Right of First Refusal by Dahlia Adler

Title: Right of First Refusal (Radleigh University #2)

Author: Dahlia Adler

Publisher: Self-Published

Release Date: March 15, 2016

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

On the lacrosse field, Cait Johannssen gets what she wants. Off the field is another story. Because what she wants is the school’s hot new basketball student-coach, Lawrence Mason, who also happens to be the guy who broke her heart in sports camp two years earlier. 

But it’s Cait’s new roommate who’s got him.

Cait and Mase agree it’s best to keep their past a secret, but she doesn’t expect him to completely ignore their history…or how much it’ll hurt when he does. So when a friend on the basketball team asks her to pose as his girlfriend for a night, Cait can’t turn down the opportunity for distraction. (Okay, and a little spite.) But what starts as an evening of fun turns into a fake relationship with more lies than the usually drama-free Cait can handle, and it’s only keeping her from the one truth that’s nagged at her for years: Why did Mase cut her out of his life to begin with?

And is it really too late to get him back?

Dahlia Adler’s Last Will and Testament was one of my favourite books of 2014 and today is still one of my all-time favourite books. I have basically been dying for more Radleigh University books since the moment I finished it. So when Right of First Refusal landed on my Kindle, I dropped everything to read it right away. And of course, I loved it.

When it comes to lacrosse, Cait knows exactly who she is and what she wants. And she knows exactly what to do to get it. Her personal life is a whole other story. Especially when she meets her new roommate and discovers that said roommate’s boyfriend is the boy she fell in love with and who broke her heart at sports camp years earlier. And apparently Cait’s not as over it as she thought. Yeah, that’s not awkward at all. What started out as Cait looking for a distraction from all the drama in her life, somehow turns into pretending to be a friend’s girlfriend and navigating a complicated web of lies. But no matter how much she tries to put him out her mind and move on, Cait soon realizes that she’s not over Mase and she’s ready to get him back.

I was so beyond excited when I woke up on Tuesday and Right of First Refusal was on my Kindle. I feel like I have been waiting for this book for forever and I was so freaking excited to finally be able to read it. So of course I jumped in right away. Well, as much as I could considering I was working that day. But any moment I wasn’t working, I was reading Right of First Refusal. And needless to say that I absolutely ADORED this book. I mean, it’s written by one of my go-to authors, it has a strong sports theme, it’s a second chance romance, and there’s awesome female friendship. What is there not to love about all that? For real, though, this story was fantastic for so many reasons and I could go on all day about how much I loved it. The thing Dahlia Adler does best is write all kinds of relationships that feel completely real. And there were so many great ones in this story. There was the friendships between Cait, Lizzie and Frankie that made me wish I could be part of their trio (which I guess would make us a foursome, but I digress). The camaraderie between Cait and all her teammates on the lacrosse team. The complicated dynamics of Cait’s relationship with her father as he’s starting a new part of his life. Cait’s tricky relationship with her new roommate. Even Cait’s relationship with lacrosse, the sport that got her through the toughest parts of her life. All those relationship felt so real and complex, and the way they were all woven together added so much to the story. But the most important of all was the whole “you-were-my-first-love-until-you-broke-my-heart-and-now-you’re-my-new-roommate’s-boyfriend” situation between Cait and Mase. To say it was complicated would be an understatement. But it made for a compelling read, that’s for sure.

Let me just start off by saying (well, repeating, actually) that I want to be best friends with Cait, Lizzie and Frankie. Their friendship and their love for each other completely leaps off the page and makes me want so badly to be a part of it. On the surface, the three of them don’t really look like they have much in common, but that doesn’t really matter to them and that’s what makes their friendship so great. They love each other and are always ready to be there for each other, no questions asked and without judgement. At its core, Right of First Refusal may be a romance, but Dahlia Adler does a fantastic job also making this a story about friendship. Speaking of the romance, it was also pretty freaking great. I’m a sucker for any kind of second chance romance and that’s exactly what I got here. It was interesting seeing Cait work through everything as she was trying to figure out her feelings about Mase while also coming to terms with who she was herself. Her confusion over her feelings felt real and made her story that much more of a compelling read. And I could more than understand why she wanted to be with Mase because she made him sound pretty great. I loved getting to see the different sides of his personality, the way he would go from being hard and closed-off to the way he would be with the kids he coached basketball. It’s really no wonder that Cait fell for him. Twice. I mean, I had totally fallen for him by the time I got to the end of the story. Which speaking of the end of the story, can I just have Frankie and Samara’s story now? Because I really, absolutely cannot wait to read it in Out on Good Behavior.

