seriously romantic: into your arms by chelsea m. cameron

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. (this coincidence is almost too hard to swallow.)

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.

**into your arms will publish on may 30, 2017. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/st. martin's press (swerve) in exchange for my honest review.