring but fear of one sort or another always held them back.
For Ellen it was putting herself out there and taking the chance that people would notice her. She discovered that not only would she be noticed but people liked what they saw. She could be slightly more aggressive and go out there and get what she wanted and still be the same person.
For Josh it was Ellen helping him to see that he needed to be himself with his parents. He was in pre-med but he didn’t want to be. He was more interested in chemistry than he was in patients. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all been doctors so he was more than hesitant to disappoint his father and tell him the truth about his desires.
The way the book was written it started off for the characters as just a hook-up but became so much more. The slow build up that the author gave us was emotional and exciting and I was completely into it. I wanted nothing more than for these two to work out their issues and get their HEA and I wasn’t disappointed. A quick read at just 143 pages but definitely worth the time spent.
Rating: 4.0 out of 5
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’sPlace.
This book is available from Samhain Publishing. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.
This sounds like a good story! I will put it on my list to read. Thanks for the review!