Stay With Me by Elyssa Patrick

With one look, I’m his . . .
With one touch, he’s mine . . .
With one kiss, it changes everything between us . . .

I’ve been famous since I can remember. Singing, acting, dancing—I’ve done it all. The tabloids cover my every move, but I don’t want that anymore. I want to be normal, whatever that is.
When I leave Hollywood for college in Vermont, I’m on my own for the first time in my life. This is my chance to figure out who I am and what I want in life.

But it’s a lot harder than I expected. I can’t escape my image. Classes are difficult, and I’m struggling. And then there’s Caleb Fox.
Sexy, intriguing Caleb Fox.
Caleb is the one man who doesn’t want to use me. He breaks down my walls. He challenges me. He wants me. And I just don’t know if I can give him the same—or if he’ll stick around when he finds out my shameful secret that the tabloids haven’t managed to uncover.

Dating him is risky enough, but loving him could break me.

I'd like to thank NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. This is the first book I have read by Elyssa, and it is the first book in the With Me series. This book had me in warm fuzzies all over, from start to finish. The cover is what got my attention, and well the synopsis sealed the deal really. I liked Hailey, she was definitely an endearing character. I admired her for breaking away, for taking a stand knowing how much she'd be giving up. Not many people would have the nerve, and even when the going got tough she stuck it out. That's just something you have to admire, it's never easy but she was the personification of fighting for what you want.

So much of my life has been manufactured. So much of my life has been controlled. So much of my life has been living what other people want me to live. And I'm done with that. I'm living for me.

Caleb Fox. Gosh even his name is sexy. I loved him, he was incredibly sweet. I loved him for standing beside Hailey, thick and thin he was there and they made a good couple. She had doubts within herself, and he helped her work those out. He never lost patience or gave up, it's incredibly hot when a guy pursues the heroine, because let's be honest we all kinda scream at the heroine when they push the hero away, luckily Caleb's not a guy who gives up easily. He was sexy, sweet, thoughtful and downright charming. I think he handled the big secret thing well, not what I was expecting which is probably why I like it. I loved his relationship with his friends and family, I seriously just wanted to cuddle him to death.

"I. Love. You. All of you. The awesome. The good. The bad. The ugly

"Because you mean the whole world to me."

I adored the background characters. I liked that Elyssa gave us enough information on them, I felt like they were part of the story rater than in the background. Daphne was my favourite, and I really want to read her and Nick's story. Griff and Kate perhaps? I'm not too bothered Griff was hot in that quiet and mysterious way, and Jamie definitely needs a book he was such a sweetheart.

My problem with this book was I thought it moved a little fast. I would have loved for there to be more build up towards their attraction, a little bit more angst. I also found the characters lacked depth at times, so I found it hard to connect with them. I didn't like the way some paragraphs or chapters ended, we went from one scene to another or missed out a lot of time just like that so at times I felt a little lost, and had to reread previous parts to understand. I also found the sex scenes to be more adult than New Adult, but they were pretty steamy so I can't complain really.

I give this sweet book 3 stars. There were a lot of laugh out loud moments, endearing moments and warm fuzzy moments. I kinda loved how there was no big drama, like usually the whole book builds to something bad, before it all goes good at the end, but Elyssa pleasantly surprised me with the smoothness of the story. This series has a lot of potential, Elyssa's on the right lines it just needs that little something, I'm definitely looking forward to the next book. If you're looking for a light, sweet read then this is for you.