{"id":58511,"date":"2021-04-04T08:00:32","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=58511"},"modified":"2021-04-07T06:14:31","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T10:14:31","slug":"audio-review-the-crush-by-penelope-ward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=58511","title":{"rendered":"Audio Review: The Crush by Penelope Ward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy: \u00a0Amazon\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0| \u00a0Apple Books<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0B&N<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Kobo\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Google Play\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Paperback<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Audio<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Review<\/strong><\/h4>\n

3 stars<\/b><\/p>\n

A brother\u2019s-best-friend\/second-chance romance, this one left me feeling a bit underwhelmed.<\/p>\n

Farrah has been in love with her brother\u2019s best friend, Jace, since she was 12 years old. He was a big part of her life, but right after Farrah\u2019s parents were killed right in front of him, Jace left town. Now, he\u2019s back, 27 years old to Farrah\u2019s 21, and he has moved in with Farrah and her brother, Nathan, to help them make ends meet \u2013 setting up a fun but rather interesting roommate situation.<\/p>\n

Farrah has never moved on from her crush on Jace, and now that he\u2019s back, it\u2019s bigger and more all-consuming than ever. But even though she\u2019s an adult now, both Jace and Nathan still see Farrah as a young girl needing their protection. Until things slowly start to change. Meaningful looks, subtle touches, and deep conversations hint at something more, and even though Jace knows he\u2019s no good for Farrah, with her pushing him all the way, soon everything changes.<\/p>\n

This felt like a runaway train. I just hoped it didn\u2019t crash and burn, taking all three of us down with it.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Their coming together is hot, sexy, and so much more. You can see the connection that Jace and Farrah have, and I love that their strong friendship forms the basis of their romance. But Jace is torn. He held out against Farrah for so long, and even though he\u2019s falling for her in a big way, he\u2019s worried about Nathan\u2019s reaction, given Jace\u2019s well-deserved reputation as a player who avoids relationships. So there\u2019s this sense of the forbidden and waiting for the bomb to drop as Farrah and Jace start sneaking around, and because the book actually begins with Farrah and Jace running into each other after not being in touch for three years (with Farrah completely distraught over their encounter), we know things don\u2019t end well.<\/p>\n

I really liked Farrah. She\u2019s brave and honest, and she doesn\u2019t hold back from Jace. She\u2019s open about her feelings and what she wants from him, and that was really refreshing to see. But Jace was\u2026 blah. I could see that they were attracted to each other, but I didn\u2019t really feel the chemistry like I wanted to. Jace was seeing other women in front of Farrah before they got together \u2013 he even had another woman sitting on the other side of him when the subtle leg touches from Farrah on the couch started. I also never saw the point of keeping their feelings for each other a secret, and it felt disrespectful to Farrah that Jace wouldn\u2019t fight for her, and instead wanted to sneak around behind her brother\u2019s back.

<\/span>Spoiler<\/div>
And even when their secret relationship is revealed, I wanted Jace to stay by Farrah\u2019s side and stand up to Nathan, and I couldn\u2019t understand why \u2013 when it had all already blown up and Nathan knew everything \u2013 he still ran! For years!<\/div><\/div>He comes across as a bit of a coward, and I much prefer a strong hero who will fight for his girl. I thought that Farrah deserved better.<\/p>\n

So this book fell a bit flat for me. I wanted more intensity, and sadly it just wasn\u2019t there in this one. Still a good read though \u2013 especially the audiobook, narrated by Andie Arndt and Sebastian York.<\/p>\n

3 stars<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Check out our\u00a0Penelope Ward Author Spotlight<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy: \u00a0Amazon\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Apple Books\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0B&N\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Kobo\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Google Play\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Paperback\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Audio Review 3 stars A brother\u2019s-best-friend\/second-chance romance, this one left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. Farrah has been in love with her brother\u2019s best friend, Jace, since she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":3,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[443,9,24,29],"tags":[132,48,76],"class_list":["post-58511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brotherbest-friend","category-romance","category-second-chance-romance","category-steamy","tag-penelope-ward","tag-review","tag-standalone"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/The-Crush.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-fdJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}