Review : Make it Right by Megan Erickson

Summary (from Goodreads) 

Title : Make it Right (Bowler University #2)
Author : Megan Ericksen
Publication Date : September 9th 2014
Publisher : William Morrow Impulse
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble 

Max Payton lives by two rules:
Size and strength win any fight, and never show weakness.

When a rash of assaults sends Bowler University for a tail spin, Max volunteers to help teach a self-defense class. One of the other instructors is the beautiful pixie-faced girl he keeps butting heads with…and who challenges everything he thought he knew.

Lea Travers avoids guys like Max - cocky jocks who assume she's fragile because of a disability caused by a childhood accident. She likes to be in control, and something about being with Max makes her feel anything but. But during the moments he lets his guard down, Lea sees a soul as broken inside as she is outside. Trusting him is a whole other problem...

When the assaults ramp up and hit close to home, Lea and Max must learn, before it’s too late, that true strength can come from vulnerability…and giving in to trust is sometimes the only way to make things right.

Personal Thoughts

Make it Right was such a lovely NA read that was able to give me the warm and fuzzies. After I finished the book, I literally hugged my e-reader because Make it Right managed to put a goofy smile on my face. It was a sweet and romantic story about two people who grew and matured together as a couple.

Make it Right tells the story of Max and Lea. Both these characters were beautifully fleshed out. Lea, especially, was a breath of fresh air and a character who was easy to look up to. I'm always on the look out for books with characters with disabilities, because we obviously need more diversity in books, so I was pleased to find out that Lea had a mild disability in the form of a limp. What's great about this was how deftly Megan Erickson handled Leah's disability. She didn't make Lea's disability the focus of the story and the heart around which her personality fleshed out. Basically what I'm trying to say is that the author made sure that her disability didn't define who Lea was. Undoubtedly, it had helped her grow into a strong young woman who was independent, feisty and complex. Lea did what she wanted and never once did she mope and whine about her condition. She had grown to accept it as a part of her and she did not consider herself damaged, which I thought was such a great message to spread to readers. Max was also up to par with Lea. I'm not going to lie, after what he did to Kat and Alec in the previous book, I was a bit wary of how I would feel for him, but he completely redeemed himself in my eyes and I fell very much in love with him. He gave off vibes of being a complete jerk with his cocky and douchey attitude, but he was in fact a sweetheart. I think the moment I fell in love with him was when he adopted a stray cat he found around his house and started making gourmet cat snacks for it. Tell me, how could I not fall in love with that?

The romance in Make it Right was beautifully done, growing slowly from a friendship. The banter between Max and Lea was great. Those two were definitely a complementary couple. Most of the time, the romances in NA tend to focus more on the sexual tension between the characters. Here, Megan Erickson strove to seek a balance between the sexual tension and the adorable factor. I loved that there were some pretty steamy moments in the book, but it also was balanced out by the super cute moments that had me gushing and swooning and wanting to hug everyone around me. It was entirely too adorable for words and left me in such a pleasant mood. Additionally, this was a couple that learned from each other, most importantly, they learned about forgiveness and following ones dreams. There was obviously that one big misunderstanding that usually impedes a couple before the HEA that is commonly found in most contemporary novels, but the one in Make it Right wasn't the kind that made me want to pull my own hair. I think the only other thing that could have made me love this book more would have been the first person POV. I tend to prefer the first person writing over third person writing when it comes to contemporaries, but I did think the latter was done well with Make it Right.

All in all, I loved Make it Right and thought it was a wonderful and an endearing New Adult read that should be read by everyone who wants to smile, swoon and fall in love while reading.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 4/5
Characters : 4/5
Writing : 4/5

Thank you to Edelweiss and Williams Morrow for the e-ARC of Make it Right.