As profound as the attraction and feelings between them obviously are, Ari and Grant can't ignore just how different their paths may be. Take Me With You opens up with Grant and Aribel struggling to negotiate the next phase of their relationship after reconciling. On paper, things are great, but underneath the surface, things feel off. There's so much hurtling toward Aribel and Grant at once in this book and the sense of foreboding is a tangible thing. It's not a matter of if things will boil over, but when. But despite all that drama, Linde ensures this story never feels overly dramatic or too over the top to be believed. It feels fluid and real and I was completely consumed by it all. The couple hits roadblock after roadblock, the course of their relationship never running smoothly. The two feel like they're rarely on the same page, and even when they are, some external obstacle threatens their happily ever after. In typical K.A. Linde fashion, Aribel and Grant are on an unpredictable road of uncertainty and angst.
K.A. Linde captures the almost unhealthy obsessive type of love typical in college-age romances. The volatile, tumultuous kind of romance that exists between two people who feel so much and don't quite know how to deal with those emotions. The expectations, the confusion, the insecurity that exists in young love, but exponentially more unpredictable when juxtaposed with the debauchery of the rocker lifestyle. K.A. Linde writes angst so well, drawing the reader in to her tenuous relationships, and twisting the reader up just as much as the misguided characters are. There's such a realism to her characters, their flaws and their mistakes make for a layered, consuming story. Young love is irrational. It's explosive. I love that the author stayed true to the age and the circumstances of these characters. Linde writes real characters in real, but somewhat extraordinary, situations but maintains their believability. Their dialogue, their behavior and mannerisms and personalities, no matter how erratic and fiery they may be, all remain conceivable.
I especially appreciate the consistency in this series, the character fluidity between installments. Grant is still Grant through and through. Despite his relationship with Ari, despite the fact that he's determined to commit to her, he's still the rocker bad boy he was before he met her. So often in fiction, the bad boy is tamed, and suddenly he's a completely different character altogether. Grant's brain still recognizes the ease of snatching up readily available groupies, the draw to alcohol and drugs and sex, his innate knee-jerk instinct to bolt. It's easy to create a character who's done a complete 180, a bad boy rocker who's changed his life for the good girl he's come to love. But it's no easy task to change the trajectory of a bad boy's life and sill maintain the integrity of who he is beneath the surface. K.A. Linde does precisely that here in Take Me With You, and again, I'm thoroughly impressed.
Grant's proclivity for reckless behavior when trying to avoid facing his problems is a huge driving force in this plot. In fact, both Ari and Grant avoid. Miscommunication, fear, immaturity and insecurity put these two through a whole gamut of turmoil that they could probably have avoided if they would just face things head on. They are fearful, fearful of losing the other, afraid of losing themselves, afraid of behind left behind while the other strives to make their own dreams and aspirations come true. Ari and Grant are terrified that they don't fit in the other's world, that where the love of their life is going, they won't be able to follow.
Take Me With You is a question of whether love really can conquer all. K.A. Linde is known for running her characters through the mill, breaking hearts and exciting readers with her angsty storylines. Take Me With You is the perfect follow up to Take Me For Granted, delivering precisely the resolution these characters were meant to have...never perfect, never easy, never wrapped in a neat box, but right and true to these characters.