A track star with nothing to lose. A college coach who may lose everything to save her.Will Langstrom has too many responsibilities, and the last thing he needs is Olivia Finnegan, a beautiful but troubled new transfer student.Olivia is her own worst enemy, with a smart mouth and a past she can’t seem to escape, and the last person she wants help from is a cocky track coach she can never seem to … coach she can never seem to please. Refusing to be pushed away, Will is determined to save her…and determined to resist an attraction that could destroy them both.
You don’t want to miss Waking Olivia, winner of the IBPA’s gold medal for romance. Buy this seat-gripping story of forbidden love today.
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One of the best books I’ve read this year. I did not want it to end.
I hate that it took me so long to try Elizabeth’s work, but once I started, I couldn’t stop. Her writing is addictive, and her books are original in a way that WOWS you from the first page. Will and Olivia won my heart with their tragic, twisted, slow-burn of a romance, and after I finished their story, I eagerly went on to my next Elizabeth O’Roark book b/c this author is THAT good. She’s definitely got a fan in me. FIVE STARS for Waking Olivia.
I cannot with my feelings for this book even days after finishing! I FINALLY read Waking Olivia by Elizabeth O’Roark last weekend. It’s been on my kindle for forever, and I absolutely loved everything about Will and Olivia.
It had all the angsty, secretive, forbidden moments I look for in a student/coach romance…and then some! Between Olivia’s background, Will’s protectiveness and the extent he went to help her. GAH! It felt as if I’d been the one to run miles with the way their story had my heart racing and fluttering. So beautiful. So emotional. There was just so much I adore about this book!
READ THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!! There are not enough words to describe how amazing this book is! This was my first book by Elizabeth O’Roark and it will NOT be my last either! WOW—she did an AMAZING job!!
When I say I really needed this book now, I am not exaggerating. I wanted to escape my problems—the world’s problems—and be swept away. I can’t imagine a better fictional landing-place, where I would have been more emotionally involved, than within the breath-stealing story of Olivia and Will. The enormous amount of highlighting and the notes I was compelled to write are a true testament to the skills of the author. I alternately chuckled, full-out laughed, sighed, gasped, cursed, cried, and ranted all the way through. I have a rather low threshold when it comes to in-your-face heroines. The too-tough women who come across as one-dimensional victims of their traumatic pasts. Right away I was intrigued by how the author portrayed Olivia. With her smart mouth, sharp wit, stinging comebacks, and tough persona, I found myself captivated with her character. She was a fascinating and multi-dimensional young woman I just had to find out about. With the introduction of Will, I knew this story was going to do me in. The word “chemistry” is thrown about so commonly in romance books, but the push and pull between Olivia and Will couldn’t be contained or described with such a commonly used word. They were dynamically charged right from the start: intellectually, emotionally, and physically. Hence all of my effusive emotions! I’m not one for manufactured angst and often get so frustrated by how much an author thinks that I, as a reader, should be induced to fits of empathy. When, in reality, all of their excessive but-not-warranted turmoil does nothing other than irritate me. I think Elizabeth O’Roark precisely balanced the drama, humor, torment, and passion to create a memorable and extremely gratifying “forbidden love” story.
Well written book and hard to put down until finished
Wow! I was completely consumed by this book. O’Roark’s fantastic storytelling and talented writing peels back layer after layer of these complicated characters in a way that makes this book un-put-down-able! That ending, too! I won’t be able to get Olivia or Will out of my head anytime soon! This was my first time reading the author and I can’t wait to enjoy more from her!
Great, layered read. So much more than a taboo story. Highly recommend.
What a read!!! Will and Olivia’s story is one of my favorites. She is so broken, and he is so kind. The combination is so amazing. I cried when I read her story, and smiled at his response. There are some great twists to this story and the emotions elicited were well received. A sports romance/survival story so beautifully written. Loved this book!!
*5 Stars*
Copy kindly received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This has been on my backlog of books for ages, and I just hadn’t gotten around to reading it as yet. When I first picked it up a couple of days ago, I thought I was really going to dislike our main character Olivia, because of her arrogant and stand-offish attitude.
