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REVIEW: Wait for You by J. Lynn

Dear Ms. Lynn:

I’m beginning to think there was a secret ceremony attended by a bunch of NA novelists at which they all swore on a copy of first edition of Twilight to include at least six of the following plot points in their books:

1) the heroine must be, in some way, socially awkward or shy. It’s a plus if she doesn’t realize how gorgeous she is.

2) upon arriving at school, she immediately meets cute the biggest babe magnet on campus. It’s a plus if he needs academic tutoring.

3) the babe magnet is incredibly drawn to the heroine despite the fact that she’s not his “type.”

4) the young woman is incredibly drawn to the hero despite the fact that he’s not her “type.”

5) there is some obstacle keeping them from dating.

6) one and/or the other has something in their past they are hiding from the other. It’s a plus if it’s one of those “I blame myself for something awful thing” sort of thing.

7) at some point, one/and or the other will be wasted and will say things he or she would never say sober. It’s a minus if sex occurs during or right after this revelation.

8) they finally hook up and then break up.

9) the past is RESOLVED. It’s a plus if evil parents were the problem and the young woman/young man stands up to them and then exits hand in hand with the young woman/young man.

10) they bonk like bedazzled bunnies and live happily for now.

Wait for You hews to this ten step program fairly closely.

Something strong and hard went around my waist, stopping my free fall. My bag hit the floor, spilling overpriced books and pens across the shiny floor. My pens! My glorious pens rolled everywhere. A second later I was pressed against the wall. The wall was strangely warm. The wall chuckled. “Whoa,” a deep voice said. “You okay, sweetheart?” The wall was so not a wall. It was a guy. My heart stopped and for a frightening second, pressure clamped down on my chest and I couldn’t move or think. I was thrown back five years. Stuck. Couldn’t move. Air punched from my lungs in a painful rush as tingles spread up the back of my neck. Every muscle locked up. “Hey,” the voice softened, edged with concern. “Are you okay?” I forced myself to take a deep breath—to just breathe. I needed to breathe. Air in. Air out. I had practiced this over and over again for five years. I wasn’t fourteen anymore. I wasn’t there. I was here, halfway across the country. Two fingers pressed under my chin, forcing my head up. Startling, deep blue eyes framed with thick, black lashes fixed on mine. A blue so vibrant and electric, and such a stark contrast against the black pupils, I wondered if they were real. And then it hit me. A guy was holding me. A guy had never held me. I didn’t count that one time, because that time didn’t count for shit, and I was pressed against him, thigh to thigh, my chest to his. Like we were dancing. My senses fried as I inhaled the light scent of cologne. Wow. It smelled good and expensive, like his… Anger suddenly rushed through me, a sweet and familiar thing, pushing away the old panic and confusion. I latched onto it desperately and found my voice. “Let. Go. Of. Me.”

Cam has the same class as Avery but she is so overwhelmed by their encounter and her fears she sprints away from him and the class. Later that day, she again has a dramatic meeting with Cam. This time, he almost runs her over with his big silver truck. He offers her a ride, but, again, she can’t get away from him fast enough.

Avery finds, however, she can’t avoid Cam because he lives in the apartment two doors down from hers. But Cam has a tortoise named Raphael which combined with his “baby blues” and his “eight pack” abs helps Avery to relax around Cam just a tiny bit. Slowly, the two become friends.

Cam falls for Avery almost as soon as he meets her. He bakes her cookies, calls her sweetheart, is kind and patient, tells her she’s pretty, and is pretty much perfect. He teases her and flirts with her but never pushes her anywhere she’s not, albeit cautiously, ready to go. If you like your heroes tall, gorgeous, and flawless, you’ll fall hard for Cam. I don’t like flawless heroes, so I found him a bit boring.

The book is told in first person by Avery, a narration Ms. Lynn does a good job with. We get to know not only Cam, but Avery’s new best buds, Jacob and Brittany. Jacob is gay and portrayed in a nicely non-cliched way. Brittany is a typical college girl whose function, I think, is to give Avery a way to talk through her changing feelings about Cam. The story flows smoothly and the Avery’s voice offers enough detail to keep the reader on top of the story but not so much that the POV seems forced.

