Noah (5th Street Series #1) by Elizabeth Reyes

Noah (5th Street Series #1)
By: Elizabeth Reyes
Kindle Edition, 341 Pages
Published: March 1, 2012
Self-Published
Source:  Purchased
Mature Content:  17 and Up

Goodreads Summary:


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.


My Thoughts:

This is the story of two compassionate, loving souls, both searching for a life of their own.  They both yearn for unconditional love and trust, that they have both searched for and have yet to find. Veronica's only serious relationship ended when she had to care for her ailing mother at the expense of sacrificing her own love life.  Through no fault of her own, Derek, her serious boyfriend at the time, chose to desert her and find companionship in another woman's arms. 

At the time, Veronica, (Roni) was so devastated with losing her mother and watching all she was going through on a daily basis that she didn't have the energy to fight it and chose to set him free placing all the blame on herself and her situation.  To her dismay, her severed relationship, left her to carry on her burden alone.  Roni already had self-esteem issues from being abandoned by a father she never knew. 


Roni's mother was her only companion, as she was an only child.  They shared a home which was left to her family, paid in full with the condition that she would never sell it.  Roni finds herself six months later roaming in the three bedroom house all alone, in a deep depression, and 40 pounds heavier.  She has been living a robotic life, has her job on hold, has no social life outside of her one friend, Nellie who is married to Rick, a womanizer.  Roni has fallen into a rut and feels that this is her destiny.  She refuses to go out of the house because she is too embarrassed about her appearance.  She lives day and night in her jogging outfit, though she doesn't do any jogging.


Nellie convinces Roni to go with her to the 5th street boxing gym, for which she has a free one week pass, to try to get into shape, where she meets the irresistible Noah, a boxer who is trying to become a trainer on the side.   


Noah is 8 years her junior. He is finally getting his big chance to show what he can do if he can keep these two girls coming to the gym to train under him. Noah has a lifetime of hard knocks which makes him wise beyond his years.  He has been bounced around in the system from one foster home to another from a young age and is very misunderstood.  He has his own protective shell, and though he has a following of groupies, he has yet to find that one special woman that can knock him off his feet till he gets to know Roni.  They start off leary of each other and eventually find themselves roommates in Roni's house when there is a mishap in the garage he resides in at his foster home.  The two of them find themselves caring for one another and as Roni loses weight and comes into her own the attraction becomes mutual and they begin to develop a wonderful friendship, though they both realize that they want more, Roni's insecurities about age difference and her worth get in the way over and over again.


I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  The characters came to life for me.  Elizabeth Reyes can weave a story so well that before you realize it, you have been reading all night and can't put the book down.  You will be spellbound by this wonderful cast of characters and their friends and the friendships that they develop.  There are a lot of twists and turns in this novel that you don't see coming.  The tenderness that eminates from Noah's soul will capture your heart.  I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.
I give Noah, By Elizabeth Reyes 4 1/2 Unconditionally Passionate, Love Filled Stars!!!                  

                                                           

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