Just graduated
from high school, Natalie doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life.
Everybody is going to the local college, but Natalie really is not into that.
Photography is her passion! Natalie also struggles with weight issues, and
after her boyfriend dumps her for a smaller and prettier girl, she along with
her parents’ encouragement, decides to work with a trainer and lose weight.
What she doesn’t count on, though, is for her trainer to be a formerly known
badass high school student that was always in trouble. Rhodes hasn’t had it
easy while growing up in the foster care system. But, he finds a way to
survive. His job at the town’s country club doesn’t come without a price. And,
he finds himself submitting to some distasteful actions just to support himself
financially. But, it works and he accepts what he does even though it’s not
very respectable. As the two find some common ground whereby Natalie can work hard
with her training, their relationship emerges into the friend-zone. Sure
Natalie is attracted to Rhodes, but she’s just had her heart broken and is so
not into it happening again. She needs to regain her confidence and Rhodes
seems to be quite nicely helping with that.
This was my
first Kandi Steiner book, and it was absolutely wonderful! All the twists and
turns that I didn’t see coming just pulled me deeper into the story. Natalie
was such an amazing character, and I could find myself relating to her in my younger
years. So much was expected of her, and she didn’t want to let anyone down. The
whole weight issue is any young girl’s downfall. At that age everyone wants to
be the prettiest. The skinniest. And, the most popular. Natalie really didn’t
care too much for those things until she got her heart broken and was
devastated. Rhodes helped Natalie to get her confidence back and really like
the young woman that stared back at her in the mirror.
Rhodes, yes he
was hot and cold towards Natalie at times, but he just thought he wasn’t good
enough for her. His past was not one to revel in. He was not proud of it. But,
Natalie really was not one to judge. She accepted him as he was when their
relationship grew into one of desire and temptation. The man was oh so broody
and had a body that Natalie just could envision licking from head to toe. Oh,
God, those abs!! Delicious!! This was a story of young love that had me sighing
and so in love with. Ms. Steiner really knows how to write a blushing romance!!
“You’re
not, Natalie. You, you’re weightless. The world hasn’t touched you yet. You’re
not heavy with the weight of pain, and guilt, and selfishness. You’re light.
Don’t ever lose that. Don’t let the world weigh you down like them, like me.” ~ Rhodes (Chap. 8)
“And I
remember it hurt that first time he touched me. Not because it was painful, but
because it was everything but. It hurt from somewhere deep inside my gut that
told me I would never get to have him, to keep him, or to feel the way I felt
with his hands on me with anyone else for as long as I tried.” ~ Natalie (Chap. 11)
“Just like
the darkness. It was in the moonlit shadows of that night that I found myself.
Rhodes wanted to inspire me, but the truth was that it was the possibility of
what we could be together that inspired me most. For one night, even if that
was all there could be, I lived inside a passion I never knew existed with a
man I never saw coming. Rhodes was an unanticipated thunderstorm. And I danced
in his rain.” ~
Natalie (Chap. 21)
“Before I
met William, I hated the weight that crowded my body, making me feel inadequate
in every aspect of my life. Then, when I first started training with him, he
pushed me harder than anyone ever had. Whenever I thought I was finally rising
to meet his standards, he would add more weight to my set, making me work
harder, forcing me to find the motivation to push through. And maybe that’s the
thing about weight – though it hurts when we feel its added pressure on our
lives, it only makes us stronger in the end. Looking at William now, I couldn’t
imagine him without the weight that had shaped him. His past made him into the
man I loved – no matter how scarred. He was the man who fixed me, who changed
me, and who helped me carry my own weight when it grew to heavy to handle on my
own. I was beginning to realize that weight really wasn’t a bad thing, after
all.” ~ Natalie
(Epilogue)
Review Written, 7/7/16
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