Ms. Lynn writes engaging, witty dialogue although it often doesn’t sound authentic. Everyone knows just what to say, is self-aware, and there’s never any arguing over trivial things. Here, a week into knowing each other, Avery awakes to find Cam knocking on her door so he may cook her breakfast.

“Cam, what are you doing? It’s eight in the morning.” “Thanks for the update on the time.” He headed straight for my kitchen. “It’s one thing I’ve never been able to master: the telling of time.” I frowned as I padded after him. “Why are you here?” “Making breakfast.” “You can’t do that in your own kitchen?” I ask, scrubbing at my eyes. After the astronomy assignment and the phone call, he was the last person I wanted to see at a buttcrack time in the morning. “My kitchen isn’t as exciting as yours.” He put his stuff on the counter and faced me. His hair was damp and curlier than normal. How was it possible for him to look so good when it was obvious he’d just rolled out of bed and showered? There wasn’t even a dusting of morning scruff on his smooth cheeks. And he made sweats and a plain old tee shirt look damn good. “And Ollie is passed out on the living room floor.” “On the floor?” “Yep. Face down, snoring and drooling a little. It’s not an appetizing atmosphere.” “Well, neither is my apartment.” He needed to go. He had no business being here. Cam leaned against my counter, folding his arms. “Oh, I don’t know about that…” His gaze moved from the top of my disheveled head and all the way down to the tips of my curled toes. It was like a physical touch, causing my breath to catch. “Your kitchen, right this second, is very appetizing.” A flush crawled across my cheeks. “I’m not going out with you, Cam.” “I didn’t ask you at this moment, now did I?” One side of his lips curved up. “But you will eventually.” My eyes narrowed. “You’re delusional.” “I’m determined.” “More like annoying.” “Most would say amazing.” I rolled my eyes. “Only in your head.”

By the novel’s end, Avery and Cam have reached step ten (although there were no condoms involved, a minus for me). When I finished it, I felt I’d read a well-written typical New Adult novel. It didn’t do much for me but it didn’t bother me either.  I’d have enjoyed it more if Cam was a bit less man-god and the plot not quite so calculable. I continue to think I’m not the right audience for NA, perhaps because I have four new adults of my own, all currently at home, and creating an unbelievable amount of dirty laundry. Books about their age group aren’t escapism for me; they’re a reminder I need, for the third time this week, to go to the grocery store.

I give Wait for You a B-. If you like New Adult, you’ll probably like Ms. Lynn’s novel.

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I loved romances when, back in the mid 70's, in junior high, I read every Barbara Cartland novel I could check out from the library. Then, thanks to a savvy babysitter, I got my hands on the hot stuff. To this day I can remember how astonishingly steamy I found Rosemary Rogers' Sweet Savage Love . I abandoned romance when I went to college and didn't pick one up again until 2007 when I got my first Kindle. Since then, I’ve read countless romances; loved many, liked more, hated some. Most of what I read is historical and contemporary romance, but I’m open to almost any genre. I like my books to have sizzle, wit, and plots that make sense. I’d take sexy over sweet any day. I’m a sucker for smart heroes and smart-mouthed heroines. When not reading or writing about reading, or wishing I could rule the world, I'm meddling in the lives of my kids--I have four, ages 17 to 21--, managing my husband's practice, doing bossy volunteer work, and hanging out with Dr. Feelgood.

This sounds like a cross between Pushing the Limits (book) and The Gilmore Girls (TV).

@ Jessica : Heh.

Tammara Webber may not have been present for the ceremony. Trish Doller, too.

I’m tempted to buy this if only because there’s a pet that is not a dog (or a cat) – yay for originality. OTOH, the excerpts aren’t really doing it for me.

Unlike Jessica, I’m not seeing any resemblance to Pushing the Limits. More like Catching Jordan, maybe?

