Title: Losing Faith
Series: Surfers Way
Author: Jennifer Ryder
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance
Release Date: May 19, 2016
Blurb
The inseparable are well and truly split.
Mack, Faith and Lacey, joined at the hip since primary school, are about to graduate high school. You might think this sounds like a book about coming-of-age and taking that leap into adulthood.
It is— except one of them doesn’t make it …
Lacey Marone had two solid things on her agenda for her future — working in the Pepperoni Palace until she figured out what the hell to do with her life, and getting together with her bestie’s older brother, Quade, who she’s crushed on since she was a kid.
Then graduation night changed everything. Almost three years later, Lacey won’t rest until she discovers the truth surrounding Faith’s death. She’s outcast by those who want to move on from the tragedy, as if the town’s sweetheart never existed.
Years after losing Faith, Quade Kelly returns home to Runaway Beach, determined to mend ties with his parents and cement a future in his hometown teaching at the local primary school. Quade soon learns that his sister’s ghost lives on, thanks to Lacey, the girl who still owns a piece of his heart.
Lacey is hung up on her quest for answers. Quade wants to bury his failures of the past. The pull between them can’t be denied but can the past be forgotten?
Truths will be uncovered and hearts will be cracked open wide. After all, graduation was never meant to end like this.
Review by: Leeann
So, before you get started, get your tissues ready.
There are moments in life that have impacts so great you wonder if you will ever recover. They have lasting effects & can be all consuming.
At the ripe old age of 18, Lacey suffers one of these moments. