Get Real (Get Real #1) by Tellulah Darling Published by Te Da Media on September 26th 2015
Genres: Fiction, New Adult, Romance, Urban
Pages: 358
Format: eARC
Get Real is a New Adult romantic comedy with sass, sex, and swoon, set in the world of “Cadabras"–humans with magical powers.Francesca Bellafiore is a good Jewish girl, living up to family expectations that she use her magic to heal others. Underneath, she’s a wannabe badass with her heart set on becoming a detective and solving magical crimes. But nice girls don't disappoint their moms.Party boy Rafael Muñoz does everything possible to publicly disappoint his high profile father. Privately, it's a different story. His carefully crafted bad boy reputation masks the fact he’s a master illusionist, forced into solo covert ops. The role is wearing thin and Rafael longs to be part of a team.When Francesca meets Rafael at a friend's party, she's taken by the sexy stranger. Until he speaks. Beautiful plumage doesn't compensate for spectacular ego. Rafael finds Francesca's sweetness a turn-on. For about five minutes. Judgmental golden girls are more trouble than they're worth. Then a terrified girl with reality warping powers, locked and loaded on their destruction, whisks the pair to Manhattan. Francesca and Rafael are caught in a web of magic, minions, secrets, and enough sexual tension to power NYC. Desperate to prove themselves, their only chance to save the city and survive is to team up, trust each other–and maybe even fall in love.Provided they don't kill each other first.
Get Real by Tellulah Darling is the first in a series and combines a bit of the paranormal with the sassy girls and swoony boys she is known for. As you may (or may not) know I have loved Darling’s other books so it was a no brainer for me to dive right into this book.
First things first…I love this cover. With that said, I’m not entirely sure it links me back to the story I read. With that in mind, definitely read the blurb because the story is set in a world where humans have magical powers and the main character, Francesca, has some big shoes to fill because of one of her mother’s reputation in the world of healers.
The twist here – Francesca doesn’t want to be a healer…she wants to be a detective. When the opportunity comes to show that she really can be what she wants, Francesca jumps at it and ends up working side by side with Rafael.
Rafael is the party boy…or so he would like everyone to think. He has been put into some solo ops by his father and he has to keep it a secret because of a number of reasons but his reputation creates a bit of a challenge for him. When he meets Francesca at a party, he is definitely drawn to her but quickly realizes they are very different.
As the two are thrown together and are the only ones who can try to figure out why their world is completely out of whack, they start to realize that just saying they aren’t interested in the other won’t stop their attraction to the other. I loved the tension that existed between Francesca and Rafael and Darling did a great job of showing their relationship change over the course of the book.
As far as character development goes, Darling does a wonderful job here. I loved the underlying challenges that Darling integrated into this story so it was not only focused on the mystery of what was really going on with the mystery girl but also about these two people who needed to figure things out for themselves. From Francesca’s desire to be something other than a healer and have the courage to tell her parents to Rafael’s desire to get out from under his father’s thumb and become more than just a tool for him to use when he wants.
The secondary characters were great as well. The group of friends these two characters made things interesting and I thought they all added a layer to this story that allowed me to get to know the main characters better. I’m looking forward to learning more about them all.
As per usual, Tellulah Darling wrote a story that pulled me in right from the first page and made it so that I didn’t want to put it down until I knew how things were going to end up for everyone. Not only does she build a great, character driven story but the addition of the magic and how it ties everyone together only adds to the story. If you are looking for a fast paced story with interesting characters, a bit of magic, and a bit of romance…definitely consider checking this book out. I can’t wait to see where Darling takes these characters and I am curious to know more!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy!
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