Finding You by Elizabeth Lee
Series: Escaping #2
Publish Date: October 20, 2014
Source: Author for Review – Thank you!
Find It: Goodreads / Amazon / B&N
Being the wild child has worked for Mallory Vandaveer for most of her life. She’s the good time girl, up for anything–and everyone in her small town knows it. But when her sister came home after years of being away, long hidden secrets came out. Turns out, Mallory isn’t who she thought she was. And now everything starts to feel like a lie. In order to figure out who she is she’ll have to set out on a journey to find the one man who holds the answers.
Everett Boone is in hiding. Hiding from his past and the press and the demands of a career he put on hold after tragedy struck. When a young woman with secrets of her own blows into town and rents the apartment next to his, he’ll have to face the past he was trying to escape in order to understand his feelings for her.
They’ll both have to dig deep inside themselves to discover whether or not they’re capable of being enough for one another. Finding the person you’re meant to love isn’t the problem. Sometimes the hardest person to find is yourself. (from Goodreads)
Finding You by Elizabeth Lee
My Thoughts: Escaping Me by Elizabeth Lee is one of my favorite contemporary romances ever. And now look, there is a companion story! OH MY GOODNESS, I’m so excited!
******************************************************************
The first thing you need to know is this:
Mallory Vandaveer doesn’t hate her mother for lying to her about who she really is.
Instead, she goes to find the truth.
Mallory Vandaveer doesn’t hate her mother for lying to her about who she really is.
Instead, she goes to find the truth.
Mallory Vandaveer is awesome like that. She’s always been well-liked and pretty much the life of the party, so it isn’t a shock that she takes life-changing news about her unknown father like the champ that she is. Sure, it hurts her that the man she thought was her father really isn’t. Sure, she has a giant hole in her heart where her father should be. What does Mallory do about this? She seeks out her actual father…then she sets out to confront him, meet him, get to know him.
The thing is this: when Mallory gets close to him, as in geographically close, it isn’t as easy as she thinks it will be! She has no trouble at all being near him. But she has the hardest time telling him who she really is. Instead, Mallory decides to rent the vacant apartment over her father’s metal-working shop, get to know him (and the cute boy next door), and see how it goes. Hopefully she’ll get the courage to introduce herself as his daughter soon.
Did I mention that Mallory thinks the boy next door is cute? Because she also thinks he is obnoxious.
The second thing you need to know is this:
Everett Boone is an ex-pro golfer.
Mallory is sitting in her car outside of her father’s shop one day when Boone taps on the window, accusing her of looking for him. WHAT? Mallory has no clue who he is and no clue why he would think she is looking for him. Mallory doesn’t want him to find out why she is spying, so one thing leads to another…and this is how she ends up renting the apartment over the shop. Boone doesn’t make the best first impression. He acts a little self-inflated and needs an attitude adjustment, and Mallory can’t figure out why. She has no clue about his past professional life.
Truth is, Boone is harboring some guilt over a past event that he really couldn’t control. After this event, he slipped out of the public eye and he quit golf. He decided that he just didn’t want to do interviews, press conferences, public appearances, things like that anymore. The more Boone isolated himself, the more isolated he became. The Boone of today likes to work with metal and then pretty much hide out in his apartment, alone. Every day. Until Mallory comes along with her chirpy attitude and talkative self. Mallory makes him uncomfortable in the boxed-in world he has created, and things are about to get shaken up a bit.
The third thing you need to know is this:
Neither Boone nor Mallory want any sort of emotional attachment with one another. However…
When Boone feels stress or guilt or really any emotion at all, he bangs the heck out of his prized drum set…next door to Mallory’s apartment…which really annoys her. Now, he has already made a big deal of not wanting to be friends. But Mallory needs to tell him to shut down the late-night noise. Mallory, being Mallory – well, she decides to confront Boone by way of climbing in his window instead of knocking on his door.
OH LOOK, neighborly interaction is about to take place! And somehow sparks fly.
OH LOOK, neighborly interaction is about to take place! And somehow sparks fly.
The drum-playing and the crawling-thru-the-window start the conversation. The conversation leads to two adults that decide to have a relationship with no-strings/no-feelings-attached. These two adults decide that they’re totally capable of a friends-with-benefits thing.
This lasts for about two seconds and I loved it.
This lasts for about two seconds and I loved it.
******************************************************************
I fell in love with Finding You the same way I fell in love with Escaping Me. I started the book and couldn’t put it down. Mallory and her sister Whitney are one of the best things about this book and I love their relationship. Their hilarious back-and-forth banter and interaction made me smile because they remind me a little of myself and my sisters, minus the looking-for-my-father part. They look out for one another and there is genuine love there. The other characters are fun too with great backstories and once again, the story takes place in a great setting. I’m in book love.
