Facing the Fear
Laura’s lifelong dream is to work with dolphins. However, an accident derailed her for a while but she is determined to make her dream a reality. She finally has a shot at it when she is chosen for a training program. Jillian has spent the last eighteen years as a dolphin trainer and the head of the program. They will spend the next nine months working together… unless Laura’s past catches up. Will she be forced from the program or will she be able to overcome her problems with Jillian’s help? And will Jillian be able to keep her career after the truth comes out…

This is a fascinating and delightful story. It is so well written and it is obvious that Ms Michele researched the heck out of a marine research facility. The details are great. I loved seeing all the behind the scenes action like all that goes into the feeding and care of the animals, exhibits and even the jobs these women do are highly detailed as well. This is one of those books that puts you into the tale and makes you a part of it. You can see and hear and even smell the settings. I liked the adventures and action, the animals and people, the drama and the romance… Oh the romance…. It’s so beautiful and heartfelt. Jillian and Laura’s attraction is immediate and intense. Their chemistry is palpable and it feels so genuine and sweet. I loved every part of this book and have actually read it twice already! This is so good and I know you will love it too!

I didn’t really know what to expect from this one since it’s my first read of a Tina Michele novel, but decided to take a chance anyways since the marine animal institute theme really appealed to me!

MC Jillian is the director of Tampa’s Marine Research Institute, and her entire life is dedicated to the animals. For the past 18 years she’s been living her dream. When MC Laura joins the program as a new intern, there’s an instant connection between the two. As mentioned in the blurb, this one centers on the theme of a forbidden boss / employee relationship, with a ton of angst thrown in for good measure. I did find it refreshing (for once this year) that this didn’t seem to be an age gap story, since Laura is an older intern who’s coming into the program later in life after dealing with some issues of her own. Speaking of those issues, PTSD plays a pretty large role in this story as Laura hides info from the selection committee and it creates all sorts of problems once this lie begins to unravel.

I have to give kudos to Michele for incorporating a transgender secondary character, and loved the development of the secondary characters in this story. My problem though... I really didn’t like the main characters in this one. While I get that relationships all proceed at their own timeline, this one felt WAY too insta-love for me to believe. I did completely believe in the chemistry between the two, but Laura and Jillian’s relationship come across as incredibly fast to me, and that ruined the overall romance for me. What bothered me most though, was the dialogue shift that occurred after the two got together. It went from completely readable and believable to super cheesy within a few paragraphs. The instant “I love you” after sex also made me roll my eyes pretty hard. The overall drama and angst combined with the increasingly cheesy dialogue really got to me by the end of this one and turned a decent novel into a miss for me personally.

The story idea itself was enjoyable, and I loved the setting of the marine institute, but to be perfectly honest, I’m undecided if I’ll pick up another of Michele’s novels in the future just due to the dialogue issues. Hopefully her next story will better on that issue because I still think Michele has real potential! Unfortunately, this one was ruined for me once the cheesiness factor set in. 3 stars.

**Many thanks to Bold Strokes for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.**

Jillian has been living her dreams for last eighteen years working at Tampa’s Marine Research Institute.

Laura decide to conquer her fear of drowning because she had an accident years ago so she decide to apply to the
Tampa’s Marine Research Institute as a trainee to live out her dream of becoming dolphin trainer.

When Jillian and Laura meet they instantly drawn to each other but Jillian know it can't go nowhere because she the Director of the training program and when she found out about Laura secret she risking the program and not telling her co-workers so she decide to help Laura overcome her fear because she believes she belong there.

I didn't mind the instant love because I like both characters and the chemistry is there. I like the friendship between Laura and BJ as they stick up for each other and give each other advise even with Brooke in the mix. I did like how they explain what being a trainer is and how hard work it is but can be rewarding.

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

I didn’t know what to expect when I requested Fearless by Tina Michele. She was a new to me author, but I decided to take a chance since I hadn’t read any romances set in a marine research institute before and I love the ocean wildlife.

Jillian Marshall’s been working at the Tampa’s Marine Research Institute for the past 18 years and is living her dream. When she met Laura Carter, one of the applicants for the training program, Jillian is instantly attracted to her. As Director of the training program, her romantic interest in Laura is problematic, but she takes a bigger risk when Laura confesses her fear of drowning and Jillian decides to hide that important information to the rest of her staff.

Fearless is an insta-love kind of romance and though I can’t deny that there’s chemistry between Jillian and Laura, their relationship evolved way too quickly in my opinion for it to be organic.

I really enjoyed the scenes where they worked with the animals and it’s apparent that Michele did some research, but the main part, the romance didn’t work for me personally. I wish we’d gotten more scenes of them bonding and getting to know each other in the company of dolphins or during Laura’s “extra classes” that really only happened once.

The writing in and of itself isn’t bad. It’s not as fluid as I would like and it can be considered cheesy at times, but it’s nothing I couldn’t get over. However, I found some of the scenes were a little bit too dramatic and angsty for them to be believable.

Writing and developing a character suffering from a mental illness can be quite a challenge, and though I feel that most of Laura’s PTSD has been portrayed in a respectful and realistic way, some of her actions and reactions (or lack thereof) seemed to be incongruous with her diagnostic.

I’d recommend Fearless for those who like (or aren’t bothered by) insta-love, angsty romances, the teacher/student trope, but most of all sea creatures.

Thanks to Bold Strokes Books for providing me with a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review

I am fan of Tina Michele books and have enjoyed her first few books she has written. When this one became available I was stoked to get a chance to read it. The synopsis does a good job explaining the story so read that if you want to know what it is about...the main concept is that director of wildlife conservation falls for trainee. As you can imagine there is an age gap theme and boss employee theme. All of which Michele does a good job writing about. There is a little drama but honestly not a lot and most of that happens in the last 20% of the book. What the majority of the book gives you is the building romance between Jillian (the Director) and Laura (the trainee) as well as Laura's friendship with BJ and even Brooke.
I will say that though the span of the book is about 3 months, and the relationship that takes places doesn't happen until about 2 months in, it still felt a bit insta-loveish. There are also a good amount of intimate scenes that as great as they were could have had maybe 2 or 3 of them either removed or faded to black in a sense. They just a felt all lumped together.
Regardless of that, I really enjoyed the book. The journey of self discovery and overcoming fears was actually well written and while some dialogue was a bit cheesy, it did make me smile and roll my eyes at the same time. It's a pretty good read and if you like Michele's works, I think you will like this one too. I give it 3.89 stars (that's right I'm sticking it to the man and rating uneven stars lol)