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Review
“I like our story better than the fairytale anyways … Because it’s real. And it’s ours.”
3.5 stars
I fell in mad love with Keep Me Still when I read it, and loved Skylar and Corin as side characters and the respective best friends of Landen and Layla. I was thrilled when I learned they would be getting their own book, and I would definitely recommend reading this one as a follow on from Keep Me Still as the timeline overlaps and it does contain spoilers for the first book.
Skylar and Corin are from completely different worlds, though they both suffered during their childhoods. While Skylar grew up as the mostly ignored son of wealthy, disinterested parents, Corin grew up being subjected to all of the awful things in life, including an abusive boyfriend and a mother who is a prostitute. She’s determined that College in California is going to be her fresh start, and she has no intentions of reliving any of the misery that defined the first 19 years of her life.
Her college roommate, Layla, is her opposite in every way but Layla’s history with Landen, a gorgeous soccer player who seems incapable of leaving her alone, brings his roommate Skylar into her life. Skylar is everything that Corin is trying to avoid – a cocky, entitled manwhore – and she wants nothing to do with him even though she is definitely attracted to him. Skylar is blown away the first time he meets Corin and is legitimately gobsmacked when she wants nothing to do with him. But with their best friends going through epic relationship drama, they are pushed together time and time again and surprise themselves by becoming friends. And though Skylar pushes her for more, Corin draws the line to anything physical or romantic happening between them.
The first 37% of this book is pretty much a speedy retelling of Keep Me Still, but from the POV of Corin and Skylar. But with the story seeming to concentrate on the other couple, I couldn’t get fully immersed in what was happening between Skylar and Corin. There are some scenes where it’s just the two of them, but most of it is smutty flirting and snarky banter, and I didn’t really start to feel them as a couple until the first part of the book was over and the story started to concentrate on them and the relationship developing between them. And from that point on things start to get interesting as their friendship becomes something a lot deeper. Corin finally opens up to Skylar about her brutal past, and instead of running like she expected him to, he is understanding and supportive, and everything changes for them.
But their road together is a bumpy one. Their life paths are heading in different directions and there is drama and angst to be had as they both make bad decisions and the story twists and turns from happiness to heartbreak and back again as they figure out what they want, and find the strength to fight for it.
Corin kisses me gently on the lips and I realize I’m going to need to kiss her every day, everywhere, probably for the rest of my life.
Not gonna lie, I did not see this coming.
I have really mixed feelings about this book. Parts of it were really gorgeous, but what bothered me was that I feel like there wasn’t really a lot of time with them together. The first part of the book was more about Landen and Layla, then we finally start to get to the meat of Skyla and Corin’s story which has a lot of ups and downs before they find their happy place, only for the book to skip ahead three years to the next twist in their story as they are faced with even more drama.
Though I have to say – bravo Caisey Quinn for not over-dramatising the ending of this story. It could have been seriously nasty, but she did a great job with it, showing how far Skylar and Corin have come, and though I read it with a sense of dread in my belly, I loved watching it all unfold and was really happy with how it all played out.
But because the build-up was overshadowed by the events of the previous book, and the lack of time with them actually together, I didn’t feel really invested in them as a couple. I liked seeing them together, they were clearly in love and the sexy time is really freaking hot, but I didn’t feel it as much as I was hoping to.
But I did enjoy it. I liked Skylar and Corin as characters, they both had a lot to learn, and they certainly grow as characters throughout the book, and I really like how we got to see the extent of that change. And when we did get to see them together as a couple, it was really beautifully done, and the way their story eventually played out was heartwarming and so, so gorgeous.
Overall, it’s a good read, I just wanted a bit more. 3.5 stars.
An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
The Keep Me Still series
Let You Leave (#0.5) / Keep Me Still (#1)
Review: Let You Leave
Review: Keep Me Still
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Hold Us Close (#1.5)
Review
Buy: Kindle Ebook
Giveaway
Signed Paperback & $25 Gift Card Giveaway
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About the Author
Caisey Quinn lives in Nashville, Tennessee with her vivacious six-year-old daughter. She is the bestselling author of the Neon Dreams series (Avon/William Morrow) and the Kylie Ryans series as well as several New Adult and Contemporary Romance novels. You can find her online at www.caiseyquinnwrites.com and Tweeting entirely too often as @CaiseyQuinn. She is represented by Kevan Lyon of the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.
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