Single Sundays: Chancing on You by Melinda Ellen

Single Sundays: While this blog may be focused on reviewing book series as a whole, we can’t forget about the good ole’ standalone novel! On Sundays, I will review a novel that is considered to be a standalone novel. Here is this week’s offering:

Synopsis for Chancing on You (from Goodreads):
Hope Andrews has been trying to find her place in the world for the past seventeen years, but being an orphan and getting shipped from home to home hasn’t always made it easy. Between her current foster carers who are to busy getting high to the bullies at school who make her life hell, Hope finds solitude in her music. She’s silently counting down the days until she turns eighteen and can finally make her escape once and for all, but what she doesn’t count on is the new guy Jaxon Broad turning her plans upside down.

After leaving the city behind which was tainted with his past, Jaxon moved to live with his brother. He needed to escape the memories that haunted his dreams and swore him off relationships. So when he lays eyes on the intriguing brunette Hope, he’s not prepared for the feelings that keep stirring within.

But will their second chance at happiness be destroyed when their pasts won’t let them go?

Author: Melinda Ellen
Genre: New Adult/Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Heat Rating: really warm
Point of View: First Person, Alternating
Publication Date: May 2014
Source & Format: Provided by Author–eBook

Why I Picked it Up / My Expectations:

This was the second book I received from my New Adult Goodread’s Group’s Read2Review program. I picked it because it promised to have characters with great back stories and some steamy sexual tension…and I wasn’t disappointed!

The Plot:

I was immediately hooked into this story. There was a great balance between the romance and personal growth of each lead and it moved at the perfect pace. While I’ve read characters with similar situations, I never got bored with this story. Sure, I got annoyed at your typical “assuming” situations but hey, that’s the joy of reading a contemporary romance 😉 I never felt like there was too much going on but there was definitely enough to keep things moving.

This is one of those New Adult stories that takes place in high school so that is important to note but I would definitely classify it as New Adult. However, you still have your typical high school drama situations, like the “super popular” chick flirting with the lead, etc. But I felt like the character development and the main situations they find themselves in were quite mature so that balanced everything out.

The Characters:

I enjoyed watching Hope and Jaxon develop not only their romantic relationship, but their personal growth as well. I really grew to like these two as individuals, even if they did frustrate me at times with their “assumptions”.

I found the secondary characters were slightly cliched but most secondary characters are. They did their job supporting the plot but not getting in the way or becoming the focus when they shouldn’t. Great character execution.

The Romance:

If you love sexual tension like I do, you will like this book! I thought there was great chemistry between Hope and Jaxon even when I wasn’t totally sold on them being together emotionally. I just felt like they really hadn’t interacted more than appreciating each other’s bodies when they first start having deeper feelings. I’m not denying the importance of physical chemistry, I’m just saying I didn’t totally understand where these feelings were coming from immediately based on the limited interaction they had. But that definitely improved as the story continued and I saw them interact more. I definitely became a fan as I continued to read–and as I said, their chemistry was great.

I do have to say though that the romance was often very cheesy and it kind-of took away from the realistic edge of this book. Some of the lines Jaxon said had me rolling my eyes but they really weren’t that common when all was said and done.

My Rating: 3.5/5

If you want a New Adult read that straddles the line between realistic and dramatic, this is the one for you! It definitely deals with some very real themes but at the same time it does have a dramatic flare with the high school drama. I will definitely be looking out for more of Melinda’s books in the future!

Read if You Like: hate to love you relationships, jaded characters, high school new adult stories
Avoid if You: don’t like high school drama, don’t like communication assumption situations