Reviewer: Tracy Finding Dawn by J.L. Leslie
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: June 14th 2016
Genres: Contemporary Romance
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Moving to California is the best decision I’ve ever made. I no longer work for my ex-fiancé’s father. I’m hundreds of miles away from my ex-fiancé. And I met a woman who completely intrigues me. Dawn. No last name.
Yeah…moving to California was a great idea.
Only I can’t seem to get Dawn out of my head. The way we met. The way she acts. The night we had together. Now she’s just gone.
She bailed on me. But I don’t give up so easily. I’ll find her.
I just wasn’t expecting what I’d find…or who…
Drew had been a relationship with Kammie for a couple of years and they were engaged – until he introduced her to his best friend, Aubrey, and Kammie freaked out. She insisted that they couldn’t possibly be just friends and even made Drew kiss Aubrey. Ew. He started to see what he’d been missing the past few months about Kammie and her dictates as well as her possessiveness. He breaks it off with her and eventually moves to California from New York to take a job and be near his brother and Aubrey (who are dating). This after Kammie pulls some crazy shit while he was still in New York.
When he gets to California he likes it and even meets a woman by accidentally spilling his slushy on her. He really likes the down to earth woman named Dawn but when he finds out the woman he can’t stop thinking about it actually the famous model, Vella Dawn, who he has heard nothing but bad things about – he’s pissed as he thinks he’s been played.
Fortunately for Drew Vella wasn’t playing with him. She’d never had a childhood nor let herself do fun things because her mother raised her to be a worker bee. It’s all about being seen and making sure that the next up and coming model doesn’t push you out of the way. Her mother, Valencia – also a famous model, made her do some horrific things to get jobs over the year and was still trying to boss her around even though Vella owned her own company. Vella loves that Drew is a down to earth guy and loves when he takes her to do fun yet normal things. She’s starting to fall for the guy but there are a couple of people who don’t want them together and those people may end up pulling Drew and Vella apart for good.
This was a good story that I enjoyed reading. It was pretty cool to see Drew pulling Vella out of her self-imposed work mode that her mother had drilled into her. She always had fun when he took her out and they were a sweet couple together. Drew grounded Vella in the best possible way. Of course there were always others that got in the way – one of those people being Vella’s mother, Valencia.
Valencia…how do I say this? She was, and I kid you not, the biggest bitch I think I have ever read about. For the life of me I can’t think of a character in a book that has so systematically demeaned and degraded another person so viciously. She was certainly written as the villain quite well cuz I hated her with the fire of a thousand suns. She was just so cruel to Vella and had been since she was born. She made her purge constantly and even at one point in her life made her use cocaine to keep her weight down. She kept calling her a plus-sized model and she was 6 feet tall and weighed 120 pounds!!! That would practically make her skin and bones. Insanity. Anyway, needless to say you can tell I hated her so what happened in the end with her was a bit convoluted but was a bit of justice.
The other villain I won’t tell you about because you kind of have to read it to believe it. It was a bit out there but definitely within the realm of possibility. I was also with the outcome for this villain in the end as well, I must say.
Overall it was a sweet romance that I enjoyed reading.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5