This was a fine romance. I did not realize though that it was set in high school. I had a more difficult time reading about high school aged characters

Jumped into the series with book 4, then hopped to this one (Aidan's story is next on my list!). I breezed through both in one go. Super easy to read, awesome story, and the surprise at the end totally flipped my expectations. Siena and Jason are the absolute cutest, and Jason is just too hot! His love for Siena is goals. Totally adored this series, and now I can't wait to dive into books 1-3!

What an amazing ending to a thrilling series! I don’t think I have ever been more aggravated at a character in my life than at Officer Liu and that is a sign of an amazing writer. I recently found Jessica Cunsolo on Amazon and in one week binge read her entire series. It’s original, captivating, and you get all the feels with no description! My all time favorite kind of book! I loved how everything wrapped up, except I wasn’t too fond of what actually happened to Lucy. I would 100% reread this series again!

When I requested this book I was unaware that it is the last book in the series. With that being said, I enjoyed the book and was able to follow along with the characters and most of their past behaviors. There are definitely characters who are good at heart coupled with those that are just evil in many different ways. You feel for the main character and what she has to go through. The story does make me want to go back and read the series from the beginning. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

What an amazing ending to a thrilling series! I don’t think I have ever been more aggravated at a character in my life than at Officer Liu and that is a sign of an amazing writer. I recently found Jessica Cunsolo on Amazon and in one week binge read her entire series. It’s original, captivating, and you get all the feels with no description! My all time favorite kind of book! I loved how everything wrapped up, except I wasn’t too fond of what actually happened to Lucy. I would 100% reread this series again!


CW: stalking, minor swearing

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3.4 rounded down to 3/5.

"Belong with Me" by Jessica Cunsolo is a captivating sequel that brings readers back into the enthralling world of With Me. The story revolves around Siena Amato, who relocates to King City with the simple goal of caring for her sister, reconnecting with her absent father, and maintaining a low profile. However, her life takes an unexpected turn when she becomes the prime suspect in a classmate's disappearance, and her world collides with that of Jason Parker, a charming yet trouble-prone figure.

The plot is skillfully woven, providing a compelling narrative filled with unexpected twists and turns. Cunsolo masterfully unfolds the story, keeping readers engaged with well-paced revelations. The author's writing style draws readers in, creating an immersive experience that makes it difficult to put the book down.

Siena Amato emerges as a protagonist worth rooting for. Her struggle to prove her innocence and navigate the drama surrounding her life adds depth to the narrative. The character of Jason Parker, with his charm and kindness, serves as a supportive and reassuring presence for Siena, adding a sweet touch to the storyline.

One notable aspect is the redemption arc for the character Gia, which is well-executed and adds complexity to the relationships in the story. The author successfully weaves in character development, making the readers emotionally invested in the fates of the characters.

However, the ending leaves something to be desired. It felt somewhat flat, and the potential for a more impactful conclusion wasn't fully realized. The story hinted at deeper connections and parallels with Siena's parents, but more exploration of this backstory would have added depth to the narrative.

Additionally, as a spin-off series, "Belong with Me" could have benefited from more references to characters from the main series. The absence of mentions may leave readers who are familiar with the primary series wanting more continuity and connection between the two storylines.

In conclusion, "Belong with Me" offers a rollercoaster of emotions with its well-crafted plot and engaging characters. Despite the somewhat disappointing ending and missed opportunities for deeper exploration, the book stands out as an enjoyable read for fans of romance and mystery. Jessica Cunsolo's ability to create relatable characters and a gripping storyline showcases her talent as a storyteller, making "Belong with Me" a worthy addition to the With Me series.

And here I thought I loved Be With Me! Pshhhhh, after reading Belong With Me by Jessica Cunsolo I’m officially obsessed with her and her writing!
Jason and Siena’s journey was an absolute blast to read about. The characters felt so real and I couldn't stop myself from loving them.
The mystery and romance was phenomenally done and kept me so intrigued I literally couldn’t put my kindle away.

Thank You NetGalley and Wattpad Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I was really hoping to see more of the original characters cameos in this series. This one is good, but it would have been nice to see a glimpse of the oc's in this one, have them be more involved in Jason's life.

The turn of events in this one was good. I expected it to be a trilogy like the other 'Be With Me' series, but it was nice to see how the story would play. I liked how everything was explained, but a lot of the explanation really took you for a loop. Honestly, I was surprised Sienna's character wasn't more angry at how she was treated and taken advantage of.

Great end!

Thank you to NetGalley and Wattpad Books for providing me with an ARC.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Wattpad Books for providing me with an eARC!! As always it’s an honor to be able to experience the worlds Jessica Cunsolo creates in her novels. The ‘With Me’ series is a personal favorite of mine.

I had high expectations for this installment of the series, especially after following the ‘Shes with Me’ trilogy since its first wave of popularity on Wattpad. The cliffhanger from ‘Be with Me’ is so abrupt, no doubt you’ll immediately be hooked when this sequel immediately picks up where that left off.

