Review: In Review: Effortless With You (Effortless With You #1) by Lizzy Charles
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 4, 2014
Effortless With You is one of those books I bought when it was first released because it sounded like it would be right up my alley. Unfortunately, between review copies and other books, it got shoved to the side and sadly forgotten about. It wasn't until I signed up to participate in the blog tour for the second book in the series, Perfectly Messy, and the publisher sent me a review copy of this book to read in preparation that I realized I had never gotten around to reading it. Now I'm kicking myself for waiting this long to read it, but happy I was able to read the second book in the series nearly immediately following finishing the first, while the characters were still fresh in my mind.I absolutely adored both Lucy and Justin, despite wanting to scream at them at times. Lucy was a bit of a spoiled brat on the surface, but there was more to her than met the eye. She was a lot stronger than she appeared and I enjoyed watching her character develop during the course of the summer. Justin was hot and sexy, with a bit of an attitude, but not so much of an attitude that it made me dislike him. There was more to him than met the eye as well. He's hard-working and thoughtful and an all-around good guy.The romance in this book was sweet and charming. I love the friends first trope and the slow burn of a new, building relationship. Lucy and Justin both had significant others when they began working together and they slowly built a friendship. After Justin saves Lucy during an intense situation while on the job, Lucy thinks she might have more than friendly feelings, but Justin quickly makes it known that they are just friends. Things start to shift between them after a betrayal of the worst kind (that wasn't exactly surprising) and after some secrets are revealed. Justin and Lucy had great chemistry and I enjoyed their banter.I'll classify this as a romance, because that was certainly part of the story, but there was definitely more to this book than just that. The character growth and development for both Lucy and Justin was great. It was a summer of learning – and love – during which Lucy really came into her own. She learned what was really important in life, who she could rely on and, most importantly, who she really was.I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.