The Worth Series by Mara Jacobs

Look! There’s the quiet virginal girl who loves to read.  She’s 18 and has long flowing hair and a body to die for.  Isn’t she beautiful?

Oh!  And there’s the really hot football player who has never felt for anyone the way he feels about her and has abs like you wouldn’t BELIEVE!! 

Barf.

Anyone else tired of reading about these two?  They seem to pop up in 95% of all the New Adult books I’ve read lately. 

Enter Mara Jacobs, my first Diamonds in the Rough, and her realistic cast of characters:

·         The fat girl who has been labeled the “nice one” in her hometown, but is a bad ass in the world of sports agents.

·         The prom queen who was aptly titled the “pretty one” and has found herself in a less than stellar marriage.

·         The “smart one” who is practically a genius with everything except the opposite sex.

·         The small town boy who lost his lofty dreams because he thought with the wrong head one night.

·         The Latin Lover who is large in the nose but small in stature and struggles with abandonment issues.

·         And the hometown hero facing a life without the career he worked so hard for when age finally catches up to him.

These are a few of the people Mara Jacobs writes about.  The people who sound a lot more like, well, me.  And you.  And our friends and neighbors and co-workers.  And that’s just the beginning of why her books are so intriguing to me.

According to her website, The Worth Series is a New York Times and USA Today best seller.  So why do I consider her a Diamond?  Because I had never heard of her until the first book in the series, “Worth the Weight” popped up as a freebie on a list I was looking at.  I asked around, and no one else had heard of her either. 

But, me being a sucker for a free book, especially one with an interesting synopsis, meant I 1-clicked.  Within a few pages, I was hooked. 

Based in “da Yoop”, which is a local’s way of saying the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, these are beautiful stories of overcoming insecurity, body image issues, rebuilding after loss and of course, love. 

Unlike some authors, Ms. Jacobs doesn’t try too hard.  Her plot lines aren’t over the top.  The twists and turns never have me rolling my eyes.  They are real life issues in their most intimate form.  And they’re simple, in the most beautiful way. 

Don’t miss this series!  You won’t be disappointed!

The Worth Series, in reading order:

Worth the Weight

Worth the Drive

Worth the Fall

Worth the Effort

Totally Worth Christmas (Novella)

Click HERE to Worth the Weight on Amazon (It’s still FREE, by the way!)