Preservation
Fear is sabotage’s sweetest weapon.
Kate has no time for meaningless romantic charades, and definitely no time for hot college professors who are full of themselves and smitten with her. Constantly battling eviction notices, tuition she can’t afford, and a sick, dependent mother, the last thing she needs is to be distracted with someone else’s complicated baggage.
When she stumbles into Ryan Campbell’s creative writing class, he is only “Mr. Campbell” to her, until Ryan finds himself captivated by her writing and she is forced to face their mutual attraction. His cocky know-it-all syndrome is enough to send her running in the other direction, and his posse of female admirers and playboy reputation are enough to squander any odds in her favor.
But underneath Ryan’s abrasive facade is something to behold, and she can’t stay away for long. Ryan and Kate must decide who they’re willing to become and fight against their former selves if they want to make things work. That’s if academia, vicious vixens, old skeletons, and their own mastery at self-destruction don’t pummel their efforts first.
From the description, Preservation started off how exactly as I expected it would, but then the story took me by surprise. It went in another direction completely, and then some twists and turns were added. Preservation held my attention steadily and, when I reached the end, it left me wanting more. And then the author actually gave me more by including two bonus chapters. *Hallelujah choir*
Twenty-five year old college student, Kate Parker, has a busy life of studying writing and working to pay for college and for care for her sick mother. This lifestyle makes her keep men at a distance in an effort to simplify things. That is, until she starts falling hard for her 2o something year old teacher and he starts falling for her too. To complicate things even more, he has a reputation of dating his students and breaking their hearts. Kate must figure out if she is different or just another one of his flings.
As mentioned earlier, the book summary only describes the first part of book. Her relationship with her teacher, also known as Ryan, gets hot and heavy fast. Their attraction is undeniable and soon things get serious. Then about half way through, things start to change. The student teacher relationship is no longer an issue and the focus changes to Kate’s writing career. As her career takes off, her relationship with Ryan gets rocky.
I liked this shift in the story. It was unexpected but welcomed. If the entire book had been about a taboo student teacher relationship, I would have been bored. Kate goes through many ups and downs and her journey kept me glued to the book. For most of the book, I could never guess what was going to happen. That’s huge a plus in my book. Predictable stories are no fun to read.
I also like Kate’s two amazing friends, Carter and Dean. They are supportive, unselfish, funny, and protective. At times, I thought her relationship with them was a tad unrealistic. Both Carter and Dean have crushes on Kate, and it was a tad bit unbelievable to me that they would change from not likely Kate’s relationship to Ryan to encouraging her relationship with him so easily. Regardless, I still liked their characters and they often provided comic relief.
The reason I gave Preservation four stars is because of my mixed feelings about the ending. It would spoil things if I explained too much in detail why, so I will be pretty vague. Something happens to Kate that’s pretty bad. Something that if it happened to me, would be very, very hard to forgive and forget. Kate forgave just a little too easily for me. I was okay with the forgiving part, but not happy with how quickly she forgave.
Overall, I had a ton of fun reading Preservation. Wade delivers an addicting romance and that left me wishing for more. Seriously, I’m kind of going through withdrawals right now. I will warn younger readers that this book is meant for adults as there are frequent sexual encounters. It is a romance. Otherwise, I highly recommend this book to romance and contemporary readers and fans of Rachael Wade.
Thank you to Rachael Wade for providing me with a copy of Preservation in exchange for an honest review.