REVIEW - Noah by Elizabeth Reyes
Author : Elizabeth Reyes
Source : Given
Pages : 254 (e-book)
Publisher : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Summary from Goodreads :
Veronica Cruz has been through hell and back. After disconnecting with the world two years ago to be at the side of her dying mother, she’s left alone, unemployed, overweight, and feeling a decade older than her twenty-eight years. When her best friend coaxes her into joining the local gym to ditch her depression and rejuvenate her life, she meets Noah. Assigned to help Veronica lose weight, Noah is everything she expected a young trainer to be—perfectly chiseled, supportive and motivating. Add to that, he’s incredibly sexy. He’s everything she’s ever looked for in a man. What she least expected was for him to fall for her, but he has. There's just one glaring problem: Noah is eight years younger.
Noah Quintanilla has his eye on a boxing title—someday. Down for a few months with an injury, his maintenance-boy pay at 5th Street Gym won't cut it. He’s finally given the opportunity to train. The catch? His trainee is an out-of-shape woman with a free week pass. Taking on the challenge, Noah stumbles into one of the closest friendships he’s ever known, and before he knows it, he’s in love. But Veronica’s not having it—the age difference is too much. Their platonic relationship means having to watch her date other men—something that would make him crazy. Believing he's the man for her, Noah sets out to prove that age is but an illusion, and there's more to him than just a number.
Review :
At first, thank you Nana from Reading in The Morning who provided this book for me. I really appreciate it, you know it rite? ;D
Noah happened to be the second contemporary New Adult book I've read after Beautiful Disaster and also the first book I read in 2013 as a refreshing start and yeah, I love it! =D Probably with a right portion like this book, New Adult could be a new favorite genre of mine. The story itself is something I would like immediately. It sounds both realistic and also dreamy at the same time. Seriously, who doesn't want to find unexpected love from the unexpected person, who would love you unconditionally? But in reality, the main issue in this book is not something you can accept lightly, at least for me.
When the first I read the summary, I thought Reyes was pretty bold to pick up this issue as part story concept and I was pretty curious how this issue would work in this story. I imagined if I were Roni, would I want to date a boy who is 8 years younger than me? No matter how hot, sexy, irresistible he was, um... I think I'd like to think twice, no, five times before I decided something like that. I still find a wide age gap between an older girl with a younger boy is kind of awkward, I've read a lot of convincing quotes that told me age is just a number but well, I'm still not convinced enough. Yet, I have to admit this book quite changed my perspective about age-gap between a lover though still only ... a half =p.
Everything about the story feels so right for me. The pace is not too slow yet not too rushed either. Relationship between Veronica and Noah happens quite naturally, how at first they begin it with a good friendship (which is fun, witty, sexy, just wow! =D) and it slowly grows as a love and it's really beautiful. There's a stage where they live together under the same roof because Veronica is a kind heart like that and honestly I was pretty afraid the story would move too 'abruptly' to the next step because of this condition but yet thankfully it's not. I was glad that the author has, what should I call it, a respect for the issue and didn't make Veronica as a dumb girl who jumps easily into such a relationship without think twice and also didn't make Noah as a bastard who force his will to Veronica. They slowly develop their relationship and when it comes, I'm talking about a new year eve scene, the first make-up one, oh wow, pretty hot here *fanning my face*
I simply love the main characters here. Because of thoughts I have previously, Veronica's uneasy feeling and hesitancy about her feeling toward Noah are very relatable. I understand her very well while I also love to see how she struggles to fix her life quality, how she spends her time with Noah (which is very sweet and thoughtful,mutually from both side), knowing him farther and finally found reasons to accept Noah despite of his young age. Noah, oooh he's such a perfect example of a perfect guy and I really adore him. He has a lot qualities in him, physically and mentally. He's naturally well-matured because of his tough life but he still has that sweet, adorable side of a 19 years old boy who easily get jealous when someone is getting closer to a person he loves *swoon*.
As a New Adult novel, this book pretty much has profanities and some explicit smexy scenes but thank God the author didn't abuse it and made it in a pretty right proportion. This book is beautiful and fun, it's not just the romance that can steal every hearts, but also there are a lot of good other things you can see in it. And maybe one important thing I got from this book is that maturity is not depend on number(s) on your age, but from how life has done to shape out our personality =).
So yeah, if you want to read good contemporary romance which is maturer than YA, this novel can be your perfect choice. I can't wait to read Gio, another my favorite boy from Noah's gang. Once again, thank you Nana for providing the sequel as well! =D
Happy reading, everyone! ;)