Like you, I’d have been bored reading about Cam’s efforts to woo Avery. Also, the plot being so… I don’t know… by-the-numbers.

It wasn’t until after seeing your list of the ten plot points in most (all?) NA books that I realized the exact reason why NA isn’t for me.

I do understand that every genre must have a certain set of rules in order for it to classified as such. However, from what I’ve seen, the way NA authors stick to the plot points are a complete turn off.

Hopefully, someone will write an NA novel that won’t follow that genre’s structure so much to the T. It’s unfortunate, really, because I like to champion new authors and I’m always in the lookout for something new to read.

@ Luce : Perhaps as the genre evolves it will encompass more variation.

You’ve just summed up every reason I don’t care for YA books. Maybe I’ve just had the unfortunate luck to pick ones that always follow that general theme but being in my mid 30’s I find those recurring themes childish, uninventive, and eye-rollingly boring.

I liked this book, but I agree that a lot of the plot devices are evident in most NA books. One that I read and enjoyed and thought was different than a lot of others, was The Stillness of You, by Julie Bale. The heroine is bipolar and I thought it did a good job portraying a young woman, newly diagnosed with a not so squeaky clean past.

“Books about their age group aren’t escapism for me; they’re a reminder I need, for the third time this week, to go to the grocery store.” I’d love to be just a little trendy once in a while, but, yeah, that’s so me and you’ve reminded me that I have to go store. Again. :)

Not for me either, and the whole first person thing in this genre is so not my bag of rocks. And I also have 4 NA’s, who, thankfully are all no longer under my roof, although 2 of them are still money sucking parasites. I’ve cut my wine consumption in half since they left, so I don’t have to go to the store as often. Best wishes for surviving the summer.

My pens! My glorious pens rolled everywhere.

Anyone else’s mind replay this Kids in the Hall sketch after seeing that line, or is it only me?

I’ve bought several NA books because they always sound so promising, but so far I haven’t been wowed by any of them. They are all okay, but nothing great and they are all definitely rather similar almost to the point of being interchangeable. I did read this book as I like this author’s YA offerings, but I didn’t love it. The no condoms thing really bothered me and I think that really tainted the latter bit of the book because I kept worrying she was going to wind up pregnant.

@ Ridley : Yes!

I adored Cam because he wasn’t a douche and wanted to be friends with Avery first. Also his cooking and baking skills, aka cookies had me smiling. I felt it had a different spin on the typical blah de blah NA out there.

Too bad Cam and Avery didn’t sit in a beautiful field of flowers though. That would be step 11 of the Twilight rules.

@ KT Grant : I readily admit a bias against too perfect men. Cam was lovely; just too lovely for me.

Yes, Cam was a little too perfect, but those cookies of his won me over, more so than his eight pack.

I have one single question: is there any mention, at all, of the hero doing regular exercise in order to keep that eight-pack? Because after reading circa three hundred romance novels, I have come to the conclusion that most of them take place in this miracle land where men having muscles does not require regular exercise. I can get in soldiers or athletes, but the rest of them have no reason to be so physically perfect.

I don’t think that 10 step plot line is limited to YA or NA — it seems to be the general plot in 75% of the romances out there — maybe it’s slightly altered — they may not be students but you see the same general story line in Regency novels as well. Even on pirate ships there is a woman who wears glasses but is dazzling without them (but doesn’t know it) and a gorgeous pirate captain who falls for her, but…you know the rest.

My problem is I’m a sucker for that general plot line. But it does get rather tiring after a while.

@ Maite : I can’t speak for this book, but I’m reading Laura Florand’s wonderful The Chocolate Rose at the moment, and the hero is in the gym at 5am every day.

I have been reading Nora Roberts for years. In the beginning her “heroes” would be smokers, and even her heroines. Now she has them in the gym, working out by themselves and each other. She has gyms in their homes, she has her “inn” building a gym. I have actually been impressed by that, from smokers to gym rats. But I also wonder about all these gorgeous, long-legged heroines who seem to maintain the perfection with little to no effort. My ideal heroine would have cankles. Now, that’s a story I would read in a heartbeat, a cankle meet cute. The hero slips and falls at the feet of the heroine and his first thought is, “Oh, sturdy ankles, my kind of woman.”

he was the last person I wanted to see at a buttcrack time in the morning.

