Will he take the leap with me?Cole Danforth was a troubled kid with a bad reputation. When I was nine years old, he rescued me from bullies trying to steal my Halloween candy. Thus began my decade-long crush on him.Now, the summer after my freshman year in college, I discover the boy has turned into a gorgeous man who makes me melt. Every part of me wants him — my heart, my mind, my body. But … mind, my body. But Cole, struggling with the burden of his past, refuses to accept how good we are together.
I believe in us hard enough to take the chance. But will Cole take the leap of faith with me?
This novella prequel takes place ten years before If We Fall, Book One in Nina Lane’s What If duet.
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Prequel to the What If duet.
Young love developed from a long ago secret kid crush. Sweet, touching, and then ended and we don’t know why!! I can’t wait to dive in to the duet because I’m heartbroken and need to know what the heck happened?!
This is the first book by this author that I have read, and I just burned through it in one sitting and then one-clicked the button to read what happened to them later. I’m a total sucker for a good romance that features kids who grow up together and have a lifelong crush that eventually turns into something amazing. Loved these characters.
* A review copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review *
If We Leap is a free prequel in the What If Duet by Nina Lane. I thought it was the perfect introduction to Cole and Josie.
This prequel is set at the time that Josie is 19 and Cole is 22. This is 10 years before the setting of book 1 If We Fall. I would highly recommend reading this prequel before starting the Duet. This gives you some great backstory on Josie and Cole.
This story is pretty short. It can be read in just a couple of hours. But it is still filled with a lot of emotion. This is told in Dual POV and it shows us Josie and Cole in both the past and present time. We get to see how their friendship started at such a young age and how it now has flourished into something more.
I loved this short prequel and I can’t wait until we get the other books in this series. I fell in love with these characters and I can’t wait to see where their journey takes them. This prequel is left on a minor cliffhanger, so if that is not your cup of tea you should wait until book 1 releases at the end of August.
If you are a fan of Nina’s work, you are going to want to read this Duet!!!
If We Leap is a perfect appetizer. Lane gives readers just enough to get their feet wet, before they dive in headfirst. A glimpse into the heart of a troubled boy and his secret admirer. Cole has a beautiful heart, but a troubled life. Josie sees the the beautiful boy behind the broken soul. The What If Duet series is off to a great start.
5 Stars!
Josie May grew up in Castille, Maine. She’s nineteen and is an art major at Ford’s College. It’s the summer after her freshman year and she attends the local carnival where she runs into her longtime crush Cole Danforth. She hasn’t seen him since last summer, and he’s even more gorgeous. She’s known Cole for over ten years, but had always wanted to know him better. He had a reputation for being quiet & strange, but she’d been fascinated with him since she was a child and he’d come to her rescue when she was bullied. Every time they’d crossed paths as kids he was so kind to her. He still intrigues her and is so beautiful. She wants him desperately and decides to take a chance with him and just go for it.
Cole is taking classes in marine sciences and working multiple jobs. He keeps to himself and is guarded. He’s caught up in his past and struggles to let anyone get close to him. Then Josie pushes her way into his heart and he falls hard.
This short story was amazing!!! I was hooked from the start on Cole. He’s hot, broody, and a bit tortured. It’s a fabulous first loves romance full of chemistry and swooniness. I can’t wait for more. If We Leap is a free prequel to the What If duet. It releases August 23rd. It takes place ten years before book 1, If We Fall.
I really love this book. It was short but we get a glimpse of Josie and Cole and how much they loved each other before everything went wrong between them. I loved how Josie saw underneath Cole’s reticent and brought out a softer side of him. I didn’t want the sweetness to end and have them change to completely different people but I need to know what tore them apart.
If you like steamy romance that’s beautifully written with absorbing characters and a story line that’s much more than a meet-cute and f*** fest, then this Book 1 of the What If series is right up your alley. I loved these books so much, they’re my current go-to for comfort re-reads. Caution: cliffhanger. But not to worry; you’re going to want to get all three books at once so you can read straight through. Clear your calendar and enjoy!
This is an amazing prequel to this series.
A great child hood friends/romance. Loved the past and present different points of view.
I can’t wait to see where their journey takes Cole and Josie.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book for Hidden Gems
Im, so amazed at this book at the moment. It was a well written book, full of emotions and the characters are so intuned with each other. Josie and Cole are everything to each other, but is it enough to last a lifetime when one grew up in a loving home and the other in an abrusive one. So far their love has past the first stage, but seems to be going dark. Hmm, this is interesting read so far. I’m looking forward to the next book.
