Having read and enjoyed other books by Chelsea Cameron I was looking forward to reading this one and ‘Into Your Arms’ was a sweet read that tells the story of Freya and Rhett. About how they meet, what secrets they have and what they have dealt with in the past.

Unfortunately for me this was a book that I just didn’t feel or connect with in the same way as I did with her other books. I struggled with Freya’s character and her back and forth along with her attitude at times. Rhett was a bit too good to be true but that is what is what we want in a book boyfriend.

Overall this was a sweet tale that had some angst and was heart warming at bits. There were a lot of parts of the book that I enjoyed and it will in no way stop me from reading more from Chelsea Cameron’s work but this just didn’t hit the spot for me.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF - no review left. Couldn't connect with the characters.

the squad stories series opens with into your arms, where cheerleader freya has moved up to maine state university from texas in order to search for her biological mother. when fellow student rhett approaches her at a bar, she dares him to join the cheerleading squad never expecting to see him again. except he takes her up on the challenge. and in spite of his relative inexperience when it comes to cheerleading, he is exactly what the squad needs in order to have a chance at making nationals.

freya spends most of her time irritated by rhett. it's really hard to understand why, because all he is doing is being a nice guy. he is trying to get to know her and she is so antagonistic that it makes little sense. because the truth is she actually is attracted to him and knows that he's a nice guy. so it's really hard to reconcile how she treats him for most of the novel with how patient and forgiving and not insane rhett is with her.

when she forgets to be annoyed by him and forgets that she has commitment issues, freya has the ability to be pleasant. and the reality is that she did get a raw deal and she has reasons to be gun shy. but her over the top reaction to rhett's revelation that he grew up in the foster care system still makes no sense. he confesses something personal and difficult and she runs away and is upset because they both had crappy childhoods? that's just not a normal way to react, and even when freya acknowledged that her reactions weren't appropriate this self-awareness didn't feel right, because she would do nothing to apologize or mitigate these behaviors.

rhett and freya manage to get on the same page, but you wonder why he bothers with it. freya is kind of a shrew. and he's pretty much the perfect guy. maybe if the two characters had been less extreme, freya less shrill and rhett less dreamy, it would have been easier to redeem the relationship. as it is, i'm not sure it works.

I really liked the premise for Into Your Arms. A heroine AND hero cheerleader? You’ve got my attention! And the hero is also bearded, has tattoos, and works/wants to work with kids? BE STILL MY HEART! And all of that was cute and different and enjoyable, don’t get me wrong! But as much as I liked the idea of the story and even the first, hm, maybe 50% of the book, after that things got a bit repetitive, nothing seemed to be moving forward in any way, and then the last 15% was very rushed, trying to wrap up the plot about the heroine’s mother as well as the jump to “I love you/HEA”, but not doing it in an entirely satisfying and believable way.

It wasn’t a bad read by any means, but I felt like the first part was a lot stronger than the latter, and while overall it was a quick, cute read that I enjoyed, I was still a bit disappointed, too. As much as I loved watching these two slowly build a kinda-friends-kinda-fuck-buddies-kinda-wait-what-are-these-feels relationship, and all the adorable domestic moments (he loves to cook, too – did I mention that?! *swoon*), it also made for a bit of a lackluster read after a while, with not much else moving the story forward. And even the plot about her finding her birth mother wasn’t truly compelling, and really didn’t come into play on page – minimally so, even then -- until the last 15% or so (and wasn’t really handled the best, at least for me).


So. Points for a cute couple, points for a unique hero and having a romance where the cheerleaders are not the Evil Bitches but the heroines (and hero). But the execution of the story did fall a bit flat for me. I enjoyed the journey but wasn’t wowed by it. I highlighted quite a few quotes, which is always a good sign though! I do like Cameron’s writing, and have read some of her previous novels, and I’m still curious enough about this group of characters to come back and try the rest of the series. This one was nice but could have been a bit tighter in the story and pacing.

I didn't like Freya at all. I couldn't connect with or understand her at all. She was selfish and horrible to him, and,I kept,rooting for him to leave her.