I think this quote exemplifies is why NA is so not for me. iI keep reading this and thinking “what is that buttcrack doing there?”

I mean, I get the general idea, it’s a riff on “crack of dawn.” And I’ll even concede that this very well may be authentic dialogue for today’s twentysomethings.

But to me it sounds like forced “edginess”, vulgarity without meaning for vulgarity’s sake, and it makes me feel tired and cranky and OLD.

None of which are emotions conducive to a happy romance experience.

Great review, Dabney! I have been reading NA for a while now and the more I read the more I find these books to be following the formula you describe. I am not giving up on NA yet, but I am getting more cautious what to read from it.

I liked Wait for You, but there was nothing remarkable or amazing about it. I fully share your concern about the weaknesses and good features of this one.

(snicker) Loved the review, especially the plot points. I’d rather gouge out my eyeballs with broken glass than read a New Adult novel; now I know why.

I’m sorry for being late, but I just wanted to comment that I’m a “new adult” myself, but this genre doesn’t appeal to me. YA I always felt I could find something that represented my experiences, but NA just doesn’t seem realistic or relevant to my or my friends experiences. Also I have never and will hopefully never say buttcrack time. That is just stupid.

I have to admit that I loved this book. To me it is always nice to go back in time and remember romance while in university. I loved the way JLynn wrote the hystory which made me check some if her books. She became one of my favorites now.

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Review: Wait for You by Jennifer L. Armentrout (J.Lynn)

My thoughts.

Sweet, funny, angsty and moving standalone that I enjoyed from beginning to end!

Some things are worth waiting for…

Traveling thousands of miles from home to enter college is the only way nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten can escape what happened at the Halloween party five years ago—an event that forever changed her life. All she needs to do is make it to her classes on time, make sure the bracelet on her left wrist stays in place, not draw any attention to herself, and maybe—please God—make a few friends, because surely that would be a nice change of pace. The one thing she didn’t need and never planned on was capturing the attention of the one guy who could shatter the precarious future she’s building for herself.

Some things are worth experiencing…

Cameron Hamilton is six feet and three inches of swoon-worthy hotness, complete with a pair of striking blue eyes and a remarkable ability to make her want things she believed were irrevocably stolen from her. She knows she needs to stay away from him, but Cam is freaking everywhere, with his charm, his witty banter, and that damn dimple that’s just so… so lickable. Getting involved with him is dangerous, but when ignoring the simmering tension that sparks whenever they are around each other becomes impossible, he brings out a side of her she never knew existed.

Some things should never be kept quiet…

But when Avery starts receiving threatening emails and phone calls forcing her to face a past she wants silenced, she’s has no other choice but to acknowledge that someone is refusing to allow her to let go of that night when everything changed. When the devastating truth comes out, will she resurface this time with one less scar? And can Cam be there to help her or will he be dragged down with her?

And some things are worth fighting for…

I had been so excited for this book and it was so worth it! It was my first J.Lynn story and one that was very different from the Covenant and Lux series (which I LOVE, see my post here talking about those books). Sweet and touching and captivating… it was a great standalone book!

“There were two things in life that scared the ever-loving crap out of me. Waking up in the middle of the night and discovering a ghost with its transparent face shoved in mine was one of them. Not likely to occur, but still pretty damn freaky to think about. The second thing was walking into a crowded classroom late.”

And so the story begins with Avery Morgansten running late to her first astronomy class at the university.

“Racing up the wide staircase, I barreled through the double doors and smacked right into a brick wall. Stumbling backward, my arms flailed like a cracked-out crossing guard… Oh dear God, I was going down… Something strong and hard went around my waist, stopping my free fall… The wall was strangely warm. The wall chuckled. ‘Whoa,’ a deep voice said. ‘You okay, sweetheart?'”

