[Lisa’s Review:] Want You to Want Me (Want You #2) by Lorelei James

The new sexy contemporary romance in New York Times bestselling author Lorelei James's Want You series, set in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Hockey player Gabriella "Gabi" Welk spent her life in pursuit of championships, but she has little to show for it besides dusty trophies and second-place medals. Now her career consists of several part-time jobs to make ends meet. When Gabi gets a chance at her dream job, she swallows her pride and asks her nemesis--smart, sexy and savvy Nolan Lund--for help.

Since being named future CEO of Lund Industries, Nolan has tried hard to overcome his reputation as a fun-loving playboy and ladies' man. For the first time ever, he's more focused on the company than his personal life. He spends his free time at the ice rink his brother owns, cheering on his niece at her hockey games...and watching Gabriella Welk, the superstar athlete and assistant coach who gets under his skin in a way he can't ignore. He's shocked when Gabi agrees to trade a favor for a favor.

They have little in common besides their mutual mistrust, but between family crises and sibling rivalries, Nolan and Gabi realize they want to be more than just friends--much more.

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Want You to Want Me is the second installment of Lorelei James Want You series and a cute, entertaining, frenemies to lovers romance. I haven’t read Lorelei James before, but based on the synopsis, I knew this could be right up my alley.

Told in dual-point-of-view Want You to Want Me is a story about life, love, and the fact that there is some truth to the saying opposites attract. When we enter the story, ex-olympian and coach Gabriella Welk can’t stand the sight of her bosses brother Nolan, and he doesn’t care much for her company either. An overheard conversation only feeds Gabi’s dislike. Eventually, a chance encounter leads to interesting revelations and an apology, kickstarting the transition from frenemies to lovers.

While I appreciated the grown-up way Gabriella and Nolan went about their differences and related apologies; the transition from frenemies to love interest happened a bit too fast for me. Based on what we know about Gabriella, I thought she’d a bit more closed off and wary about the direction their previously bumpy relationship was suddenly taking. I loved that they admitted to jumping to conclusions about each other early on and sort of gave this a chance, but the transition phase was very, very brief. That’s the one thing I’m a bit unhappy about. While I love the instant-connection and love-at-first-sight thing in this case, given their history, I would have loved a bit more of a slow-burn in regards to their romantic interest in each other. The physical aspect definitely had the slow-burn factor, though.

Their relationship develops steadily from there on out, and there is no doubt about where exactly this is going for either of them. The story also packs a nice amount of humor, heartwarming moments, family drama, and plenty of steamy encounters, making this a well-balanced romance read. Once we were over the “officially dating threshold,” I had a lot of fun with this book, especially since the female lead being the athlete in sports romance is rather uncommon. If you’re looking for sweet, lightweight romance-read this one’s for you.

Lisa

Hi! I’m Lisa. I’m twenty-three, a college student and a book lover. I spend every free minute, and most of my lectures, reading all kinds of books, which is how I ended up here. While I particularly enjoy books of the young and new adult variety, I also love historical fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal, all things romance, and one or the other classic as well. If I’m not reading, I’m either working, sleeping, binge-watching my newest obsession on Netflix, or on my way to Starbucks, to satisfy my slight caffeine addiction.