If you made it through this ramble-y mess, I love you. Almost, but not quite as much I loved Dahlia Adler’s Right of First Refusal. I could keep going on all day about everything I loved about this story. But I won’t. Go read it and find out for yourself just how awesome it is. While you do that, I’ll be right here counting down the days until I can read Out on Good Behavior.

Last Will and Testament by Dahlia Adler

Title: Last Will and Testament (Radleigh University #1)

Author: Dahlia Adler

Publisher: Dahlia Adler

Release Date: December 9, 2014

Source: ARC from author

Buy the Book: Amazon / Indigo / B&N

Lizzie Brandt was valedictorian of her high school class, but at Radleigh University, all she’s acing are partying and hooking up with the wrong guys. But all that changes when her parents are killed in a tragic accident, making her guardian to her two younger brothers. To keep them out of foster care, she’ll have to fix up her image, her life, and her GPA—fast. Too bad the only person on campus she can go to for help is her humorless, pedantic Byzantine History TA, Connor Lawson, who isn’t exactly Lizzie’s biggest fan.

But Connor surprises her. Not only is a he a great tutor, but he’s also a pretty great babysitter. And chauffeur. And listener. And he understands exactly what it’s like to be on your own before you’re ready. Before long, Lizzie realizes having a responsible-adult type around has its perks…and that she’d like to do some rather irresponsible (but considerably adult) things with him as well. Good thing he’s not the kind of guy who’d ever reciprocate. 

Until he does.

Until they turn into far more than teacher and student.

Until the relationship that helped her put their lives back together threatens everything they both have left.

Guys, I love New Adult. This shouldn't be news to anyone if you've been hanging around here for a while, but I thought I would restate that just because I can. The latest in the string of awesome New Adult I've read is Dahlia Adler's Last Will and Testament. I tore through this book and I loved every last page of it.

Though she may have been focused on her future when she was in high school, now that she's in college, Lizzie Brandt has other priorities. Her priorities tend to land more in the having fun category than in the academic achievement category. But that quickly changes when her parents are in a deadly car accident and Lizzie is left to care for her two younger brothers. If she doesn't, they're going to end up in foster care and that's the last thing she wants. That means Lizzie has to clean up her act, fast. And there to help with it all is Connor Lawson, her history TA. A TA who should be completely off limits, if he weren't so great at being there for Lizzie and her brothers. Both of them know that they should fight their attraction for each other. But that's a easier said than done.

Teacher and student relationships are always interesting. And I'm quite ambivalent about them. Sometimes they just don't work. And other times I am rooting for that relationship all the way. Dahlia Adler's Last Will and Testament was definitely the second kind. I was rooting for these characters and for them to be able to be together. And in large part, that's because of the way Dahlia Adler wrote this story. Right from page one, this story hits you in the feels. You've barely had a chance to meet Lizzie, the main character, when she finds out that her parents have been killed. And from there, the emotions keep on coming. And all those emotions made it so I got really invested in this story. A whole lot more invested than I thought I was going to get. And because I got this invested in the story, I really wanted this relationship to work out. Heck, after a while I even stopped thinking about the fact the Connor was Lizzie's TA, making her his student. They were just two people and I wanted their relationship to work out. Because they both needed it so much.

Have I mentioned that I loved Lizzie and Connor? If I haven't, I'm saying it now. They were both great and I wanted the best for both of them. Lizzie definitely get it easy, and I have a lot of respect for her. It's not every eighteen year old who would be willing to become the legal guardian of her two younger brothers. And Lizzie tried to make it work as best as she could...and that meant getting Connor involved. Both in her life and in her brother's life. Even though that second part may not have exactly been intentional. Though I can hardly blame Lizzie, because Connor was pretty damn awesome. There's something to be said for the sexy history nerd. And Connor was all that, and a whole lot more. If I'm being honest though, one of my favourite thing about Connor was his choice of curse words. As a good French Canadian, I smiled anytime he swore and it was in French, because doing so in English didn't have the same effect (and I can totally relate to that).

So. You should all go and read Dahlia Adler's Last Will and Testament, especially if you like to have your heartstrings pulled at. This story will do just that, all the while making you smile and root for this couple. Now I just need to go and get my hands on Dahlia Adler's other books.