(Never) Again by Theresa Paolo – a Review

(Never) Again by Theresa Paolo – a Review

never againLinks to order (Never) Again: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo


Description:

Just when she had finally moved on…
…He moved back.

When college freshman Liz Wagner hears her ex’s voice for the first time since he moved clear across the freaking country, she does what any respectable girl would do: Dive into the girls’ bathroom.

Zach Roberts—the Zach Roberts—is back. And he’s everywhere Liz looks—infiltrating her friend group, buddy-buddy with her brother. It’s enough to ruin college altogether. But what choice does she have but to put on a happy face and pretend he didn’t leave her vulnerable and alone in a pile of emotional wreckage?

Pretending works, until tragedy strikes and the only person available for comfort is the one person she wants to stay away from. When Zach turns out not to be the jerk she convinced herself he was, but the boy she used to love, Liz needs to decide whether to open her heart again to the boy who tore it out.

 

Review:

(Never) Again by Theresa Paolo is a sweet story of a college romance that is a New Adult novel.  Our heroine is Liz Wagner, whom we meet early attending her first day of college.  She and her roomie, Sadie, join up with Liz’s boyfriend, Joe and their friends on the campus.  Much to Liz’s shock, she sees Zach, the boy who broke her heart a year ago.

Zach had moved away and never had any contact with Liz. It took her awhile to move on, and now she has found happiness with Joe.  But when she sees Zach, after all this time, Liz knows she still has feelings for him, but she is determined to hide it, since she wants nothing to do with him now.  But as the story continues, Liz finds out that it isn’t as easy as that.  Zach is determined more than ever to win back Liz, even if she is distant with him. 

As I said above, this is a simple sweet romance. Zach, is a sweetheart, even though what he did was wrong, and we truly never understood why he left for a year and never contacted Liz.  But he was great with Liz, never pushing her to accept him back, and yet made it difficult for her to ignore him.  Liz’s current boyfriend, Joe, seemed nice at first, but in time he wanted to spend more time with his band, and Liz, did not see the obvious staring at her.  Perhaps this was because Joe was really just a protective shield on her heart, and getting hurt again.  But a tragedy would force Liz to see the truth.  Would Liz forgive Zach and be with the one person she truly loved.  Could she trust Zach to never leave her again?

Besides Liz and Zach, I though Paolo created some nice characters, such as Sadie and Liz’s brother Josh, who was awesome.  Paolo has a very nice writing style.  I thought (Never) Again was nice sweet simple read.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

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A Moment by Marie Hall – a review

A Moment ( The Moments #1) by Marie Hall – a review

A Moment

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A MOMENT (Moments #1) by Marie Hall

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 12, 2013

Ryan Cosgrove and Liliana Delgado are on a collision course with destiny. They don’t know it yet, but before the night is over their lives will be forever changed.

Spending Valentine’s Day at a burlesque bar hadn’t been Liliana’s ideal way of spending a Friday night. She’d much rather be back on campus doing homework… until she meets Ryan. Tall, athletic, and gorgeous, Lili can’t keep her eyes off him, and despite his gruff manners and drunken disposition she’s intrigued.

Ryan’s got demons, and they’re deep, dark, and eating him alive. Regardless of his attraction to the petite brunette he’s tired of fighting, of pretending the last fifteen years haven’t been a daily struggle just to get out of bed every morning. That night he decides to end his pain, to leave it all behind and float away into the blessed darkness of oblivion. But fate has other plans for him, Lily finds and rescues Ryan, determined she’ll not only save his body, but his soul too.

This is their moment…

•••••••••••••••••••

REVIEW: A MOMENT is the first storyline in Marie Hall’s new adult, contemporary romance Moments series. The first installment focuses on Ryan Cosgrove-a twenty five year old MMA fighter with demons buried so deep, the pain and suffering in the ring are the only thing keeping the memories at bay; and Liliana Delgado-a twenty one year old, single mother of a seven year old autistic child who works nights to keep food on the table and attends college to ensure her son has a future.

A Moment is a storyline filled with characters that have suffered and loss at the hands of someone they trusted. It is a study in poor family dynamics where the children are made to suffer for the sins of the parents. But the children are now adults themselves, and the demons from their past surface time and again.

What the reader is faced with are several moments in the life of two people who want to be loved and to love. From their first non-moment seeing each other seven years earlier to the last moment in the book, Marie Hall takes the reader on an emotional journey of heartbreak and sorrow, betrayal and pain, and finally acceptance by the one person you care most about in the world.

Liliana is a strong and independent female character but at the end of the day she is like everyone else-she wants to be needed as more than a mother and a daughter. Ryan is a man bordering on the edge of sell-destruction. Fear of losing the woman that he loves, he begins to push Lili away without explanation. It is only when he finally reveals the truth to the nightmares and pain, will Ryan begin the long journey towards healing and self-acceptance.

The storyline reads like a psychiatric nightmare-sexual abuse, teen pregnancy, autistic children, dying parents, betrayal and aggression. The expression ‘home is where the heart lies’ is true when Ryan’s heart lies with Liliana Delgado. There is no looking back-only forward, and A Moment will end with one couple looking towards a future where the demons can finally be buried-once and for all.

I had a few issues with this particular storyline or perhaps it was the writing. There were some problems with grammar and spelling, as well as character switch-a-roo. Many times the names would be reversed; characters would be talking to and about themselves; but a good editor would catch all these problems. If a reader can locate that many problems, a proof-reader and editor should be able to correct the issues before publication.

A MOMENT is an interesting storyline about two people who crossed paths-one moment in time- and their lives would be forever connected the moment they meet again seven years later.

Copy supplied by the author.

Reviewed by Sandy

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