Review: Be With Me by J. Lynn

Be With Me
(Wait For You #2)
J. Lynn
Release: February 4, 2014
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Teresa Hamilton is having a rough year—she’s in love with her big brother’s best friend, but he hasn’t spoken to her since they shared a truly amazing, mind-blowing, change-your-life kiss. She got out of a terrible relationship. And now an injury is threatening to end her dance career for good. It’s time for Plan B – college. And maybe a chance to convince Jase that what they have together is real.

Jase Winstead has a huge secret that he’s not telling anyone. Especially not his best friend’s incredibly beautiful sister. Even though he and Teresa shared the hottest kiss of his life, he knows that his responsibilities must take priority. He certainly doesn’t have time for a relationship. But it doesn’t help that all he can think about kissing the one girl who could ruin everything for him.

As they’re thrown together more and more, Jase and Tess can’t keep denying their feelings for each other. But a familiar danger looms and tragedy strikes. As the campus recovers, the star-crossed couple must decide what they’re willing to risk to be together, and what they’re willing to lose if they’re not…

Review by Rose Red:

Be With Me is the second book in J. Lynn’s Wait For You series and is the story of Jase, Cam’s best friend, and Teresa (aka Tess), Cam’s little sister. This is a classic girl falls in love with her older brother’s best friend story. Like the first book in this series, I loved this one! Wait For You, I think, was a better story overall, but this one was golden too. There was something about it that really resonated with me even though I have not had to deal with any of the same issues that Tess and Jase do.

One of the things, I adore about J. Lynn/Jennifer Armentrout is how she portrays her characters and how she has them deal with some real life issues. And this book is a great example of that. Tess's dream of dancing has been put on hold because of a knee injury.  So she proceeds with Plan B, which is to attend college.  Going to school somewhere other than a major dance school is not what she wanted so she’s only attending classes at the same college as her brother until she recovers enough to get back to ballet. Stuff like this happen all the time in real life and most people find themselves in her shoes trying to figure out who they are and where they want their lives to go. There are some other pretty heavy-hitting issues presented in this book but I won’t get into those so I don’t spoil anyone who hasn’t read Wait For You.

I loved Tess as a character and I connected with her almost immediately. She is so much fun! I literally laughed out loud at so many of the things she said and thought. Not only is she hilarious, she has a temper while still being sweet and she doesn’t take crap from anybody. I liked that she still had insecurities, but they didn’t immobilize her or keep her from knowing what she wants. She is emotionally strong and stable which is good because the same thing can’t be said for Jase.

Jase can be described as slightly damaged, which causes some of drama in the book. And let’s be honest, J. Lynn set the bar pretty high with Cam and those damn cookies of his, so Jase had a lot to live up to. And he does, but in his own way. Jase is definitely not Cam and they really shouldn’t be compared. One ingenious similarity between the two is that Jase has a baked good addiction like Cam does but it is not cookies. Jase has to work through some pretty serious issues and, for me, his big reveal was pretty predictable. But that did not take anything away from the story for me. I still loved him even when he annoyed me at times.

I can totally see why some of the drama with Jase happened due to his emotional baggage, but him freaking out every time things took a turn towards a serious relationship between him and Tess, kind of pissed me off. Although, I’ll give Tess huge props for not becoming a weepy, clingy mess every time he had a freak out. In a way, Jase was very similar to Avery with his inability to deal with the emotions he was feeling for Tess.

I don’t know what it is about this series but it leaves me grinning and all warm and fuzzy inside. This is what J. Lynn/Jennifer Armentrout’s books do to me. What can I say? I’m a romantic at heart.

The romance was intense and there was significant character growth for both Tess and Jase. I really enjoyed the chemistry they had and the witty banter that was exchanged between them. The whole book was a roller coaster of emotions and that's a good thing. The only reason I dropped the rating to 4.5 stars is due to some issues I had with how Jase and Tess approached protection before one of the times they had sex. But what is an issue for me; may be a non-issue for most people in how it was presented. I just didn’t like it.

Overall, this book was awesome and I’d highly recommend it! It’s packed with witty lines, heart pounding suspense, and romance! I like that this book can be read as a stand alone, but you'll get more of a complete picture if you read the prior books in the series. I can't wait for September to be here so I can finally read Stay With Me!
 

Recommended for fans of: 
Easy by Tammara Webber
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
All Lined Up by Cora Carmack

    1/2

  4.5 / 5 stars

My reviews of other books in this series:
Wait For You by J. Lynn