Blog Tour Review: Whisper To Me by Christina Lee {Review+Giveaway}

Welcome to my stop on the Whisper To Me blog tour!

Today I am excited to share my review as well as a giveaway with you all!

Whisper To Me (Between Breaths #3)
   by: Christina Lee

Publication Date: May 20, 2014
Publisher: Penguin Intermix
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Group: New Adult
Source: e-ARC provided via NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Page Count: 262 pages
Order Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks
My Rating: 4.5/5 stars

A hot and consuming New Adult romance about a wayward musician and the one girl who keeps him grounded…

At college, Rachel has a reputation for being a sarcastic flirt with a thing for star athletes. No one at school knows that she’d had her heart ripped to shreds by her high school sweetheart, who’d driven them both off the side of the road on a borrowed motorcycle, and then abandoned her. No one knows the real Rachel Mattson—except one person…

Ever since he helped nurse his sister’s feisty best friend back to health, pierced bass player Kai Nakos has been head over heels in love. But the supposed bad boy can’t risk letting Rachel know the truth—especially now that the two of them are back in their hometown for the summer, together for the first time since the months following that fateful night. Never mind that Rachel’s ex is back, groveling for her forgiveness.

Shaken by her ex’s return, Rachel finds herself turning to the one guy she knows she can trust. Kai is willing to hide his feelings for her, just to have Rachel touch him again. After all, this is only a temporary fling. Until it becomes something more. But maybe it had been more all along...

 

 

Oh my. Christina Lee has done it again! I cannot get enough of this series.... or the swoony boys she keeps on creating! I loved Bennett and Kai, but Quinn is still my favorite of the three. (I have a thing for baseball players, okay?!) Don't get me wrong- Kai is dead sexy. I mean.... seriously. His dirty talk is all kinds of HAWT and I don't know how Rachel held out as long as she did. Especially after we delve into their past!

 

Pacing: I felt we had a good pace throughout the book. As I said in my Before You Break review, Christina is the master at sexual tension. I don't know if she's an evil genius or just evil. :) Kai and Rachel definitely have some pent up tension between them. They have always been good friends and Kai was there for her during her most difficult, darkest times. He was there to support, comfort, and love her (even though she had no idea he felt that way!) He is simply one of the best guys ever, but I'll go into that later.

 

Storyline: I am a huge fan of the best friends to lovers trope, as well as the whole dating your best friend's sibling one. Whisper To Me provides us with both! Rachel is part of Ella and Avery's friend group, so we met her in book one, All of You. She wasn't my favorite of the girls, and I actually had a hard time liking her because of the way she treats guys. She is a big player and I'm glad we got to explore the reasons behind this. I really changed my opinion of Rachel and felt for her, considering we had no idea just what she had to deal with and overcome in her past.

 

Rachel is back at home for the summer and is living with her best friend Dakota, who she had grown distant with while she was at school and hopes to remedy that while she's there. She doesn't expect Dakota's brother Kai to be there also, back from Amsterdam. Kai has made a bit of a mess of his life and is trying to sort everything out and find his path. Rachel is forced to confront her past in the form of her ex, Miles and while she's over him, she can't help but wonder why things played out the way they did. She needs closure in order to move forward, because the way she acts at school is not working out for her.

 

Characters: Rachel plays the role of two different people. At school she's emotionally detached and doesn't get involved in relationships, using guys as a means to an end. She's also really feisty and sassy. The last serious relationship she had ended in heartbreak and she has definitely constructed a shield around her heart. Yet, when Kai Nakos waltzes back into her life and starts chipping away at the guarded exterior, there's nothing she can do but hold on for the ride. Rachel is pretty unsure of her feelings toward him for a good part of the book. She's attracted to him, she wants him and thinks about him constantly, but wonders if he feels the same towards her.

 

Both Kai and Rachel don't lay their hearts on the line and expose their true feelings to one another. Instead, it's a lot of wondering and what-ifs between them. Rachel is leaving for school again at the end of the summer and Kai knows she has the power to destroy his heart. But at what point do you just say screw it and go all in?

 

Kai. He is such a great guy. Really and truly. He may seem like a glorified bad boy, but he has such a tender, nurturing heart. I also like that he isn't perfect. He's made mistakes. He is trying to find his direction in life, while still staying true to his passion- music. He has always cared for Rachel, but really began to fall for her after her accident and has been a goner ever since. He knows he should stay away because he wants her to want him and want to be with him. He doesn't want to be another of the guys she's been with and used. I respect him for that and it upped the tension between them tenfold!

 

We also get to check in with Avery, Bennett, Ella, Quinn and see how the happy couples are doing. Rachel has never confided in her friends about her accident. She never wanted to be treated differently or with pity so she kept her past hidden from them. Her past and present will collide and she'll be forced to tell them the truth about what happened. Thankfully, they are good friends (name-calling aside) and will back each other no matter what. We also got our first peek at Nate and Jessie, and I am excited to read their story.

 

Final Thoughts: I really enjoyed seeing Kai and Rachel's relationship develop into something more. Kai has been harboring feelings for her for a long time, so I loved seeing him get the girl he's always wanted. I'm glad Rachel was able to find solace in Kai- she calls him her anchor and she could always count on him to be her support. Christina has such an engaging writing style and as always I can't wait to read what's next from her!

 

 

Mother, wife, reader, dreamer. Christina lives in the Midwest with her husband and son--her two favorite guys. She's addicted to lip gloss, salted caramel everything, and believes in true love and kissing, so writing romance novels has become a dream job.

 

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