Member Reviews
I devoured this book!
My heart went through a LOT while reading this. I loved the ups and downs and yes, at times I got mad at Haley and Cade, but that’s what I want. I want emotional involvement, and I got it!
I’ll definitely read more books by Rae when they’re released!
I really liked this book, it was sexy, charming and the characters were very likeable! I read it in one sitting
I was given an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I finished this book yesterday on the way back from a girl's trip. Honestly it took me that long to gather up my thoughts and decide why exactly this book bugged me so much. First of all, the insta love thing was annoying. Secondly, the author so badly wanted us to like Cade, but I just couldn't. He's magically cured of being a misogynistic manwh*re just because he laid eyes on "the love of his life" ? Nah. That's not how real life works. And as for Adam. We were supposed to like him in the beginning as well, but he creeped me out too. Then there was Haley's brother, who thought he had any right to tell her who she could and couldn't date-- all while going out and doing whatever/whoever HE wanted. #patriarchy.
Honestly, the main character was a bit too whiny for my taste as well. This was a quick and easy read, but I don't think I'll read the next book in the series. If you are interested however, and you like insta romance with the bad boy sort of thing, it was published on 8/22, so check it out either at your local library #shamelessplug or at a bookstore near you!
This is the first time I have read anything by this author, and I really enjoyed reading this book. In this book we meet Hayley, her brother, Tucker, and his roommate Cade. When Hayley transfers school, she moves in with her brother, and she is introduced to Cade. Although totally off limits, Hayley find herself unable to forget about Cade. She distracts herself with a relationship with another guy, but Cade feels the same about Hayley, how long can he watch her with another man.
This was an emotional read, the characters are well written, and have steamy chemistry. It's passionate, sexy, intense, and dramatic.
This was a good read - I do not usually reach for this genre but this book sounded interesting and a bit intense. It was definitely both of those things! Looking forward to reading the next in the series.
This is your typical romance novel, They meet, fall in love and then something happens and the relationship goes down the drain. This was a great easy romance book. Not my typical novel genre however it was a nice read. The love story was well done and seemed realistic. The main characters were very developed and interesting. The other characters in the novel seemed like they were just there for the story and I wonder if their stories will continue as this looks like it might be a series.
The writing was well done and sucked me in from the beginning. She is descriptive and the world building is there. I will definitely be reading more of Rae Kennedys books when I need a break from my thrillers.
I was given this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review
I just couldn’t get into this book. I really tired but sadly felt it was seriously lacking. I ended up not finishing and it kills me that I didn’t. I may end up picking it back up later on.
**ARC provided in exchange for an honest review**
When I first picked up this book, I’m not quite sure what I expected but this for sure wasn’t it. <b>To Be Your Girl</b> is a new adult romance novel about Haley and how she comes to fall in love with her love interest, Cade. The two characters have immediate chemistry and through the course of the book have to overcome many obstacles. Some of those included abandonment and interference from other people. I would consider it an erotic novel (for some reason I wasn’t expecting that, even though I know sexual exploration is a pretty big trope in NA literature. I’m not counting this against the novel though). As you can tell by its star rating, I am not a fan of this novel. However, before we get into the cringe worthy and downright problematic, let’s talk about the good.
<b><i>The Good</i></b>
I liked that we had a pretty clear sense of who Haley is right from the beginning. We know her family dynamic and the emergence of her relationship with Cade felt natural. I felt like her feelings about photography and her father were well-written and felt very organic.
<b><i>The Bad</i></b>
<b>every non-major character felt frivolous to the story.</b> The author regularly included new characters, and gave us context on who likes who and what their dynamic are, only for that same person to never show up again. Every friend of Haley’s really felt like her talking piece. For instance, her friend Court. We don’t really learn anything about her except for the fact that she’s very attractive and nice and the whole package. She’s the perfect friend and the perfect woman with the best advice for Haley. But when does Haley reciprocate that? I felt that way for many of Kennedy’s characters. They just weren’t fleshed out enough, and were irrelevant to the story.