Little did I know that I was going to very quickly be swept up into this book. I got hooked on these characters and finding out what had happened to Olivia in her past, and I was furiously turning page after page.
Will is our hero, and he’s so adorable. He cares so much, but he also has his values and wants to do right by everyone and everything, even if it means hurting himself.
I really loved watching this story unfold, discovering Olivia’s horrible past, and seeing how she would deal with things, along with Will’s help.
We have some great secondary characters in this, and my fave’s would have to be Brendan, Dorothy and Erin. Their loyalty and the level with which they care about Olivia, no matter how she acts at times, is really great, and I really fell for this little circle of friends and family.
I was hanging on every word of this by the end, even if at times it did seem to be taking a while. I really loved this one, and look forward to reading more from this author.
Go into this book BLIND!!! Elizabeth is a new to me author this year, and I’m definitely devouring her books! She’s such a hidden gem. I loved the mystery also behind this book, I don’t think I have come across anything like this before on what was happening to Olivia. Gah and the romance, so good. What a well rounded cast of characters as well. I look forward to reading Drowning Erin!
Wow! This book really surprised me. I’m not sure what I was expecting but I do know that I got more than I anticipated. It’s a slow burn, student-teacher, enemies to lovers story between two amazing characters. I felt like I really knew them. Their pain and struggles were mine. It’s a story that has layers and I loved as each layer was dealt with to reveal another layer, some good, some scary.
Olivia was definitely different than any other heroine I’d read before. Her and Will’s characters were so well developed I never questioned the validity of their pasts or how they responded to current situations.
While they begin as enemies their chemistry is evident. Will does have a girlfriend during most of this book and she’s a real piece of work so be prepared for that. I wanted to smack her…a lot. He is also extremely jealous and possessive over Olivia although he has no claim on her. There is also some disturbing scenes from Olivia’s past that left an echo of unease in my mind. Despite the slow burn here, we do get to see this couple as a couple. And just as I was thinking, “okay, I get it, they’re a couple let’s get to the epilogue”, a conflict arises that just bumped this story up another notch as they deal with the issue.
It’s a lengthier book but it never felt slow and it never bogged down. The secondary characters here were just as well written as the hero and heroine without taking over. This story was just so freaking well written that I’m wondering why I haven’t heard of it before now. It’s one of those books that will linger with you long after you’ve moved on and leave you with a book hangover.
Dual POV
Super swoony romance about a girl who runs in her sleep! That may sound fairly harmless, but think about it. What happens when you make it outside? Without shoes or a phone? What if you run miles before something wakes you? In the woods? Eeep! Loved!
Hot coach/ student action Hell Yeah I’m all over that! Waking Olivia is my first taste of Elizabeth O’Roark’s writing and I really loved it. This book gave me every dirty little thing I love in taboo, forbidden, angsty, student/ coach read and more. Olivia is awesome. She is so snarky and hard. Olivia’s had a horrible life. Her past is haunting her causing her to sleep run, and ruining her chance to make it big as a college track star. Will is so sexy. He has that whole broody, angry, alpha, protective thing going for him. When he learns that Liv is sleep running he wants to be the one who saves her. Him helping her work through her sleep problems has them spending a lot of time together and has their already strong attraction growing. Lines get crossed, Olivia is the forbidden fruit that’s just too tempting. With him trying his best to be ethical, and add in a hateful girlfriend and you have the perfect angst storm.
I felt the author did a great job of showing us who Will and Olivia really were. There was really good relationship and character development. I felt the chemistry between Olivia and Will almost from the start. There are two reasons I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5. 1)While I really liked Will and I understand his dilemma. I didn’t like the fact that he had a girlfriend for a little over half the book. I wanted him to break up with Jessica sooner. 2) There was just too much push/pull. His need to do what he felt was right went on for far too long making him push Olivia away just a tad too much for my liking. I was really glad that when Will and Olivia did get together that Olivia’s problems didn’t just disappear. She still had to get help and I thought that was an important message. Love heals but it’s ok to still need professional help. Will’s mom Dorothy and brother Brendan were awesome side characters. They added something special to the story. I loved the ending it was just so sweet. Waking Olivia was a great read and I would recommend It to anyone who likes angsty, taboo, naughty, forbidden love!
