Crush (Crash #3)
by Nicole Williams
Genre: New Adult Contemporary
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: April 23rd 2013
Source: finished copy from publisher
Author's website | GoodReads

Football glory. A giant diamond. A wandering eye.

Jude and Lucy are happily engaged . . . but that doesn't mean life's a bed of roses.

Once again, Jude and Lucy are torn apart by football training and a summer job that creates new tensions. This time Jude's the one with trust issues. Will Lucy's life-changing news bring them back together or end their relationship for good? Can love triumph forever?

Nicole Williams took two characters and had them meet by fate, chronicling their lives and spreading it out for all the world to read and fall in love with. The broken boy on the beach seemed like a lifetime ago. These two characters and their lives full of struggles and challenges, from their senior year of high school to their last year of college, have grown so much since I first read Crash and it's terribly painful for me to say goodbye.

The growth in Nicole Williams' characters were so evident in Crush. Lucy's a big girl now and knows how to deal with her life and Jude. The strong parts of Lucy came through this time around; she's no longer the jealous girlfriend and has learned how to control her mouth. She's determined to be this independent woman who doesn't have to rely on her man or his money. Jude is still the cocky, sexy, sensitive, and hotheaded Jude Ryder we've come to love but he has now learned how to control his temper to a certain extent. Both of them finally became the better version of themselves.

Crush circled around the most important factor in Jude and Lucy's relationship: their trust in each other. Jude  scored a spot in the NFL and becomes an instant millionaire and Lucy struggles throughout the book to help Jude realize that money won't buy them happiness. There were certain times when I really thought that the money would change Jude for good but i'm glad that it didn't turn out that way. In the second book, Clash, Lucy was a raging jealous girlfriend but it's Jude who's the jealous one this time around. Anton, Lucy's ex-roommate India's twin brother, hires Lucy to be his assistant for the summer and he is absolutely not shy about his growing attraction towards Lucy. The long distance between Jude and Lucy didn't help the situation at all but I have to applaud Jude for handling it all so much better than Lucy.

I accepted Anton's presence in the book with open arms. Jude and Lucy's relationship made me happy and I cheered for them time and time again but I just couldn't ignore the underlying thoughts I had lingering around my head. Jude and Lucy had all these conflicts and all they had to do was apologize and have hot make-up sex and then everything would magically be okay. It sounded like a completely unhealthy relationship to me. Anton voiced those concerns of mine throughout the book and constantly challenged Lucy to prove him wrong. The thing is, I don't really feel like Lucy proved him wrong, like they opened up a gaping hole in the plot and forgot to close it.

Nicole Williams' writing was effortless and was a breeze to read. Crush finds strength in how well the emotions came through. Nicole Williams gave life to Lucy and voiced out all of her happiness, desire, indecision, fears, and the rush of strength going through her veins after the whole roof caved in. The juxtaposition of certain sentences and phrases just flowed out so beautifully. The writing really played a  major role in how well the story was told, and I truly believe that Nicole Williams not only succeeded as a writer, but as a story-teller as well.

Crush was the perfect ending to Jude and Lucy's tale. It was well thought out and closed most loose ends with a tight knot. It wasn't perfect in a sense that it was a completely unrealistic fairy tale ending, but it was as real as life could get. The things that happened to Jude and Lucy in Crush were surprising but expected considering their lifestyle and their beliefs. The people that they consider their second family got their own endings, too. Jude and Lucy showed the world that they are more than what they are pegged to be; they rose from the ashes of their downfalls and became a power couple unlike any other. It's hard to accept the fact that I won't be hearing about their lives again, but i'm happy that they made it through.

THE NUB AND GIST: 4 STARS