<b>Haley is very misogynistic and hypocritical towards women. </b> If Haley views another woman as “competition,” they’re almost always portrayed as slutty, even after she turns around and does the same things she’s so disgusted by! It’s incredibly frustrating to read and I hate when authors reduce female-to-female interaction to exclusively cattiness and microaggressions.
<b>The characters didn’t follow linear growth.</b> Basically, it never felt like the characters grew or learned from their mistakes. It felt very abrupt, with each character just reacting to the situation, instead of reacting the way I would expect that character to react in that situation. It made them feel wishy-washy, like they didn’t know what they wanted. This in turn, made their declarations of love and their outbursts seem insincere.
There was more that frustrated me. However, I am not going to spend more time explaining my thoughts. It’s mostly just variations of the same points I previously stated. I haven’t read Rae Kennedy’s other works so maybe this is just an outlier, but I think this book just wasn’t my cup of tea. Maybe I will like her other works more.
I don’t usually like giving one star reviews, just because it feels so mean spirited, and as a writer myself, I know how much criticism can crush you. Hopefully, this will be helpful, though.
**ARC provided by Netgalley and corresponding publisher in exchange for an honest review**
<i>All opinions are entirely my own.</i>
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2977048892
Overall I liked this novel. I found it cute and found Haley and Cade’s relationship very sweet and wholesome. The trope of bad boy turned good was done a good and not too overdone way. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel until the last chapter but it saved itself in the end.
I’m really enjoyed this book until the end. I feel like there was so much build up and the end was just okay. I really wanted to pick this book up again and again and then I felt the last few chapters hard to get through. I just feel like it fizzled out.
I wasnt exactly sure what I was expecting from this one but I absolutely loved it.
I'm not one for adult/erotica books, I cant cope with the cringey, trashy 50 shades of grey storylines but this one.... wow!
A proper love story that has you remembering that all encompassing first love/crush. Steamy is an understatement!!! Proper heart pounding breathless moments.
At times I wanted to scream at the main character Haley "what are you doing????' but obviously we all know it will come together in the end.
Brilliantly written with fantastic characters, pure raw emotion and enough drama to keep it realistic.
Thank you to netgalley and Rake Publishing for the ARC.
I was just reading a review on goodreads about this book, it was so mean and unwarranted, I decided every platform there is I’m leaving a review. It’s about Hayley a uni girl that has just transferred uni’s and has moved in with her brother and his best mate Cade a manwhore Chef. Her father died when she was nine and her mother is self important. She meets a boy at uni named Adam who seems very charming and seems to do the right thing. Cade and Hayley develop a friendship cooking together. I loved all the characters and the feels the book had. The writing was very good as was the plot. It made me happy and my heart hurt and angry. In my book that’s a sign of a good book and the sex scenes (fans wildly) are good, very good. I loved this book. Give it a go.
I received this free eARC novel from NetGalley. This is my honest review.
When Haley changes schools and decides to stay with her older brother, Tuck, she never imagined she would get sucked into boy trouble.
But when she starts to see Adam, she's realizing she may be crushing on Tuck's roommate - HER roommate - Cade. Which wouldn't work out since he's a man whore who brings women to their places for only a one night stand.
That doesn't stop them, though, from exploring their feelings toward one another. But when heartbreak is looming over them, they have to make the final decision on what they want for their future... and if they will be in each other's lives or not...
I really didn't expect to like this book as much as I did! The characters were very likable and the writing complete sucked me into the story. Haley and Cade's friendship and relationship was pretty rocky the entire novel but the sweet moments between them really showed the reader how much they liked each other.
This book reminded me of "Beautiful Disaster" by Jamie McGuire in a way, with many similarities. I think Kennedy really did a great job describing college and relationships in college because it is chaotic and amazing and unexpected.
I'm very glad I got a chance to read this eARC and I'm going to be looking out for this author now!
