I love a good Cinderella type story. The book synopsis promised to deliver such a HEA. Veronica is an overweight, depressed older twenty something needing to get over the grief of a loss of a parent. Noah is a younger twenty something ready to take on the world and show everyone his worth. Veronica comes to a gym where Noah gets his break to as personal trainer. Each needing the other for life's little troubles, they quickly become friends and then maybe more.

I find some reviews difficult to write. Trying to reach for the words to describe what I am thinking and feeling or lack of. To be honest, I couldn't connect to Veronica. I wanted to, but the more the story continued, the more I didn't like her. It seemed for the age difference she had a problem with the character's ages should have been reversed. Veronica acted immature and not handling her relationships well at all. Maybe that was the point of the story that I missed on? Although Noah gets his HEA, it just seemed like once Veronica got her head on straight, the storyline seemed rushed.

So, where does this leave my recommendation? I read it once. Probably never again. However, the writing style, editing, etc. was solid. I would be willing to pick up the second book in the series to see if I liked it better. For the value, which I paid zero pennies, it was an ok read. This book falls in the 2.5 stars out of 5 stars for me.

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There was something I really did not like about this book. I think it was that as much as I wanted to love Noah I did not like him at all. The age difference was strange for me and the whole lets cheat thing bothered me also especially the fact that I had to read so much into it. I was not connected at all and was pretty glad when I finished the book.
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DESCRIPTION, NOT REVIEW: Veronica Cruz has been through hell and back. After disconnecting with the world two years ago to be at the side of her dying mother, she’s left alone, unemployed, overweight, and feeling a decade older than her twenty-eight years. When her best friend coaxes her into joining the local gym to ditch her depression and rejuvenate her life, she meets Noah. Assigned to help Veronica lose weight, Noah is everything she expected a young trainer to be—perfectly chiseled, supportive and motivating. Add to that, he’s incredibly sexy. He’s everything she’s ever looked for in a man. What she least expected was for him to fall for her, but he has. There's just one glaring problem: Noah is eight years younger.

Noah Quintanilla has his eye on a boxing title—someday. Down for a few months with an injury, his maintenance-boy pay at 5th Street Gym won't cut it. He’s finally given the opportunity to train. The catch? His trainee is an out-of-shape woman with a free week pass. Taking on the challenge, Noah stumbles into one of the closest friendships he’s ever known, and before he knows it, he’s in love. But Veronica’s not having it—the age difference is too much. Their platonic relationship means having to watch her date other men—something that would make him crazy. Believing he's the man for her, Noah sets out to prove that age is but an illusion, and there's more to him than just a number. ( )

Roni and Noah

Good story but Roni was annoying with her attitude toward Noah's age and dating history. I know it was the story of over coming these hurdles to get to their HEA - still annoying. Who in this relationship was the most mature anyway!

The Boxing was an interesting part. ( )

First off- editing. Again. Misused words like to/too, your/you're, where/were. Sentences that needed commas. Sentences that were just structured poorly enough that you need to read them a couple of times to make sense out of them. I've seen worse, but still, there's no excuse for these sort of errors to pop up in books that you pay good money for.

I will say I liked this one much better than the two books I've read in the Moreno Brothers series. Noah was adorable, and even though he got jealous, he was still a always a gentleman, always respected what Roni wanted, and never let his jealous go over the top, and never, ever tried to exert any type of control over her.

But then there is Roni. She was annoying in the beginning, with her depression. I understand grieving over losing a loved one, but her thoughts of "what's the point of loving someone, they'll just go away" was a bit much. And her constantly referring to herself as fat, fat ass, only to find out she weighed roughly 160 pounds, I almost put the book aside then and there. I know, all of us women have image issues, we've all felt fat, and being a bit overweight can really mess with our self esteem. However, an author making a big deal out of a woman who is, essentially, a size 12, which is average in this country, is NOT doing us women any favors. If Roni felt like a fatass at 160, what hope is there for me, at 180?

But she loses the weight quickly, so that's all ok. *rolls eyes* She becomes friendly with Noah, her trainer, and when the storms damage his roof, she offers him a place to stay at her house. In spite of the fact that she's 28, and he's only 20, they are attracted to each other, but they fight it for a while. Roni fights it a lot longer than Noah does, he admits, to himself, and to her, that he's in love with her, way before she does.

And then comes the wishy washy TSTL syndrome. Roni goes back and forth. He's too young, no it'll be ok. Back and forth like a ping pong ball. She doesn't want to lead him on, but makes out with him every night in the hallway before bed. Then she pulls away. She gets jealous over a girl named Rita, who is Noah's sort of "friend with benefits", but never anything more, questioning every detail about them, and then she hides the fact that she's met with her ex-boyfriend Derek more than once.

More often than not, it felt like Roni was the 20 year old, not Noah. She's the one who kept playing games, with him, with herself, with Derek. She should have told Derek straight up she wasn't interested anymore. She should have told Noah the truth about meeting with Derek, instead of trying to "spare his feelings". (I think she just wanted to spare herself the conflict)

The steam factor in this one was nice, the chemistry, but no sex til the very end of the story. In the end, I thought it wrapped up a bit too easily, but other than my frustrations with Roni, and the HORRIBLE editing, this was a pretty good story. I do think I'll check out [b:Gio|13501282|Gio (5th Street, #2)|Elizabeth Reyes|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1330275410s/13501282.jpg|19048458] eventually. ( )