The things I loved about this book were mostly character-oriented so obviously Siena, the perfect narrator that you have no choice but to root for achieving a rightfully deserved happy ending. Jason is the sweetest MMC EVER! It was so cute how he made Siena feel so safe no matter how tense the situation was. I don’t wanna say too much but the casual use of one nickname in particular had even me swooning. Also, I love the way Gia’s character redemption was handled, you see how this entire experience matured her by the end. Other than that, the main things I loved about this were carried on from the last book so look for my other review for my thoughts ;)

As for the plot it felt like it had so much more potential at the start before it started to fizzle out in this sequel. The author has already proved in the past of this interconnected series that she is very capable of writing a story with hectic amounts of conflict that are so overwhelming, that it’s as if a pot is boiling over with suspense and action. But unfortunately, with this, it felt like a completely different case that just made for a mediocre end product.

Some of the things I mention specifically may come off as harsh criticisms but genuinely it’s coming from a place of love for this author's past work so let me try to explain my thoughts further without giving away spoilers:

The original plot of a missing girl in this small town, all fingers pointing to the main character who had nothing to do with it yet was the last seen with her. Perfect setup. By the end of the first book, we have our first suspect who is everything you would want to see in a textbook villain. The pacing of this mystery is where it falls short though. We focus so much on this one villain getting increasingly more aggressive to gain back the one piece of possible evidence Siena has on them that it becomes a waste once the actual plot twist is revealed. It would’ve been even better in my opinion if side characters were more utilized to make the ending feel flat. Just imagine the amount of misdirection readers would be thrown for if Warren showed signs of being a suspect or even Gia given her history early on in this sequel. There was so much more potential for it than what we got especially considering the high stakes in the original trilogy had being a murder mystery, Aiden’s father threatening people’s lives, Ryan, Kaitlyn, AND Tony on top of all those other problems. The outcome of this missing case seemed like a rather boring plot in comparison to what the author already did before.

I feel like if the plot twist was gonna end up being that unthreatening we should’ve gotten way more romance in this 2nd book. Sure Brandon and Officer Lui were great villains but it just felt like they took up too many scenes in the book that could’ve been more geared towards Jason and Siena’s bonding moments that weren’t them just dancing in the rain. There was so much room for forced proximity given what happens after chapter 19 so imagine my surprise when a lot of their interactions were glazed over. Instead what we got were numerous scenes showing how much of a bully Officer Lui was when he pulled them over like 3x (information that wasn’t necessarily needed because we already know that he abused his power). At the very least I was excited for a double date sequence but to find out it never was happening before the end was really annoying. At that point why even have a character propose the idea of going out on one?

Another huge example of characters that I feel could’ve done more for the story is Siena's parents. At some point, she even wonders about how they acted when they were younger, and how they tolerated each other enough to fall in love and have two kids. And this was a big mystery in my mind too because before we got a formal introduction to Florence I was fully expecting her to subvert the expectations the author set out for us readers. So in short, glimpses into Dario and Florence lore would’ve been a really cool underlying story for Siena to figure out and possibly even help her through navigating the gossip mill that King City had in place. Again so much potential to show parallels with her parents when they were her age and uncover another mystery on whether they were actually rebellious teens or if that’s the story locals have been spinning ever since Florence left town.

I would say that the cameos were my favorite part of this and I did love them don’t get me wrong but I can’t help but mention how sparse they were in this story. I mean let’s be honest this is a spin-off to a series of an already developed cast. But the fact that we see only 1 person from that OG friend group was so crazy to me, even though they were a fan favorite. We didn’t even get an epilogue where we can get more characters interacting with one another and that just seemed cheap if the lore of this story somewhat piggybacks off the history of that original trilogy. To a certain extent, it’s understandable that the author didn’t include so much of the old cast because this story isn’t about them but it doesn’t make sense to glaze over so many unanswered questions about them in the present time. It’s just kinda silly to not tell the readers even in brief passing what happened to the main character of the last series (Thea) more specifically what’s her life look like other than being engaged to Aiden? What is Mason doing now? Did Chase and Char ever become friends again? Heck, even a reference to what Kaitlyn is up to now would’ve been interesting to hear about given her mother literally is the principal at King High. We don’t even get closure on if Gia and Briana get together, and they’re from this story.

At the end of the day, I would still recommend this story to others to read because again Jessica Cunsolo is a great writer. All of her books are comfort reads for me. But this story came off as if she didn’t know what to do with these characters anymore so it ended up not being my favorite out of the others in this interconnected series so in turn not a strong way to end everything. Maybe a short novella about Thea and Aiden’s wedding or short mini-scenes about random characters could be a better way to wrap up these little things and tie up the loose ends. I know for me personally I would definitely read something like that.

Had the honor of getting an advance read on this book. This series is hands down my favorite. First falling in love with the OG gang and the crazy shit they had to go thru to now being able to see Jason and Jackson “all grown up” and see how life has changed for them and having them get into just as much trouble as their older brother haha I literally suggest this series to everyone I meet lol I love it

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

Didn't quite know what to expect from this book. It is not an author I have previously read nor my typical go to gonre, but the synopsis drew me in.

Am glad I took the chance. The book is well worth the read. I will be seeking out more books by Jessica Cunsolo.

Her writing style is fantastic and she draws you into the storybwith her use of descriptive style and character development..

Recemmend.

this book was fine it was not one of my favorite romances and it definitely felt like it was written on wattpad but it was still fun and a good break from reality