Review: Preservation

Rating: 4 stars ****
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy this book: Preservation (Preservation, #1)

Blurb: An Amazon bestselling contemporary romance from the author of the paranormal romance series, The Resistance Trilogy. 
Fear is sabotage’s sweetest weapon.
Kate has no time for meaningless romantic charades, and definitely no time for hot college professors who are full of themselves and smitten with her. Constantly battling eviction notices, tuition she can’t afford, and a sick, dependent mother, the last thing she needs is to be distracted with someone else’s complicated baggage. 
When she stumbles into Ryan Campbell’s creative writing class, he is only “Mr. Campbell” to her, until Ryan finds himself captivated by her writing and she is forced to face their mutual attraction. His cocky know-it-all syndrome is enough to send her running in the other direction, and his posse of female admirers and playboy reputation are enough to squander any odds in her favor. 
But underneath Ryan’s abrasive facade is something to behold, and she can’t stay away for long. Ryan and Kate must decide who they’re willing to become and fight against their former selves if they want to make things work. That’s if academia, vicious vixens, old skeletons, and their own mastery at self-destruction don’t pummel their efforts first.

Lori's Review: 
Emotionally scared and distant people finding each other and love. Yes, we've all read this story before. What makes Preservation stand out is Wade's writing. While, other contemp romances come off feeling like an author plugged characters into a time honored formula Wade, did something unique. 


She doesn't rely on steamy over the top erotic scenes to keep her readers coming back for more. Instead, she lets us ride on an emotional roller coaster. Yes, this book has more ups and downs that a highway through the Mountains, but they are never there to just create drama. They advance the characters and plot line. Each time, they go up and come back down the characters learn a lesson about themselves and their love. 
Kate is a great character, while her ice act does get a bit tedious to deal with, it is genuine to who she is. I felt a real emotional connect with her and she tugged at my heart strings. Something I have felt lacking with the current crop of contemp romance heroines. This book is a bit more gloomy than your average romance and I wish the author would have continued to use the Seattle backdrop in a more meaningful way. It seemed to be something Kate connected to in the beginning of the book but was dropped shortly after meeting Ryan. 
Ryan, Ryan, Ryan. He takes over from the moment he enters Kate's bedroom. Sometimes it was very frustrating but it was real. Unfortunately for a lot of people (myself included) a new love has a way of taking over life and making everything else secondary. I never felt connected to Ryan. Even now, having read the end of the book I don't trust him. He never felt sincere to me. Which is the only thing holding this book from being a rocking five stars. 
I highly recommend this book for people wanting to read a romance and not a thinly veiled erotica novel. Not that I am opposed to those ;)