I am so bummed about having to give this review, but this was a DNF- did not finish- for me.

I was so excited to read a new book from Chelsea M. Cameron. But the parts that I did read were SO full of over-the-top angst that I had to walk away.

Sadly I didn't enjoy this one at all. For college students I found these characters very immature and I just couldn't connect with them. Not sure why Freya was so secretive but I found her very frustrating. Rhett was very cute but what he saw in Freya I'm not sure. I really didn't care how the story made it seem like anyone could just walk into the gym and join a cheer squad. I've been around cheer long enough to know that just isn't the case.

I loved this author book " my favorite mistake" I like how they first meet it was cute
How Rhett got to talking to her. And how he was with the kids at the day care.

Freya has completely uprooted herself from everything she knows to find something or someone she knows nothing about. Her Texas home is now in the rearview mirror and her new life in Maine is straight ahead. Her mind is on two things; cheer and finding out who she really is. Nowhere is there room in her life for guys; At least not until she comes across Rhett and all of his hotness. Not only is he hot but he’s charming and one of the nicest guys she’s ever met. Even though she’s made it perfectly clear she’s not interested he continues to pursue her and her walls crumble down slowly and pretty soon, he’s as much a part of her life as cheer is, but with her secret she can’t completely let him in.
The last thing Rhett ever expected to do was find himself on a cheer squad but when sexy Freya dares him to show up for try outs and he makes the team he finds not only does he like it, it gets him closer to Freya; but Freya is a closed book. He knows she’s just as attracted to him as he is to her but she’s keeping him at arm’s length. Freya is definitely hiding something and Rhett’s determined to learn her secret so he plays the game the way Freya wants, as just friends, but the more time they spend together the harder and deeper he falls and being friends with Freya just isn’t enough.
I really, really wanted to love this book but unfortunately, I could only like it. I loved the story line and the characters but something was just off to me. There wasn’t that thing to make the story completely gel for me. I felt like it was hard to understand Freya because I just didn’t get enough of her background. What I got was that she didn’t have the best childhood; her parents weren’t the most loving and she finds out by accident that she’s adopted but that’s basically it. There wasn’t enough meat to her backstory. I mean she completely up and left her old life there had to be a bit more that led to the decision. Speaking of Freya, can you say Ah-noy-ing. I feel like I got more from Rhett than Freya. As for Rhett, he was a really nice guy; honestly…a little too nice considering the way Freya treated him. At time I found his actions a little creepy and stalker-ish but for the most part he was pretty decent.
While the primary story didn’t work for me, what did work was the desire to learn more about the supporting characters. Since is the first book in a series, I’m kind of hoping to learn more about Freya’s friend Tobi and Rhett’s friend Jem. I think there are definitely some juicy stories there. I’d also like to learn more about Freya’s friend Mia and her family that pretty much took Freya as their own. So I’ll be keeping a look out for books from these guys.

DNF at 48%.

Full disclosure I'm not that keen on cheerleading and calling it 'cheer' doesn't help, but really it's the two principal characters that I don't relate to/ like.

First off it has several of the YA/NA characteristics that irritate me beyond belief. First person POV, alternate first person POV, lip biting, adoption, children's homes, shitty childhoods, stupid names, and oh the angst!

Rhett (yup, stupid name) is just too good to be true. He reads the classics, he works with children, he cooks, his apartment is clean, he is good-looking with a beard and tats, he joins the cheer leading squad on a Dare and pow, he's the best guy on the squad.

Freya is a total drama queen, she makes a big thing out of her 'secret' which is NOTHING. She has supposedly moved to Maine to do 'something' but frankly at 48% through the book she has done nothing more than look on Facebook once. She apparently doesn't have time for Rhett but is happy to mooch off him for food and getting s angry at him FOR NO REASON.

When I start to make angry notes on my kindle I know it's time to quit.

Recommended if you like high angst young college romances.