Mallory makes no apologies for who she is, for who she used to be, and for who she wants to be. She embraces everything about herself from the wild-child ways of her high school years to the feelings of “I’m a little unsure of exactly how this is going to play out!” that she is experiencing while she is dealing with her present situation. I can’t imagine how I would deal with not knowing my dad, then finding my dad, then moving closer to my dad, then having to work up the courage to introduce myself to him. I love love love how this was written into the story and incorporated into the romance as a whole. Mallory made me laugh all along the way, which is exactly what I expected after meeting her in Escaping Me, and I loved her for it BUT ALSO she brought this really cool sense of reality to her situation that made me feel connected to her story. It wasn’t so serious that this book become bogged down with issues, but it was the perfect amount of real-life and romance.
Basically Mallory is my favorite type of female lead, the both strong and vulnerable kind, and she wears this well.
And Boone, what a guy. Again! Author Elizabeth Lee always seems to write some of my favorite romantic guys. Here we have an ex-athlete with a thing in his past that he is trying to work through – he isn’t alpha-male angsty, he just needs someone to show him some kindness and be nice to him. He’s a drummer. He’s handsome. He works with metal. MAYBE THE BEST thing about Boone? The way he and his family have reconnect after the big event that I’ve been hinting at strained their relationship, which suggests personal growth and development. I am ALL ABOUT some family reconnections lately in books and YES YES YES to this one.
Mallory makes no apologies for who she is, for who she used to be, and for who she wants to be. She embraces everything about herself from the wild-child ways of her high school years to the feelings of “I’m a little unsure of exactly how this is going to play out!” that she is experiencing while she is dealing with her present situation. I can’t imagine how I would deal with not knowing my dad, then finding my dad, then moving closer to my dad, then having to work up the courage to introduce myself to him. I love love love how this was written into the story and incorporated into the romance as a whole. Mallory made me laugh all along the way, which is exactly what I expected after meeting her in Escaping Me, and I loved her for it BUT ALSO she brought this really cool sense of reality to her situation that made me feel connected to her story. It wasn’t so serious that this book become bogged down with issues, but it was the perfect amount of real-life and romance.
Basically Mallory is my favorite type of female lead, the both strong and vulnerable kind, and she wears this well.
And Boone, what a guy. Again! Author Elizabeth Lee always seems to write some of my favorite romantic guys. Here we have an ex-athlete with a thing in his past that he is trying to work through – he isn’t alpha-male angsty, he just needs someone to show him some kindness and be nice to him. He’s a drummer. He’s handsome. He works with metal. MAYBE THE BEST thing about Boone? The way he and his family have reconnect after the big event that I’ve been hinting at strained their relationship, which suggests personal growth and development. I am ALL ABOUT some family reconnections lately in books and YES YES YES to this one.
This romance is fun because it sneaks up on Mallory and Boone when they don’t plan it, they don’t expect it, and they really don’t want it. I LOVE THAT. Both Mallory and Boone have these awesome, nerve-wrecking, I LIKE YOU SO MUCH BUT I’M SO NERVOUS feelings. So fun! It’s so fun to see Whitney’s sister get a chance to tell her story AND so fun to see Whitney and Cole pop back up in the book.
I recommend Finding You to fans of New Adult Contemporary Romance and fans of characters that make big life changes. Readers that enjoy sibling relationships and family reconnections may also love this one! This is a companion that can be read as a standalone, SURE, but I love the heck out of the other book in the series too so why not give them both a try? I’m so excited for Whitney and Boone, you guys. I want you all to be excited too.
******************************************************************
Finding You will appeal to fans of:
New Adult Contemporary Romance
Romance: Slow burn. No triangle. Steamy!
Romance: Slow burn. No triangle. Steamy!
Alternating POV
Family/Sibling Relationship
Great Setting
Finding You by Elizabeth Lee
is currently available for purchase.
******************************************************************
Have you read Escaping Me?
Do you like your stories a little bit country?
A little bit rock and roll?
If you do, this series is for you.
Escaping Me / Finding You
Do you like your stories a little bit country?
A little bit rock and roll?
If you do, this series is for you.
Escaping Me / Finding You
About Asheley
Asheley is a Southern girl. She loves Carolina blue skies, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and NC craft beer. She loves all things history but prefers books over everything.
You can find her somewhere in North Carolina, daydreaming about the ocean.
Find Asheley on Litsy @intothehallofbooks!
Leave a Reply