Guest Post & Giveaway: "Take What You Want" By: Jeanette Grey

Take What You Want

By: Jeanette Grey

Synopsis from Goodreads

She needs an escape…and he’s exactly what she had in mind. 

     College senior Ellen Price spends every spare minute studying to get into medical school. Until spring break yawns before her, as empty as her wallet.

      With no money to hit the beach, she fills her empty to-do list with a plan: for just one week, she will become the kind of take-no-prisoners woman she secretly wishes to be, starting with the hot guy at the bar. It's a no-risk situation: at the end of break, he’ll head back to his campus, and she’ll go back to hers. No muss, no fuss.

     At first, Josh Markley isn’t sure what to think when the quiet, intense beauty from his pre-med classes approaches him for a night of casual sex. Even more mystifying, she doesn’t seem to return his recognition. But if she wants to play “strangers in a bar”, he’s game.

      Their passionate night is a welcome respite from life’s stress, but afterward, Josh realizes he wants more—from himself, from life, from Ellen. Except she still thinks he’s a one-off she’ll never see again. Confessing the truth now—before she figures it out on her own—could shatter the fragile beginnings of just what the doctor ordered. A forever love. 

Warning: Contains mistaken identities, a sometimes-glasses-wearing hottie, deep questions about figuring out what you want from life, and a red-hot college romance.

'New Adult', but Not New To Me

Written by: Jeanette Grey

     I have to admit, the whole idea of the "New Adult" genre took me by surprise. I'd heard murmurings about it—people who had enjoyed Young Adult were itching for something a little bit more grown-up, eager to hold on to the compelling story lines and well-fleshed out characters they'd found in YA but ready to let go of the high school setting. There was a market for coming-of-age stories that focused on people in their early twenties, and writers and publishers were finally stepping up to cater to it.

     Oh yeah, I'd heard murmurings, but I hadn’t really listened, because I was too busy writing.

For me, writing about people in their later teens and early twenties came naturally. As someone who a) grew up in a very strict household, and b) got married at age twenty-four, I look back on my college years as my wild and crazy days when I was figuring out who I was, what I wanted, and what I was looking for in a partner. There was a lot of drama, and it's all proven amazing fodder for fiction.

      While both Ellen and Josh from my new book, Take What You Want, are wholly invented, they each face some of the challenges and questions I was grappling with at their age. Ellen is trying to reconcile her years of being a 'good girl' with the need to let her hair down and have some fun before her college days are over. Meanwhile, Josh is stuck between his own ambitions and his father's ideas of what his life should be like.

     And, of course, both are looking for love.

     Objectively speaking, (other than being a little on the steamy side – the book is a romance, after all!) Take What You Want is almost textbook New Adult. And yet, I was surprised when that's what people started labeling it. For me, it was just plain fiction. It was a story about people looking for something and finding it with each other, a story about love and a story about growth.

      That said, I'm absolutely delighted that New Adult is catching on. We discover so much of who we are in those first few years after leaving our parents' homes. I'll always have a special place in my heart for writing characters in that age range, and it's fantastic to know that readers have a place for them now, too.

About the Author

      Jeanette Grey started out with degrees in physics and painting, which she dutifully applied to stunted careers in teaching, technical support, and advertising. When none of that panned out, she started writing. Her stories include futuristic romances and erotic contemporaries, and almost all of them include hints of either science or art.

    When she isn't writing, Jeanette enjoys making pottery, playing board games, and spending time with her husband and her pet frog. She lives, loves, and writes in upstate New York.

Author Links

Website: http://www.jeanettegrey.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/jeanettelgrey

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jeanettelgrey

Blog: http://www.badgirlzwrite.com

My Thoughts

     I enjoyed this book more than I can relate through words. Ellen is shy, reserved and on the cusp of adulthood. An intelligent girl who has been hard at work at school, she meets Josh when she decides its time to let loose a little bit. A predictable story overall but that's absolutely what I wanted. I want that lovely boy meets girl story with nice characters and a fantastic story. This book has all that and more...I was hooked on the characters from the very beginning. 

       Trying to pinpoint what I enjoyed most is pretty hard, but I'm confident that fans of the New Adult genre will love this novel too. Josh and Ellen are realistic, down to earth, and you easily fall in love with both of them. It may sound silly, but I liked how dedicated each was to their chosen professions. Most girls aren't the Anastasia from Fifty Shades, they are more like Ellen. Hardworking, honest, and once in a while ready to throw caution to the wind. Funny, heartwarming, and just plain sweet, Take What You Want is a super cute story with fun characters and a sweet plot. Buy this one people, you won't regret it or soon forget it!

Purchasing Links

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Samhain

A HUGE Thank You to Jeanette for stopping by today! 

I LOVED this book!

Giveaway

Jeanette has been kind enough to offer a copy of the book for giveaway! Leave a comment  with your e-mail for a chance to win a copy of this fabulous, wonderful story!!!