Stay With Me by J. Lynn
5/5.5 stars
Synopsis
At 21, Calla hasn’t done a lot of things. She’s never been kissed, never seen the ocean, never gone to an amusement park. But growing up, she witnessed some things no child ever should. She still carries the physical and emotional scars of living with a strung-out mother, Mona—secrets she keeps from everyone, including her close circle of college friends.
But the safe cocoon Calla has carefully built is shattered when she discovers her mom has stolen her college money and run up a huge credit card debt in her name. Now, Calla has to go back to the small town she thought she’d left behind and clean up her mom’s mess again. Of course, when she arrives at her mother’s bar, Mona is nowhere to be found. Instead, six feet of hotness named Jackson James is pouring drinks and keeping the place humming.
Sexy and intense, Jax is in Calla’s business from the moment they meet, giving her a job and helping her search for Mona. And the way he looks at her makes it clear he wants to get horizontal . . . and maybe something more. Before Calla can let him get close, though, she’s got to deal with the pain of the past—and some very bad guys out to mess her up if she doesn’t give them her mom.
My thoughts
This is the third instalment in the Wait For You series and I have to say it was the one with the most suspense. Like, seriously, this is a nail biter alright(and I do that more often than I want to admit already as it is). It had me sitting on the edge of my seat half the time, pulse racing.
The background stories of the two main characters in Stay With Me are intense and absolutely heartbreaking. I was moved by their past and the heartache they lived through, the choices they made and how they turned out into becoming the persons they are now.
Calla is a strong and independent woman in college, but the scars of her past haunt her in a way that goes deeper than she might even realize, and she knows they haunt her. She set her goals and knows what she wants – which is to never return to her hometown and all the pain it caused – but her mom messes with Calla’s plans. Big time. And so Calla returns to get her money back and run out of town again as fast as she can. That’s not what happens. All of a sudden, Calla finds herself in situations she never thought she would be in again, drowning in her mother’s fuck-ups without there seeming to be an end.
But then there’s also Jackson James. And well… he might mess with Calla’s plans even more. He’s clearly interested, and he makes her wants things she never did before, but Calla has more issues than just the ones her mother caused. Ones than run deeper and might very well be something she won’t get over.
Things you need to know about Jackson James?
Well, for one, he is a bartender. A hot bartender, let me tell you. He’s protective, sweet, caring, brave, strong and no quitter, much to Calla’s dismay. He’s also quite bossy and sometimes quite straight to the point, and who knows where that will get them?
I really, really, REALLY love this book. I love Calla, I love Jackson James, I love Roxy, I love Katie, I love them all. Well, not all, but most of them. 😉 You’ll understand once you’ve read it. Anyway. This is definitely a 9/10 on the recommendation scale. It will make you feel so many different emotions and it’s all perfectly balanced.
Each book in this series can be read as a standalone, but I highly recommend them all, because each one has an amazing story to tell. One thing to take into account, if you’re planning on reading them all, start with the first, because Stay With Me is treaded with the two other stories in a way that will give away the whole clue of the first two books – and you don’t want to miss out on Cam’s and Jase’s awesomeness, trust me.
Something that I noticed in this book, and this could totally be me, was that I had the idea that the writing style different from what I am used to in Wait For Me, Trust In Me and Be With Me. It was like this was a completely different series and I don’t say it’s a good or bad thing, because I don’t really know, it’s just something I noticed while reading.
Roxy’s story is coming up next, and I gotta tell you, I was excited to find out more about her. Then I read the excerpt of Fall With Me J. Lynn posted and it has been on my mind for days. And that was just (a part) of the first chapter. I will have to wait on March for the rest. How? I got no clue. It’s already unlike any book I’ve ever read.
Side note. Remember what I said at the top of my last review?
Yeah. Life still sucks, and I still can’t seem to find words in a way I’d like, either, so keep that in consideration, too. If you’re doubting about whether or not this book is worth your time (and money), the answer is yes, it is definitely worth it, and don’t let me make you doubt that 😉