Whisper to Me

Whisper to Me by Christina Lee

At college, Rachel has a reputation for being a sarcastic flirt with a thing for star athletes. No one at school knows that she’d had her heart ripped to shreds by her high school sweetheart, who’d driven them both off the side of the road on a borrowed motorcycle, and then abandoned her. No one knows the real Rachel Mattson—except one person…

Ever since he helped nurse his sister’s feisty best friend back to health, pierced bass player Kai Nakos has been head over heels in love. But the supposed bad boy can’t risk letting Rachel know the truth—especially now that the two of them are back in their hometown for the summer, together for the first time since the months following that fateful night. Never mind that Rachel’s ex is back, groveling for her forgiveness.

Shaken by her ex’s return, Rachel finds herself turning to the one guy she knows she can trust. Kai is willing to hide his feelings for her, just to have Rachel touch him again. After all, this is only a temporary fling. Until it becomes something more. But maybe it had been more all along.

I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

Rachel is a different person at school. Now she's back at home and it seems like things just fell back in the same friendships she had in high school. The only problem is they don't know who she is now. Living with her best friend Dakota and her brother, Kai. She's developed a crush on him but he's treated her like a little sister and really as long as they've been friends she practically was a sister. Something shifted though when she saw him for the first time this summer. She noticed things she'd never noticed before, the way his body looked for instance. He'd been working out while he'd been in Amsterdam. He was off limits though, not only was he her best friend's brother, he wasn't her type. She went for jocks and she didn't do relationships. She learned from her ex that relationships only ended in heartache.

Kai grew up with Rachel. She was his turtle, his other little sister. Well she was until he noticed, when she was a teenager, that she wasn't a little kid anymore. She had filled out and the more he noticed the more he loved her in a different way. When he went to Amsterdam he had hoped that he could get over her. It seems like that didn't work.  He'd do anything for her and now that means more than just friendly things. Now that he's gotten a taste of her can he go back to just being her friend?

I was a bit hesitant about Kai, I don't know why I just was. After I saw the way he loved and treated Rachel I was over my hesitation. Their story is one of reluctance, he doesn't want to ruin their friendship and she doesn't want to do that either. She also doesn't want to admit she feels more for him than just friendship.  Rachel is also hiding her new self from Dakota and all of her other friends at home. She doesn't want her new friends to know the old her and the old friends to know the new her. Sometimes though the past and the present collide and all you can do is wade through the damage and hope that the friendships in both time survive. This whole series of books are hot and well worth the read. Please go read them and leave the author some love in the form of a review!