(Never) Again by Theresa Paolo – a Review

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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