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Discovering Us (2013)

by Harper Bentley(Favorite Author)

4.13 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Harper Bentley

series

True Love

review 1: 5 Angst-ridden Stars So, I came across this book back in December and immediately wanted to read it. I read reviews, however, and figured out that it had a cliffhanger, so I decided to wait. I am actually not a big fan of cliffhangers. I love a good series because I love to spend time with the characters and really get to know them, but cliffhangers drive me crazy! This is the type of book that is right up my alley, though – childhood friends that develop into high school sweethearts who then have to learn to navigate early adulthood to see if their love will actually make it. Enter Ellen “El” and Jagger Knox Jensen, also known as “Jag”. These two have known each other since Ellen was five and Jag was seven. Ellen is the youngest of four, with three older brother... mores, so she grows up being a bit of a tomboy. She runs, swims, skateboards and spits alongside Jag for most of their life. However, around the age of 11, she realizes that she is beginning to have different feelings about Jag. He’s not just her buddy anymore; he is the boy that she will marry someday. He, however, being two years older, is also starting to see girls in a different light. The only problem is that he doesn’t see Ellen in that same light – she is still his little buddy, but he doesn’t really have time for her anymore since there are so many other girls that he can chase after. As they get older, he becomes more handsome and popular, and he begins to make a name for himself in baseball. Ellen decides to live with her secret crush and move on with life as she enters high school. They go for five years – five years! – without talking. Life throws her another curveball (hey…I’m just going with the theme, here) when she is a Sophomore in high school and Jag is a Senior. He seems to finally see her again and wants to hang out with her. They begin as friends, with Ellen constantly getting flustered and ahead of herself. Example – she tries to tell him that something is super but also thinks of fun, so she tells him that it’s “fuper”. He just chuckles and moves on. He graduates and moves on to play baseball at college in a different state, but they continue seeing one another long distance. She then graduates and moves to college, as well, but they are still long distance. I want to point this out because this is actually something that I liked about Ellen. A lot of the female characters these days really seem to forget themselves or not take the time to figure out what they want. Ellen wants to work in Sports Medicine, and she finds a good program and pursues it at her choice of college, rather than following Jag. You go, Ellen! This does make for a difficult relationship, however, as their relationship grows more through phone conversations and text messages, which the author primarily just summarizes. Jag did always keep a physical distance between Ellen, however, that seemed to frustrate both of them, but this was addressed once he tasted a little bit of jealousy after seeing some pictures of her with a friend that also happened to be a boy. I also liked this part of the book because, as much as it might be fun to read at times – the dreaded insta-love and immediate physical connection – it is also refreshing to read about something that develops over time. Jag has spent most of his life caring for Ellen and protecting her, and he remains constant in that aspect and protects her from himself on an intimate level until they are both ready. When it happens, though, it is HOT. This leads us into the next phase of Ellen and Jag’s story – the Big Leagues. Jag gets drafter to a Major League Team. Ellen is, as always, very supportive and excited, but she is still frustrated at the continued distance in their relationship. At this point, her family and friends really rally around both of them. Her friend Rebecca encourages her to wait through his first year and then move out with him when he is “called up” to the actual team – The LA Dodgers. This is what Ellen does – she works hard to get ahead in her program at school and makes sure that she finds a program that is also well known in her field and gets everything transferred. Even with this, Ellen thought about her decision and talked with Jag, her friends and her family about this. It didn’t come across as rash. She made a decision that her program and her boyfriend were both equally important at this point, and she wanted the ability to invest in both. So things move forward and seem really good. Jag’s schedule is crazy, as he has Spring Training for six weeks, then constant games – both in and out of town. Ellen, meanwhile, starts at her new school, gets involved in her classes and even gets a job. She doesn’t just live off of Jag – she actually wants to be his partner and do her part – again, something that I like. She hits the first snag, however, when she meets one of their neighbors – Allesandra. Allesandra is a lingerie model who makes snarky comments about Jag helping her with her car at some point before Ellen made it to California. This seems to be where the crack in their foundation begins – if not with the crazy schedules that they already have. Ellen does not care for Allesandra and her Brazilian beauty, and she lets Jag know. Several months go by, and things still seem to be okay on the surface, but then comes the commercial. This is the commercial heard ‘round the world for their relationship. Jag signs a contract to film a commercial with Allesandra, which happens on the beach, so you can imagine what that looks like. Jag knows that Ellen does not care for Allesandra, so he, in my opinion, really downplays what happened in filming the commercial. I think that this was one of his big mistakes, however, Ellen keeps convincing herself and her friends and family that it doesn’t bother her as much as it really does. This is one of her big mistakes. Once the commercial airs, everything begins to unravel. Ellen has some, in my opinion, valid concerns about the commercial and what he did not share with her. He, however, does not seem to hear her. He basically just ignores her concerns and her hurt feelings, takes her to bed, and moves on. Then they find out that he has a continued commitment to filming additional commercials, as well as doing whatever the ad campaign asks of him. I don’t want to give too much away at this point, but this leads to the final chapter where Jag hurts Ellen on so many levels. First, he disregards how she feels about what is going on in their life. In reality, this is just the culmination of his having disregarded concerns that she has had for a while. He then breaks her heart – plain and simple. So, Ellen leaves and flies home, and that is where the first book ends. I waited until the second book was coming out to read this, and I am glad that I did. I would have been seriously pissed to get to that ending.So, now that you’ve been introduced to Ellen and Jag, I will share one of my biggest complaints about this book - it is that it wasn’t long enough! Probably not a bad complaint to have, but I would have loved more stories of Ellen and Jag as they are growing up so that I really feel that I know them. As it is, I read this book so quickly and each chapter is just a snapshot of what they are going through. You go from Ellen being around age five in Chapter One to around age 23 by the end of the book, so it moves very quickly. I’ve pointed out several reasons why I love Ellen, though, so let me get to the good stuff. I love Jag. He is described as this amazingly attractive boy that gets better with age. Ellen talks about how manly he becomes, especially as he trains more and grows into being an actual adult. When I think of Jag, I think of that Aloe Blacc song “The Man”. It seems to fit Jag’s attitude and swagger. I really do believe that he loves Ellen, so I’m a little heartbroken right now, too. I’m not sure what happened with him, although, I always try to put a book into a real-life frame once I’ve finished reading it. I think that, between both of their schedules and his gaining notoriety as an athlete and a semi-celebrity, they are actually probably responding pretty realistically to outside pressure on their relationship. Does that make my heart any less for Ellen, though? No. Does that make Jag any less of an absolute jerk for not seeing what he has been doing to Ellen, not to mention the final straw? No. I can’t wait to read the second book. I have heard that it is from his point of view. I need to know what the crap is going on. Is it at all possible that he has let his new fame go to his head? I truly hope not.Jess
review 2: I really enjoyed this book and how it showed the progression of the relationship between Ellen and Jag since they were childhood friends up to when they finally decided to try to make a relationship. After Jag is drafted by the pros, I think he definitely starts becoming a jerk right away to Ellen and his ego gets in the way. There is definitely a breakdown in communication between the two which I think leads to a lot of their problems. This books is from Ellen's POV, can't wait to read the next book since it is from Jag's POV less

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