{Brief Review+Excerpt+Giveaway} Lessons in Gravity by Megan Westfield @MegWestfield @EPEmbrace

Posted October 25, 2016 by Michelle @ Book Briefs in Blog Tours, Giveaways, New Adult, Reviews / 3 Comments

{Brief Review+Excerpt+Giveaway} Lessons in Gravity by Megan Westfield @MegWestfield @EPEmbrace

{Brief Review+Excerpt+Giveaway} Lessons in Gravity by Megan Westfield @MegWestfield @EPEmbraceLessons In Gravity by Megan Westfield
Pages: 293
Published by Entangled, Embrace on October 24, 2016
Genres: New Adult, contemporary, Romance
Source: eARC from Publisher
four-stars

"Everything I want in a book... I can't wait to recommend this to everyone I know!" - New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cora Carmack

All eyes are on Josh Knox…

Fearless. Guarded. Cut-to-perfection. Daredevil rock climber. The best in the world.

This time he’s poised to scale Yosemite’s notoriously treacherous Sorcerer Spire, with Walkabout Media & Productions filming every move.
April Stephens’s dream to be a documentary filmmaker rests on her acing her internship with Walkabout, and that means getting the abrasive Josh to give her more than one-word answers in his interviews.

The problem is, with every step forward professionally, she and Josh are also taking a step forward personally, and after watching her stunt pilot father die in a fiery crash, a guy who risks his life for a living is the last person she should be falling for. Especially because in one month her internship will have them dangling three thousand feet in the air from the side of the Sorcerer. She’ll be filming. He’ll be climbing without a rope.

Note: This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.
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NA ReviewMy Thoughts

Lessons in Gravity is such a magical read. I really, really loved this one. In fact, I think it is one of my favorite reads of the year. Lessons in Gravity is a new adult contemporary romance between a famous rock climber ready to take on his biggest climb ever and a documentary filmmaker hopeful determined to be a success at her internship. I loved the setup of this story, and the only reason my review is not 7 paragraphs long is because there is a big spoiler in this story, and I am unaware of how to write about some of the details without broaching the subject and I am also unaware of how to not get overly gushy with everything I write. So I am going to keep this one brief, and give you the takeaway right now- you need to read this book.

I love Josh and April. But mostly Josh. Ok, that is not entirely fair because April is an excellent character. She is spunky and determined and I completely admire that about her. But it is darn hard to compete with Josh in my eyes. Even when he is being difficult and surely he is yummy. I couldn’t get enough of him. In fact, the only thing better than Josh was Josh and April together.

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Another thing I loved about Lessons in Gravity was the tone of excitement and adventure in the story. it made everything feel adrenaline filled, even the romance. Especially the romance. Reading this book made my heart race. And that is always a good thing. I can’t say enough about how much I loved Lessons in Gravity. I think this is a must read book of 2016. Megan Westfield will excite you, thrill you and surprise you with Lessons in Gravity. Reviews won’t do this one justice, you need to read it for yourself to see how magical it is.

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Lessons in Gravity by @MegWestfield is a @Bookbriefs top pick of 2016! @EPEmbrace See why & enter to win! #Romance #Review #Giveaway Share on X

