Review: Like Rachel and Kai!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 27, 2014
Rachel and Kai have known each other for years. Rachel’s best friend, Dakota, is also Kai’s sister. When a motorcycle accident caused Rachel to spend months recovering from near-fatal injuries, Kai and Dakota rallied around her and made sure she always had support.Since running away to college, Rachel has created a new version of herself, and has worked to keep the two parts of her life separate. Rachel projects an image that is confident and independent. Her college friends know little of her past, and what they do know is shades of the truth. Her family and friends from home wouldn’t recognize the girl who has spent the last three years in college. But returning home to help her mom move her business means facing her friends, at least for the summer.Kai is still trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. After losing his music industry internship in Amsterdam, he is living with his sister, trying to stay true to himself, while also pleasing his disapproving father.When the two old friends find themselves living together for the summer, the connection from their childhood begins to grow again. Both are attracted to the other, but neither have ever expressed those feelings to the other. And as their physical relationship develops, both are afraid to push for a deeper relationship, and the secrets keep piling up.I liked Kai and Rachel together. Beyond their history, they each understand the other so well that they think they know what is best and keep from challenging the other emotionally. Even when they were not acknowledging deeper feelings between them, each watched out for and tried to protect each other in such a way that if their families had been looking for it, they would have seen what was going on.Whisper to Me is sweet without being saccharine, and emotional without being overwhelming. It was entertaining with great, relatable characters and a fun plotline. While I haven’t read the other books in the series, Whisper to Me stands alone nicely. The couples from the previous books make a few appearances, at important plot points, and have peaked my interest in their own stories to the point where I will seek out All of You and Before You Break, as well as watch for Promise Me This, the next book in the series.I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.