I wanted to love Into Your Arms. I really did. It was just so boring, and I couldn't stand Freya. By 40% into the book, I found myself skimming. I wanted to DNF it, but I thought maybe the end would make up for the slow paced middle. It didn't. The reason I couldn't stand Freya was because she of her self-talk about Rhett. She wanted him, but she knew she shouldn't. There wasn't anything wrong with him, so I'm not sure why that had to take up so much of her inner monologue. If there was anything wrong with Rhett, it was how into her he was or his weird nickname for her. I do have to give credit to the author for positively spotlighting cheerleading as a sport, and making Rhett cute with his love for kids.

I'm really surprised by how flat I found Into Your Arms. I enjoyed the author's earlier NA romances, particularly For Real and My Favorite Mistake. But I found myself repeatedly checking if the author of those fun college romances was the same as this shallow, repetitive, listless story.

Freya is a recent transfer from Texas to Maine where she wants to pursue her college cheer career and figure out her origins. Other than her name, there is nothing particularly likable about Freya. The way she treats Rhett, her parents, surrogate parents, friends, and everyone around her shows how emotionally withdrawn, childish, overwrought, and self-centered this chick is.

And if you dislike Freya, then it makes it more difficult to understand why Rhett pursues her as ardently as he does. Rhett is some kind of lumbersexual cheerleading savant (he joins the squad just to get close to Freya) who has endless patience with Freya constantly dismissing his interest in her with such cutting, sophisticated remarks like, "You're so weird" like some emotionally stunted pre-teen. Rhett cooks for her and endures rounds of her emotional outbursts. Frankly, I couldn't understand what he found attractive about her in the first place.

Here's an example of Freya's frequent flyer freakouts:(view spoiler)

Every time Freya is upset about something, she runs and hides in her apartment. Although she claimed to have transferred to Maine to (view spoiler), the only thing Freya ever does is eat junk food, complain about Rhett, and have sex with Rhett. Then, (view spoiler) And even though Freya admits to herself she didn't handle it well and should apologize to Rhett, she still makes the poor guy grovel over and over. My eyes hurt from rolling.

I really hope the author returns to her earlier style of writing where the characters were original and sweet, as I think I'm done with this cheer squad.

Review Into Your Arms was a nice, gentle read. The characters and story were sweet and I really liked how the main characters were cheerleaders and how that whole aspect was spun with a very positive steer.

For me the story started really well and I was intrigued as to how the plot and story was going to pan out, however, the middle section of the book stalled a little for me and felt somewhat repetitive. The last 40% of the story though was great and really picked up and it ended on a real high.

Overall an ok read for me.

I requested this book because I have enjoyed others from the author but this one didn't work for me. I did finish the book and thought the end was better, but the writing felt rushed or off and the story was too predictable.

I enjoyed this book

I requested this book via Netgalley because I have loved many other books by this author. But not this one. I tried. I read another book and then came back to this one... I just couldn't. The writing threw me off balance. It was shallow. As if the author was in a rush to meet a deadline. Within the first two pages the main female character is all "I don't wanna be attracted but I am. But I must not be." I couldn't even get past the second chapter. Will not read another book in this series or by the author. :/

5/3.5
I received an ARC copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

Why did I request this book? First of all, I absolutely loved the author My favorite mistake series. Then there s the pretty cover which always helps and I also found the synopsis intriguing. Overall, I liked the book well enough, it’s a cute and sweet little romance story, which is also light and quick. However, I’m not a cute love story kind of a girl and I had a few issues with the main character too. So in the end it only falls into the middle ground for me.