And hello, Cam.

“Startling, deep blue eyes framed with thick, black lashes fixed on mine. A blue so vibrant and electric, and such a stark contrast against the black pupils, I wondered if they were real… Sweet baby Jesus, Blue Eyes was… He was gorgeous in all the ways that made girls do stupid things. He was tall, a good head or two taller than me…An athlete’s body–like a swimmer. Wavy black hair toppled over his forehead, brushing matching eyebrows. Broad cheekbones and wide, expressive lips completed the package created for girls to drool over. And with those sapphire-colored eyes, holey moley…”

As Avery runs into Cameron Hamilton, well-known, sexy stud on campus, she freaks and runs… but then HE runs into her, and then  she discovers he lives across the hall from her in her apartment complex!

“You running over me, me almost running over you? Cam elaborated. It’s like we’re a catastrophe waiting to happen.”

Avery is attracted to hunky Cam, of course, but something holds her back… a past high school experience. She reminisces that she “almost didn’t survive high school.” Cam is intrigued by Avery and he sweetly asks her out every week for months. As you get to know Cam, you can’t help but love him. He’s funny, owns a pet turtle, and engages in the best verbal banter with Avery. This book is so many things, and I really enjoyed the humor… and the flirting!

“You’ve been checking me out, haven’t you? In between your flaming insults? I feel like man candy!”

You have some really funny support characters in Avery’s friends, Jacob and Brittany and in Ollie, Cam’s roommate. And I love that Cam is sweet, so sweet to Avery. He is relentless and slowly chips away at the walls Avery has built around herself. One day, he’s at her door, eggs in hand, early on a Sunday to make her breakfast, and that becomes their weekly tradition. It’s so stinkin’ cute. And with them spending so much time together in class, as astronomy partners and through their Sunday breakfasts, they inch closer together.

“No that wasn’t a kiss. His lips brushed mine in the most tantalizing, promising way. That was a goodnight.”

But despite the lightheartedness surface of the book, serious undertones emerge. And as they come together, slowly, Cam confides his dark past with Avery, only to have Avery hold back on what ails her. Cam becomes increasingly frustrated and can’t understand why Avery won’t be honest with him.

“How can there by any future for us if you can’t be honest with me?”

You learn about Avery’s painfully tragic past and how it has shaped her in becoming defensive and closed-in. You feel awful for what she went through and better understand why she acts the way she does. But you love Cam even more for sticking by her.

There are so many notable elements to this book. The verbal banter, the flirting, the cookies, the turtle… so many things you laugh at and so many things that make you smile. There are even some sweet and steamy scenes in there to make you swoon. This book is about coming to terms with painful experiences, rising above your past and allowing yourself to love. Sweet, serious and funny. It’s a great book that can stand alone, but luckily, there is a sequel coming up called Be With You !

“Everything was okay. Maybe not perfect, but life wasn’t mean to be perfect. It was messy and sometimes a disaster, but there was beauty in the messiness and there could be peace in the disaster.”

Cam & Avery:

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‘Wait For You’ by Jennifer L. Armentrout Rekindled My Love For College Romances

• Book Reviews
• January 24, 2021 July 4, 2021

• Title: Wait For You
• Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout, writing as J. Lynn
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Pub. date: 2 April 2013
• Series: Wait For You #1
• Genre: new adult , romance , contemporary
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SOME THINGS ARE WORTH WAITING FOR… Traveling thousands of miles from home to enter college is the only way nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten can escape what happened at the Halloween party five years ago—an event that forever changed her life. All she needs to do is make it to her classes on time, make sure the bracelet on her left wrist stays in place, not draw any attention to herself, and maybe—please God—make a few friends, because surely that would be a nice change of pace. The one thing she didn’t need and never planned on was capturing the attention of the one guy who could shatter the precarious future she’s building for herself. SOME THINGS ARE WORTH EXPERIENCING… Cameron Hamilton is six feet and three inches of swoon-worthy hotness, omplete with a pair of striking blue eyes and a remarkable ability to make her want things she believed were irrevocably stolen from her. She knows she needs to stay away from him, but Cam is freaking everywhere, with his charm, his witty banter, and that damn dimple that’s just so… so lickable. Getting involved with him is dangerous, but when ignoring the simmering tension that sparks whenever they are around each other becomes impossible, he brings out a side of her she never knew existed. SOME THINGS SHOULD NEVER BE KEPT QUIET… But when Avery starts receiving threatening emails and phone calls forcing her to face a past she wants silenced, she’s has no other choice but to acknowledge that someone is refusing to allow her to let go of that night when everything changed. When the devastating truth comes out, will she resurface this time with one less scar? And can Cam be there to help her or will he be dragged down with her? AND SOME THINGS ARE WORTH FIGHTING FOR…

