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Please note:  This novella is not available to purchase as a standalone, it is included when you buy Keep Me Still.

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Review

I love this book! *dreamy sigh*

It’s a beautiful story of two damaged teenagers coming together, being there for each other, and finding that once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. Layla and Landen’s story is full of beautiful tender moments, laugh out humour, and a gorgeously innocent romance.

This is the story of Layla and Landen meeting in high school, and follows their incredibly beautiful and emotional relationship from sweet and tender flirting, getting to know each other, sharing secrets, falling for each other and showing how, in a short amount of time, they changed each other’s lives forever.

With chapters in alternating POV, we get to know both Layla and Landen intimately, and I was quickly swept up in their story. The writing is beautiful, and I was highlighting madly, so you’re just going to have to deal with my quote overload 😛

After witnessing the brutal murder of her parents when she was 13, Layla was left deeply traumatised and suffering from seizure-induced PTSD. After having a full on seizure in front of her classmates during her freshman year at high school, she is left mortified and ostracized, and so retreats into herself, and is home schooled (she lives with her Aunt… who is a little bit awesome). She makes the return to school in senior year, and that is where she meets the new arrival in town, Landen.

Landen is absolutely gorgeous and a skilled soccer player and is immediately a target for the girls at his new school. But he takes one look at Layla on his first day and is instantly smitten. Definitely not a shy one, he approaches her quickly and although persistent, he recognizes her shyness and takes it slowly and gently with her.

“What are you doing here?”…
“Thought you might like a ride,” he answers, smiling that tempting smile at me.
“This going to be a regular thing?” I ask out of curiosity as he helps me into the truck.
“Do you want it to be?” He arches an eyebrow and I can’t help but smile back.
“If you do.”
“I do,” he says and his grin widens. “I think we’re married now.”

This is YA romance at its finest! It’s sweet, it’s innocent, it’s emotional, and I fell in love with Landen right along with Layla. His huge heart encourages her to trust him, and Layla starts to open up to him in a way she hasn’t with anybody ever before, and I loved seeing her gain confidence as she started to give back to him as good as she got. They have a beautiful openness between them, and I lapped up every word, unable to get enough.

“I like you, Landen. A lot. And I want to be friends.”
I’m fucking ecstatic to be this close to her. But the friend word keeps cutting into me. I work hard to form a coherent thought while lost in the depths of her open vulnerable stare. “I want to be friends too, Layla. And I think I might like to be more than that. But if you’re not interested—”
“I’m interested,” she says, cutting me off as her eyes flash and burn into me. “But I might not be…ready for something like that.”
“Then I’ll just stick around until you are ready,” I tell her with a grin. Her muscles visibly relax and I risk taking a step closer. “Patience has never been my greatest skill though, but I promise to give it my best shot.”
“And what is your greatest skill?” She’s backed up against her locker, and I want so badly to show her the answer to that question.
“I’ll show you. When you’re ready.”

Layla’s condition is always never far from her mind, and always a fear for her, but when Landen witnesses it, he just reinforces his perfection by being there, holding her, supporting and protecting her 100%. It made me love him even more! But he also has a big secret, and as everything between them is revealed, and the hideous consequences come into play, my heart broke for both of them.

Even though it’s short, there is a lot of emotion in this one, and it’s so beautifully written! I could feel everything right alongside the main characters, and I love the depth of feeling that the author put into the early stages of Layla and Landen’s relationship

“I am so gone. Lost. Her smile, the little sigh she lets out, the way her eyes light up. All of it. I’m broken down and rebuilt. And nothing will ever be the same again.”

It ends on a hideous, heartbraking cliffhanger, which isn’t really a big deal as the continuation is right there in Keep Me Still, but it provides a sensational lead in to the rest of the story!

Absolutely beautiful – 5 stars

 

The Keep Me Still series

 

Let You Leave (#0.5)  / Keep Me Still (#1)
Keep Me Still Review
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Hold Us Close (#1.5)
Review
Buy:  Kindle Ebook

 

Give Me You (standalone spin-off – Skylar & Corin’s story)
Review
Buy:  Kindle Ebook