Publication Date: 04/21/2015
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: InterMix
Genre: New Adult (m/m)
ASIN: B00S75RYBS
(Received for an honest review from InterMix)
Purchase: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, itunes, Kobo
Christina Lee on the WEB: website, twitter, facebook, goodreads
Books in the series:
Between Breaths
1. All of You
2. Before You Break
3. Whisper To Me
4. Promise Me This
5. There You Stand
Coverart:
Synopsis:
From the author of All of You and Before You Break comes a new Between Breaths male/male romance about the silent, inked up skateboarder and the tattoo artist who unravels him piece by piece...
Tattoo artist Cory Easton has worked long enough at Raw Ink to know, just by looking at a dude, what his body art reveals, what makes him tick, what even makes him scared. Until he meets the quiet and remote Jude York--so unreadable, so unreachable, and so unlike anyone else, he can't help but arouse Cory's curiosity.
As captivating and complex as his ink, Jude is a mystery--and Cory's falling fast and hard under his spell. Against his better judgment to steer clear.
The rumors of Jude's past overshadow him--whispers of prison and an unmentionable secret that's kept him in the protective shadows of a local motorcycle club. As Cory probes deeper, he wonders how much he really wants to know. Especially since Jude has awakened something inside him that has been buried too long--and has him feeling completely alive for the first time in forever...
Thoughts:
Christina Lee's Between Breaths series continues with the m/m novella, There You Stand. Readers who are looking for a new adult novel with a same sex couple will find this one captivating. Cory and Jude's relationship starts out as a crush and ends up in unchartered waters. There is plenty of angst, a lot of peeling back layers of a character's persona and some secrets. First and foremost is a love story, between two unlikely characters. An interesting new tale from Christina Lee
What I liked:
I don't review too many same sex couple romances. It's not because I have issues with the subject matter or that it disgusts me or bothers me in any way. It's just a preference like anything else. When I go to pick up what I like to read, it's simply not my first choice. That doesn't mean I don't give these kinds of stories a fair shake like any other book I read. I do and that's the case with this one. I loved the other books in the Between Breaths series and I wanted to read this one because it is a part of that series. Christina Lee, after all is a fantastic new adult writer.
What I got with this one was a very complex love story between two very different characters. Cory thinks Jude is straight basically because he doesn't talk or act in any way that Cory expects. He's handsome, British, has a way about him that is completely different from anyone Cory has ever met. Jude was an enigma. Mysterious and secretive. But it comes from a difficult past. Once Cory starts peeling back those layers, a man with a lot of hurt starts to appear. There is tons of sexual tension in this one and the angst is out the roof. You kind of just want to grab them and say, kiss already... LOL!
Lee brings out a story that is part mystery and part romance. She uses the mysterious aspects of the story with a deft hand, since this is a romance after all. I thought she did a great job of showing how committed Cory was to getting to know Jude better, to understanding him and letting him know it was okay to be exactly who he was. The sex scenes were intense I won't lie. These two know a thing or two about passion and when they do let go it's explosive.
What I Didn't Like:
I felt like readers got a great build up in this story. They were pumped up further and further by the details, but the ending didn't have much punch to it. I won't say it was anti-climatic because that wasn't really the feel of it. It just kind of felt like we discovered what we needed to a little too early on. The building of the relationship took precedence over the rest of the story, so the end was a little flatter than expected. Not to say that was a bad thing, just not a great thing. Make sense?
Bottom Line:
I liked this one. It was angsty and deep. It had a British guy in it (wink). It was romantic and passionate and had a tattooed guy in it (double wink). It was a really relationship kind of book and I liked that. Slow build to a great romance, but maybe not quite a page turner. A little less longing and a little more action might have made it a bit better. All in all a good addition to the series.
There You Stand is available NOW from your online bookseller.
I'm giving this one 4 out of 5 apples from my book bag!
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