Review: The Fifteenth Minute by Sarina Bowen

Series: The Ivy Years (Book #5)

Format: Ebook

Rating: 5 Stars

How I Got It: Purchased

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance, College

Publisher: Rennie Road Books

Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads

Freshman Lianne Challice is known to millions of fans as Princess Vindi. But sometimes a silver screen sorceress just wants to hang up her wand, tell her manager to shove it, and become a normal college student. Too bad that’s harder than it looks.

She’s never lived a normal life. She hasn’t been to school since kindergarten. And getting close to anyone is just too risky — the last boy she kissed sold the story to a British tabloid.

But she can’t resist trying to get close to Daniel "DJ" Trevi, the hot, broody guy who spins tunes for hockey games in the arena. Something's haunting his dark eyes, and she needs to know more.

DJ's genius is for expressing the mood of the crowd with a ten second song snippet. With just a click and a fade, he can spread hope, pathos or elation among six thousand screaming fans.

Too bad his college career is about to experience the same quick fade-out as one of his songs. He can't get close to Lianne, and he can't tell her why. And the fact that she seems to like him at all? Incredible.  

Review

I don’t really know why but this book made me so happy. Basically, I was smiling like a girl surrounded by her crush the whole time. There are definitely some sad things, but it was also a very sweet story. And Sarina Bowen knows how to write characters and a romance I will care about.

Lianne interested me in Bella’s story, but she’s amazing. She’s very likeable and intelligent. And I really like how she is shy and confident. Some people probably think you can’t be both, but different situations will bring out different parts of your personality. And I’m very happy we still get to see her friendship with Bella because it’s great. And lady friendships.

Then, there’s DJ. Oh my god, I think I have a crush on that guy. He’s so nice and caring. He just does all of these little things for Lianne that showed he is such a good person.

The romance was so well done. It felt like a very traditional development but that’s kind of refreshing because New Adult is usually full of a bunch of craziness. I also really enjoyed how music brought them together and took down barriers. Those were some of my favorites scenes. Their chemistry is spectacular and the progression of the physical aspect of their relationship was handled very well.

Speaking of things that were handed well, let’s head into spoiler terroitory.

Ms. Bowen decided to take on a pretty touchy subject. And I shouldn’t be surprised at this point but she did it with care and respect. Rape and assault are very common in New Adult and I love that she looked at the person who is accused of rape. Daniel had to face serious consequences both internally and in the world at large. And I’m so glad Annie wasn’t some vindictive bitch. She had her own issues and is also a good person. Their story shows how important it is that we discuss assault and how we handle it.

Onto more cheerful things. One of the reasons I really like reading companion series like this is the opportunity to see the other couples happy. There was so much Bella and Rafe and Graham and Rikker. It’s like Ms. Bowen knows what my catnip is and wrote it all into one book.

Oh, I almost forgot about the pretty heavy sequel bait. I’m a sucker for it and really put it out there. I hope there will be more books in this series because I love Harkness so much, but I’m very excited to read the first book in the spinoff series. I don’t want to wait until next year.

Thanks for reading!