#BookReview Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler

Under the Lights From the series: Daylight Falls #2
by Dahlia Adler
(Website, Twitter, Goodreads)Published by Spencer Hill Contemporary Publication Date: June 30th 2015
Genres: Contemporary, F/F, LGBTQI, New Adult
Goodreads
Buy the Book in Amazon • Source: NetGalley

Josh Chester loves being a Hollywood bad boy, coasting on his good looks, his parties, his parents' wealth, and the occasional modeling gig. But his laid-back lifestyle is about to change. To help out his best friend, Liam, he joins his hit teen TV show, Daylight Falls...opposite Vanessa Park, the one actor immune to his charms. (Not that he's trying to charm her, of course.) Meanwhile, his drama-queen mother blackmails him into a new family reality TV show, with Josh in the starring role. Now that he's in the spotlight—on everyone's terms but his own—Josh has to decide whether a life as a superstar is the one he really wants.

Vanessa Park has always been certain about her path as an actor, despite her parents' disapproval. But with all her relationships currently in upheaval, she's painfully uncertain about everything else. When she meets her new career handler, Brianna, Van is relieved to have found someone she can rely on, now that her BFF, Ally, is at college across the country. But as feelings unexpectedly evolve beyond friendship, Van's life reaches a whole new level of confusing. And she'll have to choose between the one thing she's always loved...and the person she never imagined she could.

 

I’m thorn with my feelings towards this book, don’t get me wrong I enjoyed it and actually read it in a whole day but it has one of my biggest pet peeves in books… it has a split narrative, so naturally it changed a bit my reading experience. Additionally, it’s the second part from the Daylights saga.

This is the story of Vanessa Park and Josh Chester (apparently main character from the first book) how Vanessa learns truths about herself, her vision of the world changes and how hard is to grow up sometimes, then we have Josh who is a womanizer without north or sense of purpose but he begins to discover things about his reality and aspects that must change, is an interesting character development there.

I really enjoyed the story, it portrays the struggles of accepting identity and specially when it involves sexual labels. I think it’s very interesting how her relationship with Bri develops and evolves from friendship to friendly flirting all the way through a very stable relationship, even though I found the pacing a bit too fast but maybe I’m an angst junkie so it’s a matter of perspective.

I loved the level of intimacy Bri and Vanessa achieve by the time they decide to have sex, I know that for some it may be dumb but when you get to the point where you can be awkward and laugh at yourself during sex is the when you’re actually in the most comfortable and stable phase in a relationship, when you start to think “I think she’s the one, my one and only” because expectations and societal pressure is not affecting the most intimate and soul “something” in your relationship, so naturally I believed in this relationship from that moment on.

“I lift my hips of the bed, and her eyes never leave mine as she slides the skirt and boyshorts free – not even when they get stuck on my ankle on the way off, and we both laugh just a little, breathless”

You know what I loved too? Vanessa is ASIAN AMERICAN and her race and how it relates to the context is amazingly treated, how she connects with her heritage and how self aware she is about how it affects the expectations her parents, society and probably friends and coworkers have about her and the role she plays in her community is great and I don’t have words to explain my love for this.

“That where you come from and who you love should never be the kinds of things that hold you back”

Josh’s story doesn’t really do it for me but nonetheless is interesting, he’s struggling with a dysfunctional family where image and social perceptions are everything, completely superficial and he’s learning how that’s affecting every aspect of his life, and no amount of women in his bed and alcohol in his system is going to help, so something’s gotta change.

Overall this was an amazing reading, great and engaging story and as it progresses adding layers to the characters it starts to consume a little bit of your heart making you wish it was longer so you could explore more of their dynamics with this new found growth.

That’s why I’ll give this book 4 stars surprising even myself because as I said at the beginning it has one of my biggest pet peeves.