Stay With Me by J. Lynn - Wait for You Series book #3

Stay With Me
By J. Lynn (Jennifer Armentrout)
Wait For You Series book #3
Paperback: 448 pgs
Published: September 23, 2014
By: William Morrow Paperbacks
Rated: 5 out of 5 Stars

At 21, Calla hasn’t done a lot of things. She’s never been kissed, never seen the ocean, never gone to an amusement park. But growing up, she witnessed some things no child ever should. She still carries the physical and emotional scars of living with a strung-out mother, Mona—secrets she keeps from everyone, including her close circle of college friends.

But the safe cocoon Calla has carefully built is shattered when she discovers her mom has stolen her college money and run up a huge credit card debt in her name. Now, Calla has to go back to the small town she thought she'd left behind and clean up her mom’s mess again. Of course, when she arrives at her mother’s bar, Mona is nowhere to be found. Instead, six feet of hotness named Jackson James is pouring drinks and keeping the place humming.

Sexy and intense, Jax is in Calla’s business from the moment they meet, giving her a job and helping her search for Mona. And the way he looks at her makes it clear he wants to get horizontal . . . and maybe something more. Before Calla can let him get close, though, she’s got to deal with the pain of the past—and some very bad guys out to mess her up if she doesn’t give them her mom.

Holy crap on a cracker.

This is the first book that I've ever given a full five star rating to, and it is truly deserved. I'm blown away, yet again, by the amazing talent that is Miss Jennifer Armentrout. Sigh. I am usually torn by books that change main characters throughout the series. Beginning this one, I was missing Jace, the sexy book boyfriend from Be With Me. Jace who? Jax is incredible, the best written male character that I've ever read. He is driven, patient, stubborn, and did I mention, Hot with a capital H? I fell in love with him as soon as he was introduced to the story, with his cocky attitude and straight forward comments. Calla is also a wonderfully written character, although I never felt a connection to her in the first two books in the series. I found myself connecting with her almost instantly in this one, and experienced her ups and downs as a reader, right along with her. The story line was not lacking at all. I am drawn to the paranormal genre of books because romance typically doesn't cut it for me, but this book had so much going on that I never gave it much thought. The relationship building between Calla and Jax isn't the entire focus of the book, and for that, I am grateful. The fact that Jennifer Armentrout can make any dramatic situation humorous is another reason why I love her writing style. I found myself giggling more than a few times, and there were, of course, a few tears as well. All in all, I couldn't be more pleased with this latest installment in the Wait for You Series. Kudos to you, Miss Armentrout, for receiving my first five star rating!

"'Oh, no. I'm not talking about what has already happened. It's what's about to happen.' Katie leaned onto the bar, and I thought her boobs were going to spill right out of the top of her sequined dress and wipe down the bar for me. It would be like a nipple wipe-down. 'You see, I got the gift.' The gift of stripping? 'Um, what kind of gift?' 'Oh boy,' muttered Roxy. Katie tapped a long, French manicured finger off her temple. 'The gift. Sight. Psychic. Whatever they're calling it nowadays. I get feelings about things and I just know things.' Um... 'So, um... did you have this gift in high school?' I asked. Katie laughed. 'No. I had an accident. Woke up the next day with the gift.' 'What... what kind of accident?' I asked, wondering if I should know or not. 'Oh Lordy Lord,' muttered Roxy. 'Fell off the damn pole.' Oh my god. 'The pole?' She nodded as she ran a fingertip along the bottom of her life. 'Yep. Those damn bitches oil themselves up like they're going to take a skinny dip in a deep fryer, so sometimes the pole gets slippery if it doesn't get wiped down. A short giggle escaped Roxy and ended in a forced, fake cough as she grabbed a bottle and then three shot glasses. Oh no. 'Anyway, I got on the pole for a show. Busy night, too. On a Saturday, and I was doing this thing where I hang upside down.' Katie leaned back and raised her arms, and for a second, I thought she was going to reenact the whole thing, and I had a feeling it was about to become a boob apocalypse. 'And I was all like this.' Twisting her arms together, a rather convincing sexed-over look crossed her pretty face. 'Just upside down, right?' 'Right,' I mumbled as Roxy poured brown liquid into three shot glasses. 'Next thing I know, my legs are slipping down the pole, and I'm all like 'Man down!', or at least 'Stripper down!'' Another funny-sounding cough escaped Roxy as she slammed the bottle on the bar, and I forced myself to take several deep breaths as I murmured, 'Oh noes.' 'Yep,' she said. 'Cracked my head right off the stage. I was out like a belly button.' Out like a belly button? What the what?" -Katie, Roxy, and Calla

"Jax was staring down the guy on the other side of the bar, and then he was moving forward. Slamming one hand down on the bar top, he launched up over the bar, landing nimbly on the other side, inches from the guy. 'Holy crap,' I whispered, eyes wide. I'd never seen anyone do something like that. Didn't even know it was possible. Jax hadn't even hit a bar stool. It was like he propelled himself over the bar all the time. Maybe that's what he did during down time, winging himself back and forth over the bar. 'I said, get the fuck out of here.' Jax got right up in his face, and him being a good head taller than the other guy, it was pretty impressive. 'Right this fucking second, you wannabe ganster.'"

"I wouldn't get any kind of normal, not with a guy like Jax. Not when he might'e gotten over my jacked-up scar on my face, but hadn't seen or felt the rest of me. This wasn't about having a low self esteem, being inexperienced or weak, or being nervous to get naked because I needed to drop twenty pounds. My body was wrecked. There was nothing attractive about it." -Calla

"Maybe all men had a tongue that was literally a mass weapon of assured seduction." -Calla

"Tequila is a dirty whore." -Calla

Reviews related to this one: Be With Me - Wait for You #2; Wait for You Book #1

Connect with Jennifer Armentrout: JenniferArmentrout.com; Goodreads; Twitter; Amazon; Barnes & Noble.

Tags: Jennifer Armentrout, book reviews, romance.