Title: Lead Me Not
Author: A. Meredith Walters
Series: Standalone
Genre: New Adult Contemporary
Format: Paperback, 400 pages
Release Date: August 5th 2014
Publisher: Gallery Books
Source: eARC received from publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

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In this dangerously sexy novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Find You in the Dark, a straight-laced college student meets a handsome but enigmatic stranger who lures her into an underground club scene, where she finds it difficult to resist temptation

Aubrey Duncan understands loss. She knows what rock bottom looks like, and she is determined to crawl back up to the top after the sudden death of her younger sister. She blames herself for her part in the tragedy, convinced that she could have done something, anything, to help her.

In her effort to gain redemption, Aubrey starts fresh at Longwood University and facilitates an addiction support group, hoping she can support someone else in the way she failed her sister. But what she doesn’t count on is an all-consuming fascination with group member Maxx Demelo, a gorgeous, blond, blue-eyed enigma who hides dark secrets behind a carefully constructed mask. He only reveals what he wants others to see. But Aubrey glimpses another Maxx hidden below the surface—a Maxx who is drowning in his own personal hell.

As Aubrey and Maxx develop an attraction too intense to ignore, he pulls her into the dark underbelly of the city club scene, where she is torn by her desire to save him and an inexplicable urge to join him in his downward spiral. Worst of all, she is beginning to love everything she should run away from—a man who threatens to ignite in her a fire that could burn her alive…


I was very much looking forward to this NA book when it git time for me to read it because I had read so much YA that it was time for a some sexy times! But sadly what I got what not that sexy and a whole bunch of drama.

There were many aspects of this book that were done well, and one of them was the Drug aspect. Whether it be Maxx, our main love interest, dealing and becoming addicted to the drugs that he was selling, to the drug boss that own Maxx, to the way that our narrator Aubrey handles all of these things since her sister died from a drug overdose.

Aubrey's character was great in the beginning. She was riven and strong headed with a lot of ambition. But what I hated about her character was much she de-evolved as the story went on. The moment she met Maxx she disregarded all the rules she had in place for herself and that was very frustrating to read because you know she was smarted than that and it was like this boy made her forget who she was. Also I found Maxx to be very destructive to not only himself but to Aubry as well and it was frustrating that she could not see it happening when us readers could.

I never really connected with Maxx so his relationship with Aubrey really didn't mean a whole lot to me. I thought it was more sexual than anything else. There was a lot of sexual tension but when it came to actually doing the deed we git nothing but a flashback. I felt a little gypped by that because there had been so much lead up to that scene yet it was glanced over like it meant nothing. Their relationship also did not have enough redemption for me to actually fall for them as a couple. There was too much destruction and hurt that it made me weary and I i felt myself pulling away from the characters and the story itself.

Overall Lead Me Not was an okay New Adult with character that had too many issues and not enough redemption. I wanted more from their relationship and less drama from both of the main characters.