Between Us (Sex on the Beach) by Jen McLaughlin

Between Us (Sex on the Beach)
by Jen McLaughlin
160 pages
Release Date: March 4th 2014

Rate: Loved it

Synopsis:

I’m just a girl…

I’m a famous country star who’s spent her life cultivating a good girl persona to avoid bad press, but I’ve reached my limit. I’m going away for spring break with my two best friends from college, and we’ve vowed to spend the vacation seeking out fun in the sun—along with some hot, no-strings-attached sex. The only thing I needed was the perfect guy, and then I met Austin Murphy. He might be totally wrong for me, but the tattooed bad boy is hard to resist. When I’m in his arms, everything just feels right.

And I’m just a guy…

I’m just a bartender who lives in Key West, stuck in an endless cycle of boredom. But then Mackenzie Forbes, America’s Sweetheart herself, comes up to me and looks at me with those bright green eyes…and everything changes. She acts like she’s just a normal girl and I’m just a normal guy, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. My past isn’t pretty, you know. I did what I had to do to survive, and she’d run if she learned the truth about my darkness. But with her, I’m finally realizing what it’s like to be alive. To laugh, live, and be happy.

All good things must come to an end…

I love how these three amazing authors: Diane Alberts, Jennifer Probst and Jenna Bennett joined forces to write such amazing Spring Break stories. I really like the idea of having the chance to read the stories of each friend in the series: Mackenzie, Quinn and Cassie and by different authors.

Between Us, Diane Alberts' Sex On the Beach story, is about Mackenzie Forbes, America's Sweetheart and one of the most famous country singers. She seeks a normal life, without being in the spotlight every single time and without being betrayed by her possible boyfriends by sending their "story" to the press. And Spring Break in Key West is going to bring the normalcy she seeks in her life. Along with her two best friends, Quinn and Cassie, they go to Key West with the condition of having fun, being normal, drink a lot, spend their time in the beaches and having some hot, non-strings-attached sex. 

However, Austin was unexpected. He's a bad boy with a troubled past who has a soft spot and a lot of potential in the music world, but screwed his chances. Now lives as a bartender in Key West and when Mackenzie Forbes asks him for a non-strings-attached relationship? He definitely goes for it. 

What starts as a friends with benefits relationship in Spring Break turns into something more intense, sexy and meaningful. But they can't get attached or let themselves fall in love. Right?

What can I say? I not only love this story, I adore it. Mackenzie is one of those characters you feel related to even if you're not famous. She just tries to be a normal teenager and tries to find a relationship or even a hookup that she can trust enough not to sell all the details afterward. She wants a break from her famous life, an a personal life that has consumed her, and spending spring break with her two best friends is the opportunity to break free and be the normal teenage she wanted to be from time to time.

And it's kind of difficult not to like her. Beyond that security she oozes all the time, she's a sweet, innocent girl who has barely experience in love/relationships/hookups. She's also full of insecurities with her famous status and all. I really liked that the girl was the famous one in this relationship. I've only read books about the guy being the famous one (which I liked), and it was refreshing to read about the "famous life" through a girl like Mackenzie.

Austin simply stole my heart the very first time Mackenzie described him. I knew I was going to love him and I can officially say that I have a huge, non-healthy crush on Austin. He has tattoos, he's a bad boy, sweet, caring, has had a troubled life, but is trying to do the right thing, amazingly and hotly bossy and is taking care of his teenage sister. I could keep going on, but the three first things in my list were enough to fall in love with him.

She took a deep breath, all shaky, and tilted her head back so she could look up at me. “A-Austin?”

I pressed against her, showing her how badly I wanted her. I lowered my head and stopped when my lips were barely touching her ear. “This isn’t about saving me from myself, or even about changing my life. It’s about you and me having some fun, remember?”

She nodded frantically, her nails digging into my shoulders. “Y-Yes. I remember.”

“Good.” I nibbled on the side of her neck, just hard enough to sting. “Now here’s how it’s going to be. If you still want me tomorrow, I’ll make you come so many times you’ll never be able to look at a bed...or a beach, if that’s what you want, without thinking about me. But not till tomorrow.”

The relationship of Austin and Mackenzie in Between Us is not one of those love stories of looking at the guy/girl and immediately fall in love with her/him. Sure, they both felt attracted to each other, but they didn't fell in love right away. Although their relationship is a fast and short one due to the spring break situation, they spent a lot of time together to build an actual relationship, like each other and their personalities and then fall in love even when they didn't even realized it, yet.

Their lives are both difficult, different and yet, at the same time, similar. I like how they find some common ground and try to open themselves with the other. So, basically their relationship is a believable one, with its ups and downs and the perks of being in college, be famous or have a troubled past and some baggage. 

The writing in this story was perfect. With Diane Alberts' touch, the plot was well-built and perfectly easy to follow. So much that I ended up the book and couldn't believe that I finished it because I started it not long ago. The story is credible, romantic, swoony, with that college style in the background, sexy and definitely a dreamy one.

I simply don't know how Diane Alberts does it, but she makes me fall in love with all her characters in every single one of her stories. And Between Us is the perfect story to not only read about three friends finding a dreamy vacation in Spring Break, but is one of those stories where you have the change to know how great the author is. So, you definitely have to read Between Us. So far, is my favorite story in the Sex On The Beach series, and I'm sure you're gonna love it, too!

Diane Alberts' Dream Cast

Ian Harding as Austin

Taylor Swift as Mackenzie

My Dream Cast

Taylor Swift as Mackenzie

Jordan Legault as Austin

Jen McLaughlin is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She writes steamy New Adult books for the young and young at heart. Her first release, Out of Line, came out September 2013. She also writes bestselling Contemporary Romance under the pen name Diane Alberts.Since receiving her first contract offer under the pen name Diane Alberts, she has yet to stop writing. She is represented by Louise Fury at The Bent Agency.

Though she lives in the mountains, she really wishes she was surrounded by a hot, sunny beach with crystal clear water. She lives in Northeast Pennsylvania with her four kids, a husband, a schnauzer mutt, a cat, and a Senegal parrot. In the rare moments when she’s not writing, she can usually be found hunched over one knitting project or another. Her goal is to write so many well-crafted romance books that even a non-romance reader will know her name.