Let’s start with the writing style. I didn’t expect anything horrible since I read a couple of other books from the author; still I found I few things worth mentioning. The biggest one is that the story mostly reads really fluidly and easily but there are a couple of instances where I got the impression as if I was reading a telegraph from the old ages. You know how they communicate them, the dear xy stop I miss you stop ect. This manly happened in the beginning of the story and wouldn’t say it’s something really bad but definitely strange and caused a disconnection between sentences, paragraphs. Then there are a lot of contradictions in the story, in one sentence even. Like they start the sentence saying something but finish it stating the complete opposite of it. It wasn’t that noticeable but after a while it started to confuse the storyline a bit. Other than this the writing is pretty solid, interesting even with the tendencies to highlight the strangest, most uncommon elements from the plot which I found absolutely delightful and even funny.
Loosely connected to this, but more about the plot than the writing is the fact that it contains a lot of stereotype regarding the roles or preferences of man and women. I didn’t love the judgmental effect it put on the whole book, especially onto one of the main characters but fortunately the other character disprove these particular motions really quickly and effectively.
Also regarding the plot I found it pretty original and interesting to see another side to the cheerleader lifestyle opposing to the usual slutty, bully kind of cheerleaders from YA contemporary. Not to mention it is a really big part of the storyline and the author presents it accordingly. With a lot of little details and shows the hard work her characters put into it. Yet I also think it’s a bit overdone, there is too much focus to it and takes up more time in the book than it would be ideal. Especially since the characters Rhett and Freya has a lot of other intriguing parts in their life that doesn’t get enough attention.

Well, as for the main characters one of them surprised me and the other annoyed me to no ends. We see the story from both of their points of views and what is true about both of them that they are not the usual personalities I encounter in contemporary books a leads.
Let’s start with Rhett. The first impression I got about him in the very first chapter wasn’t all that pleasing but something I find in a lot of new adult romance. He seemed like someone who perfected picking up girls into an art form and a good looking fellow with a healthy dose of arrogance. I geared myself up for him being like this in the rest of the book too, but boy was I wrong. As I started to read the second chapter my whole opinion started to change about him surely and quickly. He is charming and even sweet, caring with a lot of uncommon traits, like his dorkiness or love for old school and long words. He is honest and persistent and mostly patient. He has a lot of awkward moments where he doesn’t know what to do but you can see that he sincerely tries and cares. But around the end of the story he started to feel a bit too cheesy and too much of a pushover, or not even that but he gets a lot of shit from Freya and her friends still he is patiently waits her out. I want one for myself.
Then we got Freya whom I disliked from the moment she first talked. She has a really negative vibe going on about her with all of her misplaced bitterness caused by her not so stellar decisions. She is hostile and defensive after the most basic conversations even especially towards Rhett. He is nice to her she practically bites his head off. Yes I get that she didn’t have a perfect childhood but Rhetts was worse yet he can act in a civilized fashion. But you know what; she overdramatized everything so why should I be surprised. Then there are little things like the arrogant way she talks about her talent and her new squad lack of it. But really the thing that I disliked the most about her was her attitude, the way she attacked and pushed away everybody who just simply talked to her or asked a slightly personal question. I mean she states that she hates Rhett for his sincerity, come on get real. Her constant fighting not just others but herself too gets tiring fast. And even there was the thing with her big secret, I really didn’t see what her deal is but I felt like she has a fairy tale idea or at least a bit of an ulterior motive regarding it. So simply said she annoyed me but I can’t deny that she and Rhett has an explosive chemistry, a really strong sexual tension between them. It took the story for a certain point bat around halfway through I started to get bored.
Oh one more thing about Freya, her so called firecracker personality as everybody describes her so not founded. Yes they say she is that but she doesn’t proves it with her actions and unfortunately in this particular book this telling not showing thing was true about the emotions, feelings too. They didn’t come through for me especially not the more serious ones.

For the supporting cast there are not too many of them and they had even less role or appearance in the story so I can’t really evaluate them. There was Jem, Rhett best friend the ultimate play boy who definitely has something going on. Or Tobi, Freya friend who is supportive but aggressively so and slightly overworked who doesn’t have time for the other gender. They are a bit superficially created but have potential so I assume they are going to get their own books.

In the end it is not a bad book, but doesn’t really fall into my preference category or among my favorites. For one read it was great especially since I only had a couple of hours to read and I easily finished it in that time but I didn’t fall in love with it.

DNF around 10%. This could not hold my interest. The heroine seemed a little childish and the hero wasn't anything special. I tried to keep going and I just couldn't.