Excerpt

She had to make a move. And soon.
She breathed calmness into her jackhammering foot and then hooked the toe of her shoe across a
gumball. Pressing her thigh into the wall, she put her weight on the gumball and stood.
Suddenly, the handhold was in reach. She lunged for it. It wasn’t a good hold. Her hand was
slipping off it. She threw her foot over to a higher gumball, and before she knew it, her foot was
on a solid ledge and her hands gripped a nice, deep pocket.
Down below, Danny, Madigan, Theo, and Ernesto were cheering. She glowed with her
accomplishment. She rocketed up the final section of the route and then sat back in her harness
and Madigan lowered her down. She’d done it! There were high fives and cheers all around
when she reached the ground.
The knot through the front of her harness had tightened in on itself from being lowered.
Her fingers shook with fatigue, and she couldn’t get it to budge. Madigan helped her loosen it.
“Take a rest, and then I’ll teach you how to belay.”
The rock-climbing shoes were pinching like lobster claws, and she couldn’t wait to get
them off. She grabbed her running shoes from the base of the cliff and started toward the rock
pile to put them on.
And there was Josh, sitting on top of the pile. She continued toward the rocks like it was
no big deal. Had he been there the entire time?
He grinned and gave her a high five. She couldn’t help grinning back.
“Hollywood, huh?” he said. “That’s your nickname?”
“Not by choice.”
“I thought you went to UCLA.”
“Yeah. The two are totally different things. Theo likes to pretend he doesn’t know that.”
She pried the climbing shoes off her hot and clammy feet. Worried they smelled, she hurried to
get her running shoes back on.
“How’d you like climbing?” Josh asked.
Their eyes met, and the sensation was a little like falling, only euphoric instead of scary.
“It was really hard,” she said. “But fun.”
“That was a five-eight,” he said. “Not bad for your first climb.”
She looked down and tied her shoes to hide her blush. The rock pile wasn’t very wide,
and she was sitting quite close to Josh. Surprisingly, it felt natural. Preferable. She wouldn’t
mind being around him like this a lot more.
April looked up, and Madigan was watching her with a disapproving look, like she was a
schoolgirl caught doodling a boy’s initials in her notebook.
“Hey, Josh,” Madigan yelled over. “Do you have a second so we can talk
about tomorrow?”
April forced herself not to look at Josh as he got off the rocks. Did Madigan actually need
to talk to Josh, or was he just trying to rescue her from her faux pas—being too familiar with the
talent?
She forced her eyes over to Danny, who was climbing the route she had just finished, but
her mind remained on Josh. Surely he had better things to do than hang around here and watch
mortals scrape their way up the cliff. Was it possible he had known the Walkabout crew was
coming here this afternoon and his being here was not a coincidence?
Mostly, though, she replayed their high five. Unless it was her imagination—or wishful
thinking—Josh had squeezed her hand a smidge longer and tighter than everyone else.


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About Megan Westfield

Megan Westfield has dabbled in many hobbies and pastimes over the years, ranging from playing the cello to cake decorating (i.e., icing-eating) to a dozen different outdoor adventure sports. Eventually, she discovered the only way to do it all was though writing—her first and strongest passion. She writes new adult fiction because she loves exploring the powerful and formative years between high school and the quarter-life crisis. As a reader, her favorite books are those with a truly unique, real-world setting, and, of course, a love story.

Megan grew up in Washington state, attended college in Oregon, and lived in Virginia, California, and Rhode Island during her five years as a navy officer. She is now a permanent resident of San Diego where she and her husband count family beach time with their two young kids as an adventure sport. Megan was formerly the editor of a small weekly newspaper in Southern California and is represented by Melissa Edwards of Stonesong Priest Literary Agency.

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3 responses to “{Brief Review+Excerpt+Giveaway} Lessons in Gravity by Megan Westfield @MegWestfield @EPEmbrace

  1. Michelle, thank you for the incredibly thoughtful and positive review and for sharing Lessons in Gravity on your blog! Good job not giving away the spoiler! 🙂

  2. Ann

    Ooh.
    …OOH.
    This is just the kind of review that I both love and hate. And, love to hate. …You mean, mean, brilliant reviewer. 😉
    I’m so glad that I happened upon your review– this book has been in my Amazon Wish List for quite a while (I think that I might have entered this giveaway!), but given the rate at which I add new books it happened to… Well, gravitate (no pun intended– maybe) towards the busy middle of one of my many lists. (I’ve since bumped it up to a prime spot at the top.)
    *swoon*
    I think that one reason I’m so attracted to this book is even reflected on its cover: It seems so ~real.~ The main characters, and even the storyline (which might seem too “extreme” and hence too farfetched to some), seems real to me. …Now if only April could be a snowboarder (like yours truly), I might very well be petitioning to add another star to your review. 🙂
    Thanks!
    –Ann

  3. Hi Ann! I’m subscribed to the comments on this blog post and was excited to see your excitement about Lessons in Gravity! Excitement is contagious, right? These crazy climbers seem farfetched on paper, but as you pointed out, are completely real! I’ve even met a woman who is basically a real-life April, minus the aerobatics backstory.

    My next book (coming this summer) is a mountaineering book, but I do have a short story about a pro snowboarder that I was thinking about polishing up soon. 🙂 I’m excited for Rebecca Yarros’s NOVA (releases next month), which has snowboarding in it.

    Hope you like LESSONS when it eventually makes it to #1 on your TBR pile!

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