{Book Review}

Stay A Little Longer

Dawn Lanuza

Stay A Little Longer by Dawn Lanuza will take you to a roller-coaster ride of feelings in this generally hopeful, feel-good romance. 

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Blurb

They were perfect strangers—all perks, no strings. Until they weren’t.
Elan wasn’t supposed to meet Caty. She lived halfway around the world, and he barely left Manila. Yet here he was, giving her a ride to the airport. Convinced that they would never have to see each other again after that day, Elan and Caty started to bond over truths, dares, stolen kisses, and games in hotel rooms and bars.
With brief encounters that turned them from acquaintances to friends — tipping to the point of lovers, always — will Elan and Caty keep settling for a day, or will someone finally dare to stay long enough to discover: Is this love?

Thanks to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for giving me an opportunity to read this new book of Dawn Lanuza, a Filipino writer I dearly admire.

This is a short, dialogue-filled book which tugs at the heart and brings to mind several hard, painful truths about long distance relationships made more difficult when two people with opposite personalities attract.

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CIRCE

THEY CALLED ME WYATT

I like Elan a lot. His patience, his silent wisdom, his maturity, and his self-control are qualities women look for in men these days. That said, I couldn’t understand why he purposely kept from Caty the real reason for abruptly cutting short their time together in New York. This, when he’d already opened himself up to her more than with any other person, including his sister, and when he didn’t even take Gia’s calls in the first place. It was very un-Elan like in that part of their relationship. I could understand more Caty’s white lie. It’s simple self-preservation. For a while there, Elan’s points dropped to under the ground for me. Never mind that he did things (unknown to Caty) to maintain contact and information without making any effort whatsoever to communicate with her directly. What was he thinking? Whatever his reason, there’s a lesson to be learned here, gentlemen: sometimes, being over patient can be a disadvantage and can cause unnecessary heartache and lost time.

In this long distance trope romance, love wins.

But of course, these things make up the story of their relationship, which Dawn effortlessly relates in her own unique, signature writing style, drawing the reader fully in. See what she did there to me?

I would have wanted to read more of Elan and Caty, though, and watch as their characters evolve and they further explore their relationship because surely, opposites have much more issues to realise and overcome. Or is there a sequel on the horizon?

 Stay A Little Longer by Dawn Lanuza will take you to a roller-coaster ride of feelings but is generally a hopeful, feel-good romance. Except for some head-hopping in a few scenes, Stay A Little Longer is an easy read. I enjoyed reading Elan and Caty’s story and look forward to more books by this author.  (Just one thing: reading through Adobe Digital Edition was a first for me and as such, I find it frustrating at times, me being a certified Kindle app reader. It would be nice if all books in Netgalley can be available for Kindle viewing. I don’t think I’d read using ADE again.)
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
 4/5

Dawn Lanuza writes contemporary romance and young adult fiction. She has two first loves–music and writing–and is lucky enough to surround herself with them. She started to self-publish in 2014 with her debut romance novel, The Boyfriend Backtrack, which was eventually published by Anvil Publishing. In 2016, she also self-published her first poetry collection, “The Last Time I’ll Write About You” which debuted #1 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases and has stayed on its Bestsellers chart for over a year, before it was re-released into an expanded and revised edition by Andrews McMeel Publishing. She currently travels in and out of her motherland, the Philippines, to decide which place she’d like to call home next. (From her website)

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