Review: A sweet, tender and heart warming love story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 1, 2014
Wanted By You is the story of Ellyson (love the name!) and Carter, college best friends who always harbored feelings for the other yet never acted on them while in school.  It was the first day of freshman year outside his first class that Carter noticed the gorgeous red headed Elly.  He felt drawn to her, wanted to know her, decided then and there he would most definitely be spending as much time with her as possible, even if that meant just as friends.  As soon as Carter introduced himself to her, Elly felt the butterflies and honestly they never went away, but she never felt good enough for Carter and did not want to be the girlfriend of every other college girl's fantasy.  Elly was grateful to have him her her life and though she wanted more she would never jeopardize their friendship, it was just too important.Upon graduation circumstances literally force them to put some distance between themselves and it isn't until 5 years later that they once again run into one another.  So, what happens upon their reunion?  Will they pick back up as friends or will they finally give into the feelings they've always felt?  Will life once again get in the way of what could be an epic romance or will it allow these two the happiness they deserve?All in all I found this book to be such a sweet, tender, heart warming love story...the kind that makes you go aw!  Carter is this gorgeous guy whose been in love with Elly probably since the moment they met.  He cherished not only their friendship but also Elly as a person.  Over the years he's grown, he's had a lot of time to think about what he wants, who he wants to spend the rest of his life with and it always comes back to Elly.  I love how passionate he was about her, not only sexually but in supporting her career, giving her encouragement and reassurance when the time called for it.  Watching him fight for what he wanted only made him all the more swoon worthy.Ellyson is no damsel in distress and I couldn't have loved her more.  She is gorgeous, confident, successful in her career, has this huge heart and you get the sense people are just drawn to her.  She is loyal to her friends and doesn't want to settle in a relationship.  While on the one hand she knows is silly to hold a flaming torch for Carter she just hasn't met anyone else whose given her butterflies, and isn't that what all women want?  I was so proud of her for being bold and going after what she wanted, and my heart broke right along with her when her fears threaten to force her away from the happiness she deserved.For me the first half of the book seemed a little to easy going.  All the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place and while I enjoy seeing characters get their HEA it just felt as if something was missing from the bigger picture.  However after the 50% mark real life starts rearing its head and before I knew it I found myself feeling more connected to this couple, even shedding tears from time to time.  Every good story needs a little drama to challenge and test a couple, and I thought the real life drama author Steph Nuss provided was perfect for this couple.  Like all good challenges do, the ones Carter and Elly faced I believe really solidified their relationship and made for a more interesting and in depth story.  Selfishly I do wish we could have been given a epilogue so we could see a little more of Carter and Elly's future, but I'm excited to see what's in store for the rest of this series and the other characters we met this time around.  I'm thinking there are plenty of good story lines that need following!