Okay first I'm going to say how odd it is that this, Book 3, came out in a paper copy way after Book 4 did. Hmmm...

I liked this one. I liked that the heroine, Robin, had had a wake up call and realized that heavy drinking and partying in college was a very wrong road. Before the book starts she has spent 4 months turning her life around after blacking out and doing something she is very ashamed of. So when she meets the hero, Phoenix, who is fresh out of prison, she doesn't judge because she knows she is in no position to call herself better than anyone else.

The author did a very good job with her fragile state of mind and self loathing. The relationship between the hero and the heroine was fast but seemed realistic to me. They are both only 20 and these things happen fast at that age. They were just boyfriend and girlfriend. They were committed to being together but in a realistic young kids way rather than marriage and kids and stuff right off the bat.

I've read some of Ms. McCarthy's adult stuff and while I enjoyed it, I think I really like this NA stuff of hers better and since NA isn't really my favorite that's saying something. ( )

My favorite so far. Full review here:
http://literarymatchmaker.blogspot.com/2014/01/wednesday-why-not-read-believe-by... ( )

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Originally published on Tales to Tide You Over

Like True, the first book in this New Adult series, Believe packs a punch. It’s this is another wonderful story that hits on the real challenges faced in the college environment where people taste true freedom and responsibility often for the first time. Robin, the female lead, made a drunken mistake that eats at her, one she can’t tell anyone but which haunts her in part because the guy won’t leave her alone.

Phoenix, the male lead, is not part of the college crowd. He’s someone who has been in charge of himself from the start because of a druggie mom and is straight out of prison, having served five months for assault because he protected his mother from her boyfriend. Life has given him little to look forward to in terms of education or pretty much anything, but he’s trying to make a go of it anyway, struggling with anger issues and the dead weight of his prison time. In another kind of story, Robin would be some stuck up rich kid on the hunt for a little danger. That’s not what the series is about though.

They’re both broken people for different reasons, but together they can find love and connection if only they let themselves accept it. Their path is not easy by any means. Friends and Phoenix’s family warn Robin he’s too much for her to deal with. Heck, he does himself. But sometimes it’s worth the effort. They make mistakes, and bad things happen that are driven from the outside, but how they handle what happens, and how they are not perfect, makes them feel very real.

Also like True, the book has bad language, and mentions drug use, drinking, and smoking, though Phoenix has always been clean and Robin is working on it. It has explicit sex too, but the sex is relevant in the best of ways as it’s about discovery and care. And then there are cultural references that are so perfect they made me grin. I even highlighted one about Beauty and the Beast…the Disney version of course.

I found the dual first person disorienting at first, but the headers tell you who is speaking, and soon they aren’t even necessary. This is another solid read, one I raced through only to be unhappy that I’d reached the end. Despite it not being in my reading sweet spot, these two books have been so compelling that I plan to track down the one I missed, and I have no shortage of reading material.

P.S. I got this title from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review. ( )

Erin McCarthy has another hit on her hands with Believe the third in the True Believers series. In this story, Phoenix and Robin, two people who are completely different in every way meet and an unlikely friendship forms. They both harbor painful pasts that continue to cause them pain but find solace and romance in sharing that pain. Believe fills you with hope and excitement as Phoenix and Robin's journey progresses. Looking forward to the next book in the series. ( )