Crushed - Dawn Rae Miller

You know you have a good book 

in your hands,

when you put off doing school work

and stay up all night to finish reading it.

I was first introduced to

books by Dawn Rae Miller

when I picked up Larkstorm

for free on Kindle.

I loved how she wrote her characters.

Even after reading the second book,

and her prequel

I find myself referring to them

as real people and not just characters in a book.

So when she got onto Facebook

and asked if anyone wanted an advanced copy of her newest book,

you know I couldn't refuse.

She sent me the book 

with a warning. 

This was no Larkstorm.

This is meant for a slightly more

mature audience.

One who won't cringe at the course language

or sexual exploits of her characters.

Crushed did not let me down.

And neither did Miller.

Once again,

she has created characters you love

and love to hate.

This time,

she's written the book 

from the POV of Fletch Colson.

A seventeen year old

man-whore who

goes to boarding school.

Fletch and his buddies 

collect panties.

And he loves it!

Fletch is back to school

for his senior year

and something's not right.

He hooked up with one of his female mates,

Calista,

over the summer

and she broke his heart.

Yup, he has a heart.

And the best way to get over one girl

is to get on top of another.

Fletch's mates tease him

that he can never be friends with a girl

and challenge him to be-freind 

beautiful, smart, and sexy

Ellie Jacobs.

At first,

when reading that this was a dare,

I began to have visions of

that Sarah Michelle Gellar movie with

Reese Witherspoon.

Yeah,

it's not that.

It's more.

Through this friendship,

Fletch learns about himself.

He learns about his family.

He learns who he is

and what he wants

and mostly,

what he does not want.

Miller does a fabulous job,

not just with her characters,

but with voice.

(Can you tell I'm teaching my kids

about voice?)

I forgot this was the same author

that wrote Larkstorm.

There was no comparison.

This is Crushed.

A story on its own.

A coming of age story.

Well, 

coming of age 

for a male-whore

and no pun intended!