COURTNEY REVIEWS: ONLY FOR YOU by GENNA RULON

Series: For You #1
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Self-pub
Publication Date: 9/24/13
Format: ebook
Pages: 390
Source: Author
Rating: 3.5 stars

“In its purest form love is self-sacrificing, eternal, selfless, enduring, truthful, forgiving and indulgent. It also feels an awful lot like a kick to the stomach when you try to fight it!”

All Everleigh Carsen wanted to do was complete her final semester at Hensley University and begin the life she carefully planned.

When a wave of violent crime seizes campus, Everleigh is persuaded to attend a school sponsored self-defense seminar by her best friend, where she meets volunteer instructor, Hunter Charles. After Everleigh’s biting sarcasm induces Hunter to eject her from class, a tempestuous relationship is born.

Everleigh is determined to forget the striking man, but fate—that fickle shrew—continuously intervenes. Unable to escape him, she declares Hunter an enemy combatant. The only complication…Hunter is resolutely pursuing vindication…by any means necessary. Verbal warfare ensues, and despite Everleigh’s ingenious efforts, in Hunter, she has finally found her equal.

Only For You is a compelling tale of friendship, desire, and redemption—brimming with intelligent characters, witty dialogue, unexpected twists, profound sorrow, unfettered hope, and love’s unassailable perseverance.

 
Only For You begins with Everleigh and Sam, two best friends who are in their last year of college, going through their day to day routines while girls are transferring from their college left and right because girls are being assaulted left and right. They don't know who attacked them, and there is no DNA evidence. Therefore, every single guy they meet be it a student, teacher, TA, security guard etc on campus is a potential suspect. Yikes!

Everleigh is signed up by Sam to partake in a self defense class and meets the enigmatic Hunter Charles. He leads the class, and her smart mouth gets her in trouble for the first time in this story...so he kicks her out. As fate would have it he is in a couple of her business classes and they embark on a friendship through Everleigh's wild thought processes and best friend tests!

The un-conventional un-boyfriend best-friendship that they share? Yep..very unconventional! But it made for a good time! They can go toe to toe about almost anything, and Ev's most sought after goal is to finally one up him and get the last word. The slow burn...and do I mean slow was pure torture. Assumptions on Everleigh's part keeps their friendship platonic for the first half of the story, but she soon wants more when those assumptions are blown wide open! Isn't it funny how you don't want something until you know you can't have it for reasons that don't make sense? Yes, this story is like that. There are things going on that make Hunter emotionally unavailable to intimacy while still being an ah-freaking-mazing best friend!

It is definitely a story of finding yourself, finding your path, and finding the people that you're hoping to share the rest of your life with. And I loved that this idea doesn't always necessarily mean a significant other. Friends and friendships were way more important. Neither of these girls gave up each other and their relationship to solely focus on their dating pursuits. There was plenty of girl time, and I am at a point in my life where I'm like "Heck yeah! Girls, DO NOT lose your friends when you gain a guy!" Though I really enjoyed the story, the people, and the pace there were a lot of times that the dialogue is very, very formal. Very formal. Not so much that I didn't enjoy the story, because obviously I did because I'm telling you...but sometimes it didn't seem like someone my age would talk, and for the record I am 24.

So other than the fairly minor issue I already laid out (I think this will be a very individualized problem, tbh...aka it may not bother you), I enjoyed this story...and the end sets up the hard times that are ahead in Pieces For You for Sam. Poor Sam :( So check this out today, and there is a special bonus chapter on Genna's website with an alternate point-of-view from Hunter that I am going to check out right now!

 

 

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About the author 

Genna Rulon is an up and coming contemporary romance author.

During her 15 years in the corporate world, Genna, inspired by her love of reading, fantasized about penning her own stories. Encouraged by her favorite authors, many of whom are indie writers and self-published, she committed to pursuing her aspirations of writing her own novels.

Genna was raised in Long Island, New York, where she still resides, surrounded by the most amazing family and friends. Married to a wonderful man, who patiently tolerates her ramblings about whichever book she is currently working on, even feigning interest relatively convincingly! Genna is blessed with two little boys who do their best to thwart mommy's writing time with their hilarious antics and charming extrapolations.

 

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