Melissa Brayden

"No relationship is perfect, but if it’s a once-in-a-lifetime romance, you tinker. You work at it.”

All the feels in this one. My first read from Melissa Brayden and I'm mildly exasperated with myself for taking so long to get here.

Hannah owns a bookstore in Providence, Rhode Island. She is happy with her life, though a little concerned that business has been slow. From the first page, I loved Hannah's store, "A Likely Story." Its vibe is reminiscent of the store in Nick Hornby's High show more Fidelity, one of my favourite fictional settings.

Hannah applies for her store to host a book tour by Parker Bristow. Parker is a romance author and media darling, and having her appear in the store could be a great boost for the business.

Hannah and Parker "click" immediately. They stumble into friendship and, from there to a one-night stand, then through much angst and heartbreak as they work out how to be a couple.

The story is told solely from Hannah's point of view, my preferred format and one I don't often come across in contemporary romance. There are a couple of steamy, intimate scenes, but they're not the focus here, and the joy in this book for me was spending time in Hannah's world. show less

Melissa Brayden is one of only three authors that I will read anything they publish. While I’m not a fan of racing, I found this story interesting, the two main characters were well-drawn, and the secondary characters likable. I also appreciated the time spent with Sloane and her PTSD-induced panic attacks. What I didn’t like about the book was there were too many times that I was taken out of the story because the editor(s) were careless in their editing, i.e., some of the erotic scenes show more were physically impossible to achieve. The author took her readers into chaos of race day without over explaining things to the point that the book became boring.

There is at least one additional book in this series. Will I read it? You bet. I mean this is Melissa Brayden we’re talking about.

My thanks to the author for putting the book out as a Kindle Unlimited book. show less

First Position by Melissa Brayden
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 4½/5 stars
My Review:

Ana Mikhelson (aka Frozen) is now and has always been focused on one thing, becoming a principle dancer with the New York City Ballet. Her life has been spent in the pursuit of this dream and nothing is going to stop her from achieving her goal. Each and every day, Ana pushes herself, she pushes her body, she uses her precious free time on review and extra practice, and denies herself every comfort. Within the show more company, Ana has only colleagues and no friends and until Natalie, that was a situation she was completely comfortable with.

Natalie Frederico loves to dance and has spent her life in the pursuit of her kind of dance. Though she is a classically trained dancer, Natalie has always found ballet to be too restrictive, too formal so when the New York City Ballet comes calling, Natalie isn’t sure she’s exactly cut out for the job. When she arrives in New York, Natalie is stunned to learn she will be given a lead role in a new show, in large part because of the emotion, the passion she brings to her performances. The only condition, she has to share the lead with the company Ice Queen, Ana, and they are meant to work together and learn from one another.

Ana’s technique is flawless, superb even, but she has never been able to bring any real life or emotion to her performances. Though Ana isn’t happy about having to share her lead role, even she has to admit, when Natalie dances, it is a sight to be seen. Natalie is fierce, uninhibited, and dances the music. Her technique may be far from flawless but Natalie’s performance, her presence on stage is phenomenal. Yeah, Ana can learn from that. On the flip side of this little arrangement is Natalie’s aforementioned far from flawless technique. Ana’s technique is above reproach and with a little hard work and some well-placed pointers, she is able to help Natalie shore up her own performance.

As the days and weeks go by, the entire company begins to notice some big changes in both Ana and Natalie. Frozen is thawing just a bit and Natalie’s technique is getting better and better. The two women feed off one another in the best way possible and that feeding carries over into their personal lives as well. There is no denying the attraction between the two women – it’s damn-near electric – but there are complications on both sides. Natalie is involved with another woman and Ana simply doesn’t do anything (or anyone) that might derail her career plans. Because life is generally feast or famine and the universe has a nasty sense of humor, the two women aren’t allowed to deal with just one thing at a time but a whole slew of crap simultaneously. There’s the personal, there’s the professional, and there’s the universe hates us.

The Bottom Line: First Position is my first Melissa Brayden read and I will absolutely be coming back for more of her brand of writing!! I totally enjoyed this book from start to finish. Ana and Natalie are both entirely likeable characters whose strengths and weaknesses work well together; they truly are an excellent pairing. There is just enough of the personal, the professional, and the universe hates us all mixed together, blended and balanced to keep the read moving at a strong and steady pace. There aren’t any lags or slow spots in the read and it doesn’t rush to the end as if Hell is on a horse chasing everyone. There are some naughty bits in this read and they match the everything else in the novel, strong, steady, and balanced with just the right mix of naughty and nice. Overall, First Position is a book I looked forward to getting back to each time I was forced to stop reading. Furthermore, there is a nice cast of secondary characters in this book that I would happily read about should the author choose to move this first book into a longer, more in depth series.

P.S. First Position has a truly excellent epilogue. I really like it when an author uses an epilogue to such a fantastic degree :) show less

First, I'd like to point out that most if not all of Brayden's covers are awesome. They connect with the story, which is not the case for some of the other books I've read. With that being said, Love Like This is my favorite of the series. There may be some biasness in that statement because not only is Hadley my favorite of the quartet, but I’ve also gotten to know Hadley more through her best friends' romantic journeys. In addition, Hadley's peppy personality does leap off the page. I'm show more glad Brayden took the road less traveled approach in pairing Hadley with Spencer. I like Spencer. I'm quite sure the swagger and velvety voice has a lot to do with that. She reminds me of Gia in that Spencer too has a self-made armour that can only be chipped away by someone like Hadley, who wears her heart on her sleeve. After their first face-to-face, there was no doubt in my mind that they belonged together. However, by end of seventh chapter I thought to myself "Damn, the angst is going to be pretty emotional." Hadley was there for her friends when they needed an ear, but now that they've all have girlfriends/wife, who was going to be there for Hadley? I can't say too much more without giving away potential spoilers. So, overall Love Like This is a great ending to a awesome series—the book's conclusion was icing on the cake. show less