Author: Cora Carmack
Published: October 28th, 2014
Paperback, 368 pages
5 Gold Stars
(from Goodreads)
Dylan fights for lost causes. Probably because she used to be one.
Environmental issues, civil rights, corrupt corporations, and politicians you name it, she's probably been involved in a protest. When her latest cause lands her in jail overnight, she meets Silas Moore. He's in for a different kind of fighting. And though he's arrogant and infuriating, she can't help being fascinated with him. Yet another lost cause.
Football and trouble are the only things that have ever come naturally to Silas. And it's trouble that lands him in a cell next to do-gooder Dylan. He's met girls like her before, fixers he calls them, desperate to heal the broken, and he definitely doesn't need a girlfriend trying to change him. Until, that is, his anger issues and rash decisions threaten the only thing he really cares about: his spot on the Rusk University football team. Dylan might just be the perfect girl to help.
Because Silas Moore needs some fixing after all.
Cora Carmack does New Adult unlike anyone else. She's funny, awkward and captures that spirit and essence of new love in 20-somethings who are still trying to to figure out their lives. Cora introduced us to the lives of Rusk University's students in the first book in this series, All Lined Up, a school focused on football and those who get involved with it. Silas Moore is a great football player and Dylan is a great activist. When they are both put in jail for the night for two completely different reasons, neither can fight the attraction they feel right off the bat. The more time they spend together, the more the attraction builds and damn does Cora know how to build sexual tension between two characters. Like holy hell, is all I'm saying.
At first sight, Silas is your typical bad boy football star: cocky, arrogant and damn good looking. He's not the type to settle down with any girl, especially one who thinks she can fix him. Based on our first impression of Silas from All Lined Up, you'd think he'd be a jerk, a womanizer, but the minute we get into his head we realize all the shit he's had to put up with, all the pressure and stress that football is causing him and the reasons behind why he does what he does. I fell in love with him right away, my kind of boy that's for sure. His dark past and how he's trying to be a better person for Dylan was perfection to me, and even though it didn't seem like these two would work, they meshed so perfectly together that I fell in love with them and their story quickly and without hesitation. Dylan's parents would rather her just sit tight instead of making a fuss in the world and when the two meet they may just be what the other one needs, but is chemistry enough to solve the problems these two have been running from for years.
Rusk University is my new favourite fictional place. I would go there if it were real and in Canada (wishful thinking I suppose) The footballers are good enough to go pro and they are sweet, loving guys beneath all the padding and hitting. I love that Cora doesn't let us see what's beneath the surface until we are in their heads an watching them fall in love. Carson and Dallas are there throughout the book to give advice and encouragement to our new lovers. Series like this make me so happy. When each book has a set of characters, but our favourites come back so that we can see them living happily after their own story ended. We are introduced to the characters that will lead All Played Out and other characters that will help the story along. There is a side story that doesn't really finish, an awful thing happening to a friend of all the characters, but I'm glad to know that she will soon get her own story to tell. I still love these characters long after I've finished the book and I'm not ready to leave Rusk yet. Cora has created such a great group of friends, lots of laughter, some heartbreak, and a whole lot of love, and to me, she is the reigning queen of New Adult.
"Dudes who look dangerous should just be dangerous. Period. The end. They should not be dangerous and beautiful all at the same time. It leaves the universe out of balance, and it makes me do stupid things like stare."
"I will never be able to turn this girl down. Whatever she wants from me, it's hers."
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