Four Years Later (One Week Girlfriend #4) by Monica Murphy-a review

FOUR YEARS LATER (One Week Girlfriend #4 ) by Monica Murphy-a review

Four Years Later Feb 14

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 4, 2014

Owen’s story

New Adult bestselling author Monica Murphy winds up her sensational series with this sexy story of two college kids with nothing in common but a bunch of baggage and a burning attraction.

Over. That about sums up everything in my life. Suspended from my college football team and forced to cut back my hours at The District bar because of my crappy grades, I can’t keep turning to my sister, Fable, and her pro-football playing husband, Drew, to bail me out. I just can’t seem to find my own way. Weed and sex are irresistible temptations—and it’s messed up that I secretly hand over money to our junkie mom. A tutor is the last thing I want right now—until I get a look at her.

Chelsea is not my type at all. She’s smart and totally shy. I’m pretty sure she’s even a virgin. But when she gives me the once over with those piercing blue eyes, I’m really over. But in a different way. I won’t deny her ass is killer, but it’s her brain and the way she seems to crave love—like no one’s ever given her any—that make me want her more than any girl I’ve ever met. But what would someone as seemingly together as her ever see in a screwed up guy like me?

••••••••••••••••••••••

REVIEW: FOUR YEARS LATER is the fourth and final instalment in Monica Murphy’s new adult, contemporary, romance series that began with Drew and Fable’s story. Four Years Later fast forwards the series four years but approximately one year following Drew & Fable Forever. This is Owen and Chelsea’s story-Owen is Fable’s younger brother and is having some difficulty integrating into the college life-especially when his past refuses to let him go.

FOUR YEARS LATER follows Owen as the up and coming football star whose life is beginning to spiral out of control. When a tutor is hired to help Owen with his grades, he finds himself sexually and physically attracted to the shy and virginal Chelsea Simmons. But Owen’s failing grades are a combination of many demons including the reappearance of someone who walked away years before. As their relationship builds, so too do the secrets they hide from one another. But it is Owen’s denial of his relationship with Chelsea that will push away the woman with whom he is falling in love.

Monica Murphy brings together the major players first introduced in One Week Girlfriend. From dysfunctional family dynamics, heartbreaking backstories and happily ever afters, we have followed the Drew and Fable saga beginning with a traumatic tale of neglect and abuse to the rising success of a once fourteen year old boy whose looking to the future with the woman he loves.

Monica Murphy claims that FOUR YEARS LATER is the conclusion to the One Week Girlfriend/Drew & Fable series, but there is so much left unanswered where Owen and Chelsea are concerned. The final storyline is open ended with Owen and Chelsea in the ‘here and now’-with no plans for the present-and in this, there are so many more stories yet to be told. Let’s hope Monica has a few short stories lined up for Chelsea and Owen.

If you are a fan of the Drew & Fable/One Week Girlfriend series, Four Years Later looks at what happens to a young man who has had a difficult time fitting in – abandoned by his mother; never knowing his father; and expected to follow in the footsteps of his famous and much older brother in law. Monica Murphy draws the reader into a story that is not as emotional or heartbreaking as One Week Girlfriend but a story that will tug at your heart-none the less.

Copy supplied by the author through Netgalley.

Reviewed by Sandy

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Three Broken Promises (Drew and Fable #3) by Monica Murphy-a review

Three Broken Promises (Drew and Fable #3) by Monica Murphy-a review

Three Broken Promises Dec 13

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THREE BROKEN PROMISES (Drew and Fable #3) by Monica Murphy

About the book: Release Date December 31, 2013

Commitment. That’s what I really want from Colin. Ever since my brother, Danny, died in Iraq, Colin’s done so much to help me, including giving me a job at his popular restaurant so I can leave my crappy waitressing job at the strip joint. But lying in bed with him every night to comfort him from his horrible nightmares isn’t enough anymore. I know he feels guilty about Danny’s death, about not going to Iraq, but I can’t keep living this double life.

I love him desperately, but he’s got so many demons, and if he can’t open up to me now, then he’ll never be the real partner I need him to be. I gave him a month, and now I’m out of here. If he truly loves me like he says, he knows where to find me.

••••••••••••••••••••••••

REVIEW: THREE BROKEN PROMISES is the third storyline in Monica Murphy’s contemporary, new adult series Drew and Fable. Although this is not the continuing adventures of Drew and Fable it is Jen and Colin’s story-Jen is Fable’s BFF and Colin is their boss. The story is told from first person POV –alternating between Colin and Jen.

The storyline focuses on two twenty-something people who have more than a difficult time expressing their feelings to one another. Colin is a man possessed by the demons of war where his best friend Danny died leaving Colin the sole protector of Danny’s sister Jen. Jen and Colin’s relationship has always been more like brother and sister although neither want to address the proverbial elephant in the room-their mutual attraction for one another and the sexual tension and heat whenever they are together. Now that Jen lives under the same roof with Colin, she finds herself becoming Colin’s protector whenever the nightmares overpower his ability to sleep and think.