I voluntarily reviewed this book after receiving a free copy.
If We Leap is the perfect novella to begin this amazing story of love, life, and unbelievable heartbreak and pain.
Cole and Josie’s past is featured in this quick read, about how their lives intertwined together and how their young love blossomed. But it’s also gives rise to something in their shared past that potentially tears them apart.
An stunningly well written novella that whets your appetite for the continuation of the incredible story of Cole and Josie in If We Fall.
Amount of sex 1.5 / 5
How explicit is the sex scenes 2 / 5
Story 5 / 5
Overall: 5 / 5
If we Leap is a prequel to the upcoming ‘What If’ duet by author Nina Lane. This novella is a quick introduction to the two main characters, Cole and Josie. The story begins with them in college, but it contains several flashbacks which explain how they meet and became friends. The flashbacks are well placed and flow with the story.
Since most of this novella is an introduction to the characters and background, there is not a lot of steamy sex scenes, hence the low numbers. Although, this did not take away from the story in any way. If We Leap is well written, and I can’t wait for the next book!
*Voluntarily Reviewed a Gifted Copy*
If We Leap is a wonderful introduction of Cole and Josie’s life. How it all began between these two.
Cole comes from a family of money, his dad owns a distillery but portrays to be a person he really isn’t. He doesn’t care an inch about his family and/or always mistreats them behind closed doors. Cole is broken and the last thing he wants is to treat Josie the way his father treated him and his mother.
Josie comes from a loving home, great parents and a wonderful older sister and a cool little brother. So all Josie knows how to do is love. She is set to show Cole just how much he can be loved and how much he can love a person.
This is the beginning of Josie and Cole’s journey. A journey filled with love, lust and hurt, lots of hurt and pain.
We get the beginning of how they met, when they were just kids and how they evolved as teenagers.
Like I said, this a beautiful beginning to a world full of hurt and pain. We now move on and continue this journey with If We Fall because it’ll answer many questions that we have lingering after finishing If We Leap.
This is a wonderful beginning to what looks like a great series!
In If We Leap we are introduced to Cole and Josie ten years before If We Fall. It is a beautiful beginning of their story and well worth reading.
If We Leap gave me just enough of a story and introduction to make me want to read the books in the What If Duet. Josie and Cole have known each other for 10-11 years. Cole isn’t the popular guy and carries a lot of dark stuff in his baggage thanks to his manipulative father. The reason why he keeps him himself. Through it all he’s always had an eye on Josie and her on him. She finally takes the plunge which leads to them taking a leap into a something more. I really enjoyed getting to know them. Both as kids and as adults. They have history and so much chemistry. The ending only made me say no! I need the If We Fall NOW!
4 Cherry Red Stars
Wow, this is a great introduction to the duet.
Josie is so lovable and dorky I find her endearing. Cole is the total opposite, he has been tagged as the town weirdo (small town b/s). Rumors have been flying around about him so of course, small mind town folks are going to believe it.
This is a beautiful story of a first crush, first love. Cole is so sweet to Josie. They met when they were very young and Josie has been an annoyance to him since which secretly I think he likes. They meet up later in life (college age) and she still has a thing for him. Things go well for them, a kiss and a swim. They fall in love, then their world falls apart.
So much was packed into this short read. I know the next book is going to be a hard read. All I can think about is Cole, what did you do or what has his asshole father done to him.
I don’t think ‘If we fall’ is going to be an easy read, I’m already filled with angst and anxiety. I had forgotten how much I love Nina’s words.
This book is about the love between Cole and Josie that has been growing since childhood. Cole is a misunderstood young man who came from an abusive home. He did get into trouble from time to time as a teen but he is basically a good person. The people from town ignored and thought the worst of him. His father bought and influenced his way into being a powerful person in the community. Only Cole knew who and what he was. Cole no longer cared what people thought. He was determined to live his own life. He was working his way through college working two jobs and looking for a third. He was heavily in debt with student loans, but it never stopped him from going forward to get his degree in marine biology and then to graduate school. His father was still trying to manipulate him with his trust fund, but Cole told him where to put it. Josie on the other hand grew up keeping Cole as her childhood friend even though he acted like he did not want her around. But Cole did want her around. Josie saw him as a person, not his reputation. Cole took it upon himself to be Josie’s protector. Josie ended up with a crush on Cole for many years. Josie grew up in a loving and eclectic family. Her father was a historian and her mother was an artist. Josie took after both of them. She loved knowing things. Tidbits of information here and there and she also loved to draw. She ended up going to college majoring in art. Josie ran into Cole at the carnival she was at. He was working a booth. She realized the boy had become a man and he was the man for her. The story of their lives intertwining once more took on a life of its own. Cole wanted to fight his attraction and his long-held feeling for Josie, but she would not let him. She was determined to show him that she was not giving up. This a wonderful prequel to the next in the series If We Fall. Then the book after that will be If We Fly. I can’t wait to read them.
