Rebound Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway

REBOUND
Boomerang #2
Noelle August
Contemporary New Adult
288 pages
William Morrow
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY
At Boomerang, one night can change everything…

Noelle August has taken the New Adult genre by storm, and readers can’t wait to see what chaos, confusion, and connections arise at the Boomerang offices next.

Adam Blackwood has it all. At twenty-three, he’s fabulously wealthy, Ryan Gosling-hot and at the top of his game in the business world. His life is perfect, until a scandal from his past resurfaces and threatens to knock the tech wunderkind down and throw his company, Boomerang, a hook-up site for millennials, into chaos.

Alison Quick, the twenty-one-year-old daughter of a business tycoon—and the very ex-girlfriend of Boomerang’s former intern, Ethan—has a problem of her own. After nearly flunking out in her senior year of college, she has one chance to redeem herself to her father by proving that she deserves a place in his corporate empire. That means spearheading her father’s plan to sink big money into Adam’s company and launch it into the stratosphere—provided Adam has no skeletons in his closet.

When the two meet, their sizzling chemistry makes it tough to keep things strictly professional. But when Alison discovers Adam’s secret, she knows she should bring it right to her father, who’ll leverage it for his own gain and use it to ruin Adam. The only problem: she’s falling for Adam—hard.

Will earning her father’s approval come at the price of losing her first real love? Or can Adam and Alison leave behind past mistakes and conquer the world—together?

MY THOUGHTS
Rebound takes everything that was successful about its predecessor and improves upon it, keeping the levity but deepening the emotional element as Ali and Adam struggle to get out from underneath the guilt of past actions. While there are plenty of light moments, thanks mostly to a team of standout secondary characters and an absolutely hilarious team building instructor, there's an extra layer of tension to this tale that wasn't present in Boomerang. It's easy to tell early on how things are going to go bad for our lead couple, the business partnership Adam is trying to form with Alison's father causing red flag after red flag to wave madly in our peripheral vision as we prepare to steel ourselves for the inevitable fallout. Luckily for us however, the team of Noelle August never allows their stories to be weighed down too heavily with drama and angst, freeing us from unnecessary entanglements and allowing all that's good about Adam and Ali to shine through.

Ali has some difficult hurdles to overcome in terms of earning reader affection given that cheating for many like myself is a nearly unforgivable offense, but Ali quickly proves she is so much more than a single mistake and it's impossible not to love her after just a few chapters. She never makes excuses for her past actions with Ethan, owning them completely and showing a great deal of remorse, but she also focuses on moving forward and making sure history never repeats itself. Adam is every bit as enjoyable as Ali, largely free of the ego that would typically accompany someone who's experienced the kind of success he has at so young an age, and though it takes him longer to cut free the ties keeping him tethered to his past, by the end he's embraced the totality of his life and is only looking to the future. The two of them together are sweet, vulnerable and oh-so sexy, ensuring they easily find their way onto our shelf of favorites.

In addition to an outstanding lead pair, Noelle August also gives us a cast of secondary characters who beautifully challenge the protagonists for their share of our love, nearly coming out on top a number of times. So many of them, Grey and Cookie in particular, clearly have stories to tell, and here's hoping this series sees them all have their moment in the limelight.

Rating: 4/5

Want a little more Adam and Ali? Then you're in luck because I have a short except to share:

Ali laughs. Her gaze feels like sunshine on my back, but I don’t turn around. I pull my wetsuit up to my waist, adjusting myself so I’m comfortable. The cool Neoprene layer feels familiar and my body responds, my heart thumping hard, anticipation rushing through my veins. The prospect of the ocean always does this to me. This has nothing to do with the girl behind me.

“Adam?”

Ali’s voice is close. Turning, I almost bump into her.

Her wetsuit is all the way on, which is good. And terrible.

“What’s up?” I ask.

She smells like suntan oil and peaches. This close, I see that her cheeks are turning slightly pink from the sun. With her hair pulled back, no makeup, and the wetsuit covering her completely, she looks better than she has all week at the office. Better than she did in the Catwoman costume. There’s something powerful about her now. The way her slender legs are planted firmly on the swaying boat, like she’s not trying at all. She’s at home on the water. This from an admitted equestrian. I can only imagine what she’s like with her horses.

“Sorry, but . . .” She smiles and points at her back. “My zipper’s jammed.” She turns around and pulls her ponytail up. “Can you help me out?”

“Sure. You want this on, right? Just want to be sure.”

I can’t see her face, but I know she’s smiling. “Yes. On please.”

I allow myself a moment to enjoy the way she looks right in front of me. Then I take the zipper leash, letting my knuckles drift over her back, just above the knot of her bikini.

If I weren’t completely focused on her, I’d have missed the way she curls slightly toward me.

Focus, Blackwood. Zip the wetsuit up.

Amazon • B&N • IndieBound

And get ready to Bounce in August of 2015 when the third book in Boomerang series releases!

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Question: What do you get when friends pen a story with heart, plenty of laughs, and toe-curling kissing scenes? Answer: Noelle August, the pseudonym for renowned editor and award-winning writer Lorin Oberweger and New York Times bestselling YA author Veronica Rossi, the masterminds behind the Boomerang series.

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