I picked up this series because I need more JLA in my life and it’s as simple as that. What more reason could I possibly need to read this book?

Quite simply put, this is one of JLA’s contemporary romances; it is a college romance set in West Virginia University centered around freshman Avery Morgansten, who pretty much running from a past. She meets new people, among them the rather charming and handsome Cameron Hamilton.

The main character, Avery, is the most complex character here, in my opinion, and this is a good thing because if she is the protagonist I wanna know more about her, to dissect her, to understand her! I think she is a great character, very nicely multi-faceted, and very intriguing from the get go.

Cameron is a complete heartthrob! Cam is officially joining the ranks of my book boyfriends because of how husband material he is. He is a great guy and a great complement to Avery, I think.

The side characters here were just so good! They had some amazing lines and I just loved their appearances, especially Jacob and Britt. I am just in love with the whole gang!

Wait For You starts out like any normal college romance, but ends up being so much more. I love how JLA really built up the content in this book because I started getting worried that just one book on Cam and Avery might not suffice. But JLA really took her time and nicely stretched out the story so there was this really nice, smooth flow.

There were so many iconic moments in this book; so much so that I am considering a reread once I am done with the whole series! Would be totally worth it! Also, can we appreciate how the story was not always just Avery and Cam? There were a good, realistic mix of Avery’s everyday life while giving us a generous dose of the romance here! Bravo!

Wait For You is a contemporary novel, so not really much world-building going on, but I still felt quite a bit of it. First of all, I have never been to college; the way my curriculum goes is that we finish high school with our A-Levels and go straight into university (and I was 17 when this happened!), so I felt like I had a bit of an atypical academic journey there. So, these college romances are my guilty pleasures; I am living my life voraciously through these.

I am thrilled to say that JLA literally made me want to go to college with this novel! Thrilled because that’s great writing, not because I love living my life in education institutions. So, I am gonna say props for world-building! Love it!

Let’s go with the biggest theme here first: romance. JLA’s portrayal of relationships here, meaning Avery and Cam, was just amazing!. I love how they go through this journey, but they have their own bits that they need to work on their own to meet the other halfway. I am a huge fan of the chemistry between these two and I am in desperate need of a Cam in my life! HAHA!

The really heavy theme here was the sexual abuse and the stigma that comes with being a survivor. Having no personal experience, I feel uncomfortable discussing this on a public platform, but what I liked about this book was how JLA brought in many different issues around that theme from multiple points of view.

I can safely say that Wait For You is officially one of my favourite reads of 2021! And I was shocked that my second book of the year just blew away like this! I would totally recommend this book to anyone who loves a good romance with lots of chemistry, steam and substance!

Anyone else on a JLA binge right now? Let me know in the comments below!

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Wait for You

Narrated by Sophie Eastlake

I first read Wait for You   in digital format last year but I enjoyed it so much I was happy for the opportunity to review the audio version. When one has already read a book (and can remember it – as was the case here) there is not, of course, the same tension and eagerness to find out what is going to happen. This can allow an opportunity to experience the story in a different way – to pick up nuances about the plot or characters which may have been missed in the rush to the finish.

