By turns heartbreaking and sweet, I WANT IT THAT WAY follows two new adults figuring out how they can reach for, and grab onto, true love while still living their messy lives. Book one of a New Adult series, Aguirre demonstrates with flair that she can write contemporary fiction as gripping as her science fiction romance novels or her dystopian young adult books. This story unflinchingly shows the grind of daily struggles, the angst of love obstructed, and the euphoria of triumph over adversity.

Nadia Conrad is a struggling college student. She and three roommates move in to an apartment building during her junior year of college in Mount Albion, Michigan. Nadia is the first in her family to go to college. Her parents in Nebraska have scrimped and saved to come up with her tuition. Nadia is working at a day care to cover her bills, and studying to become a special education teacher. She feels great pressure to keep her grades up to maintain her scholarship, and also pressure to excel in becoming a teacher. Nadia tells herself she doesn't have time for a relationship! But something about her new downstairs neighbor calls to her...

Single father Daniel Tyler lives in the apartment below Nadia with his four year old son, Sam. Daniel is barely balancing a full-time construction management job and night classes to become an architect while taking care of his son. Burned badly by Sam's mother, Daniel has no intention of succumbing to his intense interest in Nadia, despite her long, gorgeous legs and great personality. He tells Nadia, "I'm a pro at not getting what I want." But he finds it hard to resist the lure of getting to know her, even as he tells himself he must keep his distance...

The problems faced by Nadia and Daniel are refreshingly ordinary, pulling the reader easily into the story. Experiencing their anxiety and heartbreak, I became so invested in their happily ever after. I had a deeply visceral satisfaction when I closed the book on the last page, because Aguirre made me care so deeply for Nadia and Daniel. The story seethes with chemistry and angst, and then soothes with dreamy sweet moments. I WANT IT THAT WAY will make you forget the world around you as you read.

Book Summary

Nadia Conrad has big dreams, and she's determined to make them come true—for her parents' sake as well as her own. But between maintaining her college scholarship and working at the local day care to support herself, she barely has time to think, let alone date. Then she moves into a new apartment and meets the taciturn yet irresistible guy in 1B….

Daniel Tyler has grown up too fast. Becoming a single dad at twenty turned his life upside down—and brought him heartache he can't risk again. Now, as he raises his four-year-old son while balancing a full-time construction management job and night classes, a social life is out of the question. The last thing he wants is for four noisy students to move into the apartment upstairs. But one night, Nadia's and Ty's paths cross, and soon they can't stay away from each other.

The timing is all wrong—but love happens when it happens. And you can't know what you truly need until you stand to lose it.