Wanted by Kelly Elliot

Format: Kindle Edition

• File Size: 695 KB
• Publisher: Kelly Elliott; 2 edition (29 Nov 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
• ASIN: B00AFORVX0
• Verbally abused by her mother for years, 18 year old Ellie Johnson always believed she would never be loved or wanted by anyone. She focused all of her attention on her grades and getting into the University of Texas to start a new life away from her mother.
  
  The last thing Ellie expected was to fall in love with Gunner Mathews, a starting linebacker for the University of Texas football team and not to mention, her brothers best friend. 
  
  Gunner only had two passions in life, football and his grandfather’s ranch, until he falls for his best friends little sister. He will stop at nothing to show Ellie how much he wants her, even if it means he has to move faster than she would like. 
  
  Gunner knows they are meant to be together forever, but Ellie keeps denying her feelings out of fear of being hurt again. Every time he gets close to winning her love, something pushes her away again. Will Ellie ever be able to let go of the past and let him into her heart and will Gunner be patient enough to wait for her?
  
  What will it take for them to realize they are all each other have ever WANTED?
• Cover:  This is one of my favourite covers.  I love it!  It's so cute and romantic and a perfect match for the protagonists Ellie and Gunner.  I just wish I got the full effect of it on my black and white Kindle Keyboard.
• There is soooo much I love about this New Adult book.
• The over all plot and premise strongly reminded me of one of my all time favourite YA Contemporary books- Heart of a Chain by Cindy C. Bennett, ~ young girl, verbally abused by her mother, but taught that she is lovable by a great guy.
• So I was definitely pulled into reading this book.  And I'm so glad I did.
• Ellie is insecure and has trust issues because of what her mother has drilled in to her.  Basically that no one will ever love her.
• Gunner however, falls for Ellie and has to convince her to give their love a chance.  
• The romance really is beautiful.  And while there is an instant attraction, I really felt the 'love' part developed nicely.
• I did have a couple of issues.  Nothing major.  And certainly not major enough to really spoil my enjoyment of reading this.
• My first issue was there seemed to A LOT of pointless swearing.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not a prude.  I don't mind coming across swear words in books, but  there would be long lists of swear words, one after that didn't really seem to give anything to the story.
• The word 'dude' was used far, far too much.
• My second issue was mainly editing.  It came across as a first draft.  A few simple spelling mistakes, a need for commas, and I felt the word 'also' was used a lot when 'too' would have sounded better.  I didn't feel characters would say 'me also'.  It just jarred my reading a little bit, plus some phrases were a little repetitive.
• Over all though I really enjoyed the story and I was definitely hooked!  There was an evil ending with two side characters in this one -Ari and Jeff, so I can't wait for their book Saved even though I think it's going to contain some of my pet peeves when it comes to romance in my books.
• I definitely recommend giving this one a try.
• 3.5/5 stars.