I don’t often reread, but at times, I do listen to books I have already read. Provided I’m confident in the narrator and I liked the book in print format, it is usually a success. I tend to skim when reading so, even when I have adored a book, there are little things I have missed when I turn to the audio version. It’s kind of like a little Easter Egg for me. And, to add to the experience, I also have the narrator’s interpretation of the characters to enhance the listening journey. In fact, when one already knows the plot, it can be easier to focus on the narrator’s performance. Since Wait for You has a narrator I enjoy, it was really a no brainer.

The story is told from the first person POV of Avery Morgansten, a college freshman who has moved to West Virginia to be as far away from her family and past associates/former friends as possible. On the first day of college, Avery literally runs into Cameron Hamilton. Cam is gorgeous and charming, with startling blue eyes and an easy grin. Even though he is a college junior, it turns out they share a class, Astronomy 101, and both are late for their first day.

Avery does not care for being the centre of attention and bails on the class. She’s never had a boyfriend and doesn’t go to parties. Since an incident five years before, her interaction with others has been limited and requires her to re-learn the whole friendship deal. Fortunately the latter comes back to her quickly.

Much to her surprise, it turns out that Cam lives in the apartment across the hall and they are soon hanging out together. Cam asks her on a date but she refuses as she believes Cam is a player. She is very leery of a romantic relationship anyway.

Cam did get around a bit in high school, but he isn’t the manwhore Avery fears. Even though we only get Avery’s POV in this book (there is a novella where the story is told from Cam’s POV by the way), it is obvious to the listener that Cam is deeply smitten from the get go. That said, his patience is quite remarkable.

Cam and Avery gradually become good friends and finally, Avery agrees to go out with him on a date. Her secrets and the nasty texts and emails she keeps receiving are a barrier to their happiness. Avery has to be brave and speak up and out before they can have their HEA.

In true New Adult fashion, Wait for You is also something of a coming-of-age story. Although the romance is strong and front and centre, this is also a story of how Avery grows and starts to deal with a very traumatic event in her life. Trigger warning: there is a description of sexual violence but it is not graphic. However, listeners who dislike sexual violence as part of the storyline might want to avoid this one.

Through to her narration of Thea Harrison’s Elder Races series, Sophie Eastlake has become a favourite narrator. However, she does have somewhat of a limited range in voicing her male characters and they often sound very similar to one another.

We primarily hear Ms. Eastlake’s portrayal of Avery and she conveys well the youthful quality of her character and the emotions she felt – and there was a fairly wide range here – Avery has been through the wringer. When Cam is about, it is most often only with Avery and there is no doubt during these conversations, who is talking. Cam’s voice is only a little lower but huskier and it has a slightly different accent which was, I believe, more about the way the narrator holds her mouth than anything particularly intentional. Cam didn’t sound like Dragos from the Elder Races but only because Dragos is waaayyyy more arrogant. (Cam could have been Dragos’ younger, more relaxed brother however.) When Cam and his father are in scenes together, there is little differentiation. Similarly, when Cam’s friends, Jase and Ollie, are in the “room” they do sound awfully similar and it is hard to tell them apart.

The other major characters in the story are Avery’s friends, Brittany (who has a delightful Southern accent which makes it easy to tell when she’s speaking) and Jacob, who acts as the “sassy gay (and black) friend”. It’s easy to distinguish Jacob from Cam – I wonder if that had anything to do with perceived masculinity of the characters though? He sounds much closer to Avery than anything else and, thinking about it now, it did bother me a little because Jacob is definitely a male character.

What Ms. Eastlake does excel at is conveying the growing emotion and connection between Avery and Cam and selling their passion and love for one another. Cam is a mature young man but there are good reasons for that maturity and he is perfect for Avery. He is endlessly patient and does not rush their physical intimacy. Also, he is very careful about consent, which I appreciated very much. Cam’s love and care and respect for Avery is apparent not just in the text but also through Ms. Eastlake’s portrayal. Avery’s confusion, fear, hope, and burgeoning passion are also on display for the listener.

I enjoyed Wait for You in print and audio formats. I’d recommend it in either format actually – why not do what I did and experience both?

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Kaetrin Allen

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