I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I enjoyed this novel because it is something we can all relate to. We have all experienced a crush on a bad boy at one time or another in our lives. Or maybe a crush on a brother’s friend (or a friend’s brother--Guilty!)
I will be honest though, I found the plot to be a bit predictable. I had a lot of “girl I told you so” moments. But overall, I did enjoy the story and it was a pretty easy read. I will probably finish out the series as a palate cleanser for some of the heavier books I read.
Rae Kennedy provides a fun, super easy, adorable, and some what smutty story that will keep you entertained throughout!
To Be Your Girl is my first book by Rae Kennedy. I really enjoyed her writing and WOW, was this a steamy book! The chemistry between the characters was through the roof from the start! There was some unexpected twists and turns in the story that help my interest. However, there were also parts of the story that I felt a little confused.
Overall, I enjoyed the book will read more from this author and continue with this series.
I received a copy of this book from Netgallery in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoy this book. Cade and Haley met unexpectedly and there relationship was not all that great at the beginning but they got to know each other their relationship progressed. I enjoyed them together, their banter was very entertaining. Haley was basically off limits to Cade since she was Tucks baby sister but no matter how hard they tried to stay away from each other, they couldn’t. Love always wins! I give this book 4 awesome stars
If you can get over the over-the-top cheese factor present in this book and let yourself enjoy the ride, this is a really fun read! I was a little hesitant after reading the first two chapters, but once I allowed myself suspend my disbelief, I found that this to be an enjoyable read. After transferring to a new college, Haley decides to stay with her brother, Tuck, and his hunky, tattooed roommate, Cade.
One of my favorite aspects of this book was the food. Cade is a sous chef, and a darn good one at that. So many passages made me hungry! I also really liked how sweet this story was. I'm so used to New Adult being overly angsty, so this was a nice change. One thing I didn't like was the love triangle in the beginning with Adam, but thankfully it doesn't last too long.
I will definitely look up more of Rae Kennedy's work in the future!
Making the choice between the guy who’s too perfect and the guy who is a guaranteed heartbreak seems like a no-brainer but things are rarely that simple. This book had some unexpected twists which made the story more than the standard romance. I love the interplay between Haley and Cade, especially with Tuck along as an oblivious third wheel. There was a lot of heart and genuine emotion to go with the steamy sex. Even though I wanted to shake Haley sometimes, it was still a satisfying read.
Copy provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Okay, wow! This is the read I’ve been craving for a while now. I haven’t read or enjoyed a NA romance this much in quite some time. In fact I’m not sure I’ve ever given one a 5 star rating before, I’d have to dig through the archives to find it if I did, for sure. I don’t know if it was just the right book at the right time (mood reader here ) but I loved everything about it. The writing, the plot, the pacing, CADE! *drools* It was sweet and sexy in all the right places and in all the right ways. I cannot fault a single thing!
One of the things I loved most (next to CADE ofc) was that there was just the right amount of drama to keep you hooked and turning those pages, not wanting to put it down. I often find that these types of reads are on the verge of being completely unrealistic or unbelievable, but not this one. It wasn’t at all over the top and I know that because I didn’t once roll my eyes!! (which I have a serious problem with sometimes lol).
Yeah there were a few common tropes and the odd cliche here and there but it all just worked. It’s books like this that are the reason we love those tropes in the first place. A great example of how to do these things well imo.
I really don’t want to go into anything specific about the plot, read the synopsis and if it’s a genre you enjoy then definitely read it! You can not possibly be disappointed! I can’t think of a single thing to say against it, I just absolutely loved it.
I voluntarily received a copy of this for an honest review!
I instantly loved Cade, I know he came off as a player...but not to me. His demeanor and everything just spoke to me. Tuck seems a little to self absorbed. But I would love to read his story. Haley has lived and I mean truly lived until now. This book brings her into the world, shows her what she missing and helps her realize the future she could have.
I think the brother/sister relationship that was hunting at being strong lacked in this book. But I think the friendship between the guys did too and that why I say that Tuck was self absorbed.
I love everything Cade and Haley!