Jen has a backstory that is slowly revealed throughout the storyline and one that is both heartbreaking and shocking to her friends and Colin. Knowing that Colin would never accept her past, Jen gives her notice and prepares to leave the security of her friends, her job and the man with whom she has fallen in love. The secrets they keep from one another weigh heavily with each waking day.

The storyline is rife with angst and anxiety as Jen and Colin push each other at every step of the way. Jen needs and wants Colin to admit he has feelings for her but Colin believes it is his duty to protect Jen from others and men like himself. He wants Jen; he needs Jen; but in the end, his inability to express his love for Jen will push her away one final time. And in this, she walks into another situation even more dangerous than the one she left behind.

The world building and sexual tension continue throughout the storyline but much of the time was spent in ruminations and thoughts about what ifs and whys; Fable’s brother Owen is but a blip on the radar although his storyline is the next to be told; and Drew and Fable play minor secondary roles throughout the story.

But I did have an issue with the quick resolution to the build up of the story. The plot and premise of the final confrontation felt disjointed and disconnected to the storyline; it came out of left field and I was thinking-WTH just happened and where did that come from?

THREE BROKEN PROMISES is a well written storyline but I didn’t feel the connection to the leading couple as I did with Drew and Fable’s story. Although there is plenty of angst and anxiety there was none of the heartbreaking revelations that pulled me into the story where I felt for the characters as I did with Drew and Fable. Perhaps it was Colin and Jen’s personalities or their lack of communication with one another-for two people in their twenties they still had plenty of growing up to do.

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley.

Reviewed by Sandy

Reading Order
1. One Week Girlfriend
2. Second Chance Boyfriend
3. Three Broken Promises
3.5 Drew and Fable Forever Novella (Jan 2014)
4. Four Years Later (Feb 2014)

Drew and Fable Series

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Second Chance Boyfriend (Drew + Fable #2) by Monica Murphy-a review

SECOND CHANCE BOYFRIEND ( Drew + Fable #2) by Monica Murphy-a review

Second Chance Boyfriend

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 5, 2013

**Recommended for ages 17+ due to sexual content and language, mature subject matter**

New Adult Contemporary

Lost. That one single word best describes my life at this very moment. I lost the last games of the season and both my team and my coach blame me. I lost the last two months because I drowned in my own despair like a complete loser. And I lost the only girl who ever mattered because I was afraid being with me would destroy her.

But now I realize how truly lost I am without her. She has become my story…and even though she acts like she’s moved on, I know she still thinks about me just as much as I think about her. She’s beautiful, sweet—and so damn vulnerable, all I want to do is help her. Be there for her.

Love her…

If only I could convince Fable to give me a second chance. Then I wouldn’t feel so lost anymore, and neither would she. We could be found together.

••••••••••••••••••

REVIEW: SECOND CHANCE BOYFRIEND is the second storyline in Monica Murphy’s contemporary New Adult romance series Drew + Fable. For me, this particular novel was not as emotionally strong as ONE WEEK GIRLFRIEND because many of the heartbreaking scenes and gut wrenching revelations had already been revealed in the first book.

Second Chance Boyfriend follows Drew and Fable approximately two months after One Week Girlfriend. With the shocking revelations about his past, Drew walks away from Fable believing he is not worthy of her love or her support, but a chance meeting will find Drew and Fable together again, with the realization that both have been miserable without the other. Wounded souls and broken hearts have a way of finding each other and Drew and Fable needed each other just to breathe.

Part of this particular storyline will focus on Drew’s withdrawal into himself; Fable’s new place of employment and a developing new friendship; the dissolution of a family; and the declaration of love between two emotionally broken souls who want to be loved for themselves. But the mind and the body remember and it is difficult to forget the tumultuous childhood and betrayal by those who were meant to protect you. In order for Fable to keep her younger brother safe there is only one option but fate had a way of interfering before it all began. And for Drew to move on, he would have to face the demons head on but not before the woman he loves is threatened.

If you believe karma is a b*tch then she definitely had it coming. When the past and the truth are finally revealed to everyone concerned, the wall between father and son will begin to crumble and a new beginning is on the horizon.

SECOND CHANCE BOYFRIEND is the final story for Drew and Fable in this particular ARC but Monica will be continuing the series with future books focusing on different characters we have met before. I highly recommend reading ONE WEEK GIRLFRIEND before SECOND CHANCE BOYFRIEND-so much of the second storyline is dependent on the first and it would be impossible to not to feel the emotional turmoil and heartbreaking sorrow of betrayal at the hands of someone you trust. Too much information is revealed in book one.

Second Chance Boyfriends is an emotional and thought-provoking storyline of overcoming the odds when the people you trust most fail you at every turn. Monica Murphy writes from the heart and pulls the reader in so that you feel the angst, the betrayal, the sorrow and the pain, but above all else, you will cheer for two people, who at the end of the day deserve happiness and love, above all else.

Reviewed by Sandy

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