Be with Me by J. Lynn (Review)

Genre:	New Adult, Romance
Publication.Date	February 4, 2014
Pages:	365
Published By:	William Morrow Paperbacks
Website	J. Lynn
	Be with Me on Goodreads
My review copy:	Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Where to get:

Teresa Hamilton is having a rough year—she’s in love with her big brother’s best friend, but he hasn’t spoken to her since they shared a truly amazing, mind-blowing, change-your-life kiss. She got out of a terrible relationship. And now an injury is threatening to end her dance career for good. It’s time for Plan B – college. And maybe a chance to convince Jase that what they have together is real.

Jase Winstead has a huge secret that he’s not telling anyone. Especially not his best friend’s incredibly beautiful sister. Even though he and Teresa shared the hottest kiss of his life, he knows that his responsibilities must take priority. He certainly doesn’t have time for a relationship. But it doesn’t help that all he can think about kissing the one girl who could ruin everything for him.

As they’re thrown together more and more, Jase and Tess can’t keep denying their feelings for each other. But a familiar danger looms and tragedy strikes. As the campus recovers, the star-crossed couple must decide what they’re willing to risk to be together, and what they’re willing to lose if they’re not…

(Goodreads)

"I always knew I'd make an excellent human tissue." He dipped his head so that his chine rested atop my head. "Thank you for letting me achieve that dream."

"Silence is not a fucking virtue. It's a disease--a cancer that eats away at you and fucks with your head."

He smirked. "Oh, my authority is there. All the time. It's just stealth authority. You don't even know it's happening."

"I have considerable charm, Tess."
"That's true." I cracked a grin.
"And with said charm comes great responsibility to use it wisely," he continues, eyes dancing. "I only break it out when necessary."

Being fed seemed stupid. Unless it was a naked Jase feeding you. Then it was incredibly hot.

"Baby, your ass is like my own personal holy ground."

I loved Wait For You on an astronomical level. It's one of the first New Adult books I remember reading (not the VERY first, but one of them), and it really helped me to fall in love with the genre. Doesn't hurt that J. Lynn aka Jennifer L. Armentrout freaking rocks at writing some of the best stuff. And now I've finally sat down and read the sequel, Be with Me, and I loved it just as much as the first.

I almost want to say I loved it more, but I'm not sure I did. It's more like I loved them both equally, but in different ways. Which makes perfect sense since their STORIES are both great and impacting, but in different ways. Honestly, between the two, Be with Me is more near and dear to my heart on a personal level. Just because of the subject matter. But Wait For You was great, too...

And we're not here to compare, so I'll just move on now.

I really loved the characters in this one. Tess was a character I'd been worried would get on my nerves a bit, since she was the little sister and blah blah blah. But she didn't act annoying with it or anything. She was just a girl who was related to Cam and that was good and cool, but she did her own thing. Of course, we got to see a good amount of Cam and Avery still, which was cute. What I liked best about Tess was that she had a pile of her own crap to work through, but she didn't really become an A-hole because of it. She was pretty open to Jase and not being a B. I freaking LOVE that in female characters, and Tess rocks. She didn't make me angry for being a stupid girl.

Jase, on the other hand, made it an Olympic sport to push Tess away. But I loved him anyway. Why? Because he won me over in the first effing chapter. Seriously. Right out the gates, he shines as a sweet, kind, attractive-as-fudge character. Another reason why his attempts to push Tess away didn't bother me much was that they didn't last entirely too long, the periods in which they were fighting or weren't together. He always made it up pretty quick, and that kind of added on sweet points because Jase is truly an amazing dude. He had his own reasons for doing what he did, and while I would have preferred he'd handled them in a different way, at least he dealt with it all in a way that I could read without cringing. And he came through for Tess every time she really needed him.

Jase also gets bonus points for being super funny. I can't even tell you how many quotes from him I have marked in my copy right now. FOR REAL.

The romance was perfection. Jase and Tess are so obviously better together and it's adorable to watch. Jase says sweet things and is positively sweet and charming, and Tess doesn't give up through his random cray cray moments where he can be a douche. And when they are actually TOGETHER, they compliment each other in the most perfect ways. Take care of each other. Yeah, these two are perfect together for sure.

The plot and writing were both engaging and enjoyable. The only flaw was that I guessed something big about Jase super early in the novel, but that isn't a HUGE deal, since it wasn't exactly a secret Jen tried to keep under wraps for long. Everything else flowed in a way that I didn't quite guess what was going to happen, but instead I got little hints leading me to it so that when it DID happen, I was 100% into it. I was THERE, you know? This turned out to be one of those books I sort of flew through, but tried to NOT so that it could last as long as possible. And now it's over and I'm said, because I want MOAR. 

I have how many months until Stay with Me comes out? (TOO MANY) *cries*

Overall, I loved Be with Me wholly and completely. Jase and Tess were fantastic, the writing and the story won me over from the very beginning all the way through to the end, and I wish with everything in me that Jase and Tess' story weren't over. I cannot wait to get out glimpses of them in the other novels in this series!