Let Love In by Melissa Collins

Love #1

Summary:

"What would happen if you lost everything? If the people who were supposed to love you unconditionally were no longer there for you, how would your world change? 

     Madeleine Becker lost everything when her parents died when she was ten years old. Ripped from her home and everything that she has ever loved, she is forced to start all over again. The only way for her to move on is to build walls around her heart and keep everyone at a safe distance. Her logic: she can't get hurt if she doesn't fall in love. 

     That theory is blown to pieces when she meets Reid Connely during her freshman year at college. He is gorgeous and darkly mysterious. He understands Maddy's pain all too well, but sharing his pain would mean breaking down the walls he put up around his own heart. Conflicted between loving Maddy and hiding his dark past, Reid starts to reevaluate his world. Maddy's inner strength, snarky personality, and breathtaking beauty help Reid to make peace with his past. 

Together they find out what happens when they let love in."

Going into this book, I wasn't sure what I was expecting to read. And while some of the story was fairly cliche, in the best way possible, there were a few things that made this story unique enough that I didn't feel like I've already read it.

Maddy (Madeleine) Becker, is an orphan. Has been ever since she was 10 years old, this made her a very closed off person. Until after she moved in with her Great Aunt and met her best friend and pseudo sister Melanie Crane in seventh grade. From there Maddy has only opened up, but only a little and only with Mel and her mom, who practically adopted Maddy. Until Reid Connely.

Reid has his own demons, this makes him behave like a douche and a player. But when he meets Maddy, and after dancing with her the same night they meet, they share a connection. Seeing the same brokenness in each other's eyes. She rattles him to the core at first he treats her very badly, and ignores her, and sends her icy glares whenever she's around. But on the inside, he wants to know what put that brokenness in her eyes, as well as strip all her clothes off.

I like reading contemporary romance stories that give both pov's of the story. That way we actually see into both persons minds and actually know how they both feel and not only one persons perspective of a situation.

The drastic change in personality with Reid of the before and after he decides to stop being an ass to Maddy is what I feel the be the least believable part of the story. Granted, I don't really know any people that anything like this has happened to, but at the same time, I do get it in a way. Very few people in this world are whole people. And broken people can change when they meet that person that makes them feel whole again, or for the first time.

This book has it's cutesy cliche moments, but there is still enough deepness to the story that it's not all unicorns and rainbows. There are some intimate scenes in this book, so keep that in mind.