This is the prequel to the What If Duet. It pulled me in from the very start. Her characters are so well written and very complex. Cole and Josie are the two main characters. They met as children and Josie befriended Cole, whether he wanted her to or not. But Cole was a broken and abused boy who had no friends and Josie was a tiny little thing, a couple years younger than him, that he felt the need to protect. Josie looked at him like he was her hero, she looked at him with respect. No one had ever looked at him like that before. So Cole and Josie became very special to each other.
Years later, now in College, Josie and Cole see each other again. They’re still very special to each other. Josie still looks at Cole the same way. But Cole is so damaged from years of abuse and manipulation from his father. He doesn’t feel he deserves Josie and he doesn’t want to pull her into his mess of a life. My heart really went out to Cole. Josie loves him, but loving a damaged and broken person is not so easy.
I can’t wait to read the Duet!! This is my first time reading Nina Lane and I’m already SO IMPRESSED!!!!
The backstory for Cole and Josie. I enjoyed reading this quick Novella especially since I already If We Fall. It took me to a happy place of ones first love. These two were each others moon and sun. We got to see Josie’s family and fall for them. Vanessa was not as bad as she was after the accident. Cole still swept me off my feet, but it all makes sense as to what his actions were later.
Josie is a firefly and full of spirit. I am sad to see how it dimmed and broken she became. I love their story and have so much more hope that these two will recover and have a HEA that they truly deserve.
Je ne connaissais pas la plume de Nina Lane mais c’est en découvrant le résumé du 1er tome que j’ai eu envie de découvrir la saga What If. Cette novella nous permet de découvrir l’adolescence de nos héros et ce qui les amenés à la situation que nous découvrirons dans le 1er tome?.
Josie Mays n’est pas une adolescente comme les autres comme nous pouvons le constater dans la scène d’ouverture de cette nouvelle. Elle ne conçoit pas qu’on puisse se moquer des autres et notamment de Cole Danforth qui est la bête noire de Castille , une petite ville côtière. Cette jeune femme en pince depuis des années pour ce jeune homme mystérieux qui fait en reclus et qui a très mauvaise réputation. Pourtant , elle a déjà réussi à nouer un dialogue avec lui et il n’est pas si inaccessible que cela. Elle verra même son côté protecteur. Elle devra sans doute forcer ses barrières pour le connaître un peu plus. Il est évident qu’elle en pince pour lui mais une histoire d’amour est elle réellement possible?
Cole Danforth est un fort infranchissable qui cache bien son jeu et ses blessures. Sans entrer dans les détails pour ne pas vous gâcher la surprise, il a un passé difficile et un contexte familial particulier. Il met toutes ses chances de son côté pour parvenir à quitter cette ville qui l’étouffe et pour faire des études de science marine. Contrairement à ce qu’on pourrait le croire, il en est tout à fait capable mais il est prisonnier de certaines choses. Grâce aux chapitres écrits de son point de vue, nous pouvons constater qu’il cache ses sentiments pour Josie , une jeune femme qu’il considère ne pas mériter. Fera t-il ce saut dans l’inconnu et acceptera t-il de lui ouvrir son coeur?
Bref, j’ai vraiment aimé cette novella qui me donne envie d’en savoir plus car la fin est très précise et on sent qu’un tournant décisif va se dessiner. Qu’en sera t-il de Josie et Cole? Pour le savoir, rendez vous le 30 août pour découvrir le 1er tome de cette duologie qui nous promet de vivre de belles émotions.
Nina Lane is an autoclick author for me so when I heard she had a duet coming I could not jump on this story fast enough. The cherry on top was this prequel story. OMG If We Leap was a fantastic introduction to Josie and Cole’s history and the draw between them!! I loved getting their before story and was hooked from the very first page. I am now intrigued and so obsessed about this series and can’t wait for book one! Bravo! 4 stars! ~Ratula