Red Hot Books: Review: Take What You Want

Reviewed by Shelly

  

When I started reading this story, I really thought I was not going to be able to finish it because it jumps right in there with the sex. Or should I say that Ellen and Josh jump right in. Normally I don’t find myself reading about college romances even between older adults because there just seems to be a temporary quality to anything that’s associated with the term college romance. This story did keep my attention and I found myself rooting for the couple’s happily ever after; I should have read the warning that said that this is a college romance so even after reading the story and waiting couple days for it to sink in - I’m not sure I got the HEA that I wanted.

Ellen Price is in her last year of undergrad but before graduation comes a week long break and without any funds to make it home, Ellen’s decided that the best way to past her time is to go out to the local bar, pick up a guy, have sex with him, send him home and call it her wild time. Josh Markley is the target of Ellen’s plan. He too is in his last year, at the same school, and has always wanted to get to know Ellen better, unfortunately for him Ellen’s has no idea that he’s a class mate.

I had really mixed feelings about Ellen’s evolution from this mousy, shy, smart girl to this femme fatale that Josh found so irresistible. I didn’t see any evidence of Ellen being shy or introverted, so I had a hard time believing that she could be that way. What I saw was a woman who was fully able to communicate to Josh her needs, they were mostly sexual in nature but that’s what I was privy to. What turned me off the most about Ellen was that she didn’t remember Josh from their three years of being on the same school campus and being in the same pre-med classes for the last year --- are you that shy that you can’t pick your head up and look around --- to me, that’s tantamount to Ellen just meeting Josh at the bar that first night. And when you have sexy time with someone on the first night that you meet them, that to me is the definition of a…well you know what I mean there. You can’t dress that up to look romantic.

I liked Josh a whole lot more than I liked Ellen. His character was much more well-rounded than Ellen and actually had conflicts to solve outside of his relationship with Ellen. I thought his acceptance of Ellen’s bar pickup was reasonable considering that he knew exactly who she was. For that Josh is a typical guy, college guy to boot, and will accept any invitation thrown his way by a pretty girl. But unlike the typical guy, after his one night stand he found that he wanted a lot more from Ellen and I liked and appreciated the way he fought for that.

In the end it was an okay read.

Happy Reading folks!

Rating: C

*ARC provided by author for review

Click to purchase: Amazon