This book was soooo all in my feels!
I loved the depth in my this story.
My heart breaks for Olivia. Over and over again.
And Will’s ability to coach / help her is next level phenomenal
Highly recommend this taboo tale.
PS: I do not like Jessica!
Elizabeth O’Roark
This was a recommendation. It had been for so long on my TBR shelf and I finally decided to give it a try and I really liked it.
The author wrote the beginning in a way that you couldn’t help but feel involved and intrigued. I liked the pace and how the characters grew together, that push-and-pull was so nervewracking and so addictive at the same time.
Something that threw me off a bit was the last part. In a way, I wanted to read thoroughly those chapters but I kind of knew it was going to be a bit repetitive, but it still felt a bit off, like something was missing. although I was really pleased with the end.
Sweet romantic story.
This is one of the most unique books I’ve ever read. I could not put it down and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it!
I gave this book a try because it was on audible escape. I also read several other books by this author that I loved (her time travel romance duets. PARALLEL, INTERSECT, ACROSS TIME, ACROSS ETERNITY), so I wanted to give her other more contemporary romance stories a try.
When I saw that this one was a coach/athlete forbidden romance, I was stoked to read it. These types of tropes are my jam! Buuuut…this particular story didn’t jam with ME. I honestly think it could possible be a it’s me, not you type situation. I have a love hate relationship with slow burn novels. And for ME, this story was too S L O W. There is 80 chapters. EIGHTY. There wasn’t enough angst and/or storyline for there to be that many chapters. I truly think that some of the storyline could’ve been cut out and this book would’ve won me over, but in the end, it just all felt repetitive and drawn out. And then there was Olivia. Honestly, I did NOT connect with her character AT ALL. She was not likable right from the get go. She comes off cold and a capital B to literally EVERYONE. For no apparent reasons. I get what drove her to be the cold-hearted persona that she was, but I just didn’t care for it and even as her heart began to thaw later in the book (thanks to Will), she still didn’t win me over 100%. I didn’t hate her, I just didn’t like her.
I hate having to rate this book a 3 star because the writing was good. The story had potential and I was intrigued for the first 30% of the book, but then it just fell flat after that for me. There was a story to be told and Elizabeth did tell it. This was a S L O W burn, enemies to lovers, forbidden love (coach and athlete), set in college, a touch of cheating story…so if these things I listed are something you are into, then give this book a try. Clearly others loved it, it just didn’t work for ME.
***I do see that there is a spinoff from this book, DROWNING ERIN (Will’s brother’s book). I will give that book a try on audio and see if I like that one better! Brendan did intrigue me, so his story has potential.
Audible Review: This book was dual POV, so we get dual narrators. I LOVED the female that narrated for Olivia. She could effortlessly bounce back and forth from Olivia and Will. I did NOT love the male narrator. I’ve had him narrate in another book I listened to and I had a hard time with him in that book because of his inflections, but it worked perfectly for THAT character, not so much for Will or Olivia in this book.
3 stars
Waking Olivia by Elizabeth O’Roark is a new adult, forbidden, sports romance told in alternating points of view. This enticing story centers around the relationship between 20-year-old Olivia, a talented cross country runner with a troubled past, and 24-year-old Will, her college track coach.
Olivia is new on the team after an incident of violently losing her temper has forced her to transfer from a higher ranked college. Initially, Will sees nothing but trouble when he looks at Olivia. Not only is she gorgeous, but she has an abrasive attitude and a bad reputation. There’s a reason that none of the top schools will touch her, and Will doesn’t want to waste his time coaching her.
As pieces of Olivia’s mysterious and traumatic past are revealed, Will learns that there’s more to her than meets the eye. Irresistibly drawn to her and determined to help, he struggles with how to maintain a professional distance while resisting his own developing feelings as their intense attraction continues to grow.
This is my first taste of Elizabeth O’Roark’s writing and I totally loved it. It had all the delicious elements of a slow-burning, angsty, taboo romance mixed with an underlying mystery and a touch of suspense. The chemistry between Will and Olivia drew me in, completely captivated. I could not put this book down. A fascinating and fantastic read!