ARC Review: Bounce (Boomerang #3) by Noelle August @noelle_august @WmMorrowBk

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. Persuaded by her best friend Beth to accompany her 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 shoes knocked off her feet by the kiss her audition partner, Grey Blackwood, plants on her—a kiss that feels very real and not at all “acted. ” 

After throwing a party that causes thousands of dollars of damage to his older brother’s home, reckless musician Grey Blackwood gets roped into working off his debt on the set of his CEO brother’s newest project. Grey spends his days fetching coffee and doing odd jobs around the studio, but he lives for nights when he performs with his band. He knows 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.

Title: Bounce (Boomerang #3)
Author: Noelle August
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: August 25, 2015

Barnes and Noble

Brooke's Review:

I want to thank William Morrow for providing me with a copy of this book to read and give an honest review. Receiving this book for free has in no way altered my opinion or review.

I have fallen in love with Noelle August. I loved Boomerang. Just the idea of the book made me happy, and reading it more so. And then August wrote Rebound and I was floored. I absolutely adored the relationship between the main characters in that book. So, of course, I jumped at the chance to read this one by August because how could I go wrong, right?

I will say I totally fell in love with Grey in the previous books. Sexy and just a bit of a bad boy, he was right up my ally. Of course he comes with his baggage, things in his past that he hides and doesn't want to reveal to anyone. But I needed to know why he was the way he was, and who he was! I mean, who doesn't like the mysterious younger brother? I adored his parts of this book. His slow reveal of who he is and why he is the way he is was my favorite part of the story. I couldn't help but want to hug him during so many parts of this book. He's portrayed very realistically for me.

I liked that we got to know Skylar in this book. She comes with her own baggage. And she certainly never thinks she'll fall for the immature brother of one of the wealthiest guys she knows. She certainly starts out strong, enough to know what she needs as far as a job and isn't afraid to go after it, despite not having the experience in the acting field. But then she slowly declines into something of a doormat. I didn't like that she was so wishy washy about her relationships. She just could not make up her mind who she wanted. Too many potential love interests for me to really believe the final outcome. It's like she was completely turned around from the woman you meet on the first page.

This book started off with a bang. The attraction between the two main characters, and the chemistry, is obvious. I love that they lose themselves in each other in a single moment and that is where I thought they book would take off and show me this never ending chemistry. But the relationship is very slow building. And there weren't as many romantic instances in this book as I would have liked. As a matter of fact, I found this book to be two stories: Grey's and Skylar's. But I never really felt it was their story. It didn't build enough of the relationship between them to make me really think they had a connection.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as much as the previous books. The writing was still great, but I just felt like the book didn't address the romance between the two main characters. I understand they needed to build a friendship first, but I didn't see enough of them together to really get this. Overall, I wanted to be more wow'd but I wasn't. That doesn't mean I won't immediately pick up anything this author writes in the future, because I know future stories are going to be fantastic!

About the Author:
NOELLE AUGUST is an anagram for Veronica Rossi and Lorin Oberweger. Just kidding, it's a pen name!

VERONICA ROSSI is the author of the New York Times Best-selling UNDER THE NEVER SKY trilogy for young adults. The books are available in more than thirty countries and the film rights have been optioned by Warner Bros.

Veronica completed undergraduate studies at UCLA and lives in Northern California with her husband and two sons. She is fond of dresses with pockets, fluffy dogs, and cheese and chocolate -- but not together.

LORIN OBERWEGER began her storytelling career by captivating her first-grade class with tales of her summers on a kibbutz in Israel.

Lorin had never been to Israel.

While teacher/parent night put an end to her first experiments in fiction, she’d already caught the bug and eventually made a career of all things story.

As a long-time independent editor and story development guru, Lorin's client successes range from small press publications to major bestselling novels. She's an award-winning author and has also worked behind the scenes as a ghostwriter on a variety of projects. Her work has received starred Kirkus reviews and glowing mentions in The New York Times.

Oh, she did get to see a kibbutz, eventually, and found out she had it pretty much right all along.

Veronica and Lorin met at a writing workshop and just knew they were destined to create awesome things together.