The Absolute Novels: Absolute Beginners & Absolute Lovers by S.J. Hooks Published by Full Fathom Five Digital Publication Date: August 12th 2015
Pages: 556
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THE ABSOLUTELY COMPLETE LOVE STORY, FROM START TO FINISH…Professor Stephen Worthington’s life makes perfect sense.That is, it did until Ms. Julia Wilde showed up and became the one thorn in Stephen’s perfectly organized side. Never has he dealt with a more unruly student. She’s rude, provocative, infuriating—but all those opinions change once Stephen finds himself out of the classroom and in Julia’s bedroom.Suddenly, the student/teacher roles are reversed, and the professor receives a much-needed lesson between the sheets.The Absolute Novels brings both Absolute Beginners and Absolute Lovers together in one complete volume for the first time, along with exclusive, never-before-seen bonus material.Readers can now experience all the romance—from textbook student/teacher beginning to the crossroads that will test whether Stephen and Julia’s relationship can move past its friends-with-benefits status—and more, with one new chapters told from Julia’s perspective!SJ Hooks’ Absolute Novels series will tease and delight dedicated fans and new readers alike with its humor, sincere characters, and nontraditional take on falling in love.
I don’t know how else to start this review other than to say I absolutely (no pun intended) loved this series. Honestly when I first started reading it I wasn’t sure how I would feel but after 1 chapter in I was hooked. I will get to this further in my review.
This story is about Stephen, an awkward extremely shy and has limited experience with women – Stephen is a college Lit professor who wears a bow tie to his class and what can only be described as old man pants. His life is very orderly and he generally doesn’t change his habits to the frustration of his brother Matt. Stephen though is actually very good looking he just doesn’t know it.
Julia is a student in Stephen’s class who is the complete opposite of Stephen. She is crass, rude (she calls Stephen by his first name which drives him crazy), extremely smart and dresses in his opinion like a freak, heavy black eyeliner, hair a mess, and clothes that are to raveling with holes everywhere. Julia is actually very pretty if she would just dress that way.
Stephen notices Julia at first by her clothing but as the class progresses she does have some very insightful commentary around the different authors and books they are studying this of course drives Stephen crazy. They have a random meeting outside of class and one thing leads to another and end up back at Julia’s apartment and the story takes off from there.
This is the first book I have read where the hero at the beginning is not the typical alpha male that I am use to and I really thought I was going to have a problem with that. Since the story is told in Stephen’s POV and because of it I really found myself somewhat relating to him. As his relationship with Julia progresses he starts to come more out of his shell to the point when he is with her the alpha male that I enjoy finally starts to come out. I loved watch that progression and found it extremely interesting – I also enjoyed Julia teach Stephen what it meant to be a good lover for her specifically and that was for me fun to read. So as you can imagine there is a lot of sex scenes through the two books and it actually does drive the story.
The writer who from what I can tell this is her first series does a great job with the male POV and hinting at what is really going on with Julia. There is a great sub plot with Julia and Stephen’s friends that I would have liked to have explored more – the 4 friends were definitely the comic relief. We also get to see Julia change because of her relationship with Stephen and not because he wants her to but because she does. It is fantastic to see a women making choices because she wants to and not because it was expected.
The ending by the way is fantastic and I wont give anything away but the pay off was great. This is a great story about finding love even when you think the person in front of you is not what you want – you may be surprised to find out they are exactly what you need. I think this book may not be for everyone but trust me give it a chance. I am really glad I did.
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