Review: Another Liz masterpiece - and with nerdy hunk! YES!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 31, 2012
Read this and other reviews at [...]By now, most people that've followed my blog since the beginning know that I love Liz Reinhardt's writing. Her Brenna Blixen series is one of my favorites. From that series, we met Evan Lennox...and from Evan came the Youngblood crew. Perfectly Unmatched is the second book in the Youngblood series and is focused on Benelli, the younger sister to Winch, but eldest daughter of the family.After finding out her boyfriend, whom she thought would be the perfect guy to bring into the family business, was cheating on her, Benelli flees to Hungary for an earlier summer vacation with her extended family. While it's a vacation, it's also her time to try and find the guy that's going to help save the Youngblood family, whose businesses are crumbling under the surmounting pressure felt by her father. She knows she won't find love, but she hopes that come later. But, in an attempt to escape an awkward acquaintance one day, she stumbles upon (quite literally) Cormac Halstrom.I loved Cormac almost immediately. He was a little nerdy, but still had this studious sexiness to him, which I totally found attractive. As much as I love the bad boy rockers and all that jazz, my real life romance is with a web designer, who I swear gets turned on talking about HTML and logos and analytics and Google rankings. So for me, I could relate to the attraction that Benelli felt for him. And he made me laugh. He was honest about his goofiness, and made me laugh. I love that.{{"Also, my Hungarian is fairly limited, so we got all this by the grace of some complicated sign language and something resembling a rain dance on my part. Not very pretty."}}Now - here's where she drove me crazy a bit. But for good reason. She was naive. And a princess. She's spent her life sheltered, and while she's tough as nails, and thinks she's doing something selfless by marrying for business, she doesn't have much regard for Cormac's feelings in the beginning. Luckily, though, he stood his ground with her, and she did grow and come around. I particularly loved seeing a bit of Winch and Evan too - and the advice he had for Benelli.{{"If you never listen to a word I say for the rest of our lives, listen now. Choose love. Don't take the easy way out. Choose someone who will push you and challenge you. Okay? Do that because that's what you deserve."}}Liz has the crazy talent for creating dynamic characters that you fall in love with, as well as stories that can seem so far off from your life, but you somehow end up relating to. This was no exception. Oh - and wanna know what else she's great at? STEAM IN THE NA GENRE! HOLY HOTNESS. I think this was her hottest one yet, and it was not gratuitous or trashy. It was perfect and fitting given the age and circumstances for the characters. And I loved every second of it. Oh my god, did I ever.So anyways, Cormac and Benelli, they have soooo many hurdles to jump. So many. Like the fact that he's not at all the cookie cutter guy she needs to fill the hole in her family, but more than that, she can't stop thinking about him, even while going on dates with other potential suitors. Oh, and then when her family gets involved, there's a whole other set of issues for them. In the end, though, I was happy to see how it all came together. It wasn't an easy journey, and for a decent chunk of the story, I thought `there's no way in hell this can work, especially without Cormac sacrificing himself completely.' Thankfully, however, both characters made the necessary changes to make the relationship work for them. Oh and they were sexy while doing that. Did I mention that?{{"You could call anytime and I'd come running. There isn't a chance in hell you'd need, and I wouldn't come to you."}}I give this story 4 stars (if I'm being honest, which, let's face it, I must), it could have used some proofing and editing clean up, but really, it always amazes me how Liz continues to top her stories. I haven't read something of hers yet that wasn't poetic, moving, sexy, relatable and just awesome. I cannot recommend her books enough, and as always when finishing a book of hers, cannot wait for the next to come out. And knowing how fast she pumps books out, it won't be that long of a wait. :)I had to include this passage - perfect example of her amazing way with words!{{I ask, wanting her to weave this story and make it intimate for me. I don't want to be Pan at the window, looking in on what I desire. I want to accept the thimble from my Wendy, and fly away with her on foreign adventures, then stay by her side when I bring her back home.}}