Title: Charge
Author: E.L. Todd
Publisher/Year: CreateSpace Publishing 10/11/16
Length: 150 Pages
Series: Electric #1
Overview
White-hot, blinding, and dangerous. That’s exactly what Volt is. He’s electric. The first time I met him, my body reacted. It coiled, sizzled, and sparked. I knew I wanted him because he was the first man to make me feel dead and alive at the exact same time. But within a short conversation, I knew he was unattainable. Unavailable. Now we’re just friends. But will we stay friends?
My Thoughts
The summary here doesn’t do the story justice but that’s ok. I got this first installment as an aedd on to the last EL Todd that i read so that was a nice treat. I think that’s how i got into the last series as well? Anyway, we have an ‘electric’ story here about another group of friends that has a semblance of romance mixed into their crew.
We start this story in the past – with Volt our leading guy who’s on the verge of proposing to the love of his life only to walk into a bar to meet his buddies to find her kissing her ex boyfriend. that changes his entire trajectory, and instead of being an open and friendly guy, he’s turned into a manwhore who wants nothing to do with love and romance at all.
We then meet Taylor – new to NYC as she’s taken a teaching job in a new city – we know that she’s from Washington and at times makes it sound like she wants to go back but can’t for some reason (i’d love to find out why to be honest) and the only person she knows is Sara – her best friend from growing up, who’s nursing a broken heart because she’s the girl that Volt was going to propose to and things got messed up. Clearly there’s more to that story since she doesn’t know why he broke up with her which means that whatever it was that Volt saw, wasn’t the truth. The interesting thing here is that we know that Volt is his middle name, and that Sara’s boyfriend was Muriel, but clearly they are one and the same. I can’t wait to see what happens when these girls realize that this guy is the same.
Anyway – throughout this introduction to the series, we watch Taylor try to get her footing in the NYC dating landscape only to get her heartbroken quickly by one guy, slip into another relationship with another guy who seems to be great, and have this amazing best friend friendship with Volt – after meeting him, being attracted buy realizing that they are not right for each other in theory.
Volt on the other hand, we watch him evolve a bit in this story. He’s still closed off to love and romance, but we also get to see how he opens to Taylor until she pushes too hard and the walls go up again. He realizes too late that he’s got feelings for her and that’s where the rollercoaster really resides.
On top of these two, we have Natalie, a girl who’s also a teacher with Taylor who introduces her to a gang of friends. Natalie has this crush on Jared, a boy in their circle and he doesn’t see her like that so we get to watch her pine for him for the bulk of this story. It’s only after Taylor gets her to go out and she meets a guy that she’s into that we see Jared start to feel different about things.
Then there’s Derek, Volts best friend and while he seems like he’s just coasting along but i’m sure that we’ll get to see his story deepen soon.
We are left in this story with Taylor on the verge of losing her job because she’s not finding her footing as a new teacher, Volt has encountered a troubled child that makes him worry and the chemistry between Taylor and Volt changes their dynamic on every page. Add to that the insanity of Natalie and Jared and Derek and well, it all makes for a great story. I’m getting ready to dive into the next book now and can’t wait to see what’s next. Enjoy!