Review: Bounce

BOUNCE
Boomerang #3
Noelle August
Contemporary New Adult
304 pages
William Morrow
Available August 25th
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Amazon)
When you have one chance to become a star, you can't let love get in the way . . .

Playing the occasional club gig just isn't cutting it for twenty-two-year-old cellist Skyler Canby, who's trying to support herself and her mother back home in Kentucky. When she accompanies her best friend Beth on an audition for the first feature film launched by Blackwood Entertainment, she figures, Why not? Beth's a shoe-in for the lead, but maybe Skyler's newly dyed pink hair will help her stand out enough to score a small speaking part.

Never in her wildest dreams does Skyler imagine she'll land the lead role or that she'll have her socks knocked off by the kiss her audition partner, Grey Blackwood, plants on her—a kiss that feels very real and not at all like acting.

Reckless musician Grey Blackwood spends his days fetching coffee and doing odd jobs on the set of his CEO brother's newest project, but he lives for nights when he performs with his band. He knows that if he can stay focused, success as a singer is just around the corner. But that's tough with a distracting pink-haired girl occupying his every waking thought. Skyler and Grey have every reason to resist each other. But, like a song neither of them can get out of their minds, they have no choice but to go where the music takes them.

MY THOUGHTS
Bounce continues in the same vein as Boomerang and Rebound before it, delivering a sweet, low-drama New Adult romance between to people with whom it's a joy to spend a few hours. Unlike the previous two books however, a faint love triangle comes into play as things between Grey and Skyler progress, and though it's not a major source of angst for any of the parties involved, Skyler spending time with another guy when it's obvious she and Grey are going to get together is still somewhat off-putting for those of us who like the path to love to be a straight line between two points rather than three.

Our relationship with Grey starts out a bit rocky as we're reunited with him when his older brother Adam comes home to find his beautiful home trashed thanks to a party thrown in his absence, but the writing team of Noelle August does a beautiful job of growing him up over the course of the book. Grey proves he's capable of learning from his mistakes with each chapter, putting forth a valiant effort to stand and meet his problems head-on rather than running away and licking his wounds, becoming a young man we want to see achieve whatever goal he sets for himself by the end. Skyler doesn't quite have the same maturity hurdles to overcome as Grey, but she does learn a few things about herself thanks to a business that's brutal on even those with the thickest of skins, taking some of Grey's newfound strength to prop herself up when her legs get knocked from underneath her.

The romance itself is perhaps the slowest burning of all three Boomerang books due in large part to the aforementioned triangle and Grey's younger age (he's nineteen), leading us on a merry dance of hesitation and flirtation until the very end when things finally heat up between them. Overall, Bounce is another hugely enjoyable tale from Noelle August, giving us plenty of depth and complexity in our lead pair (and a standout secondary character in Garrett Allen) to have us feeling as though we've learned a great deal about them by the time we reach the last page, and leaving us with a satisfied smile as we take comfort in the knowledge that good things lie in store for them both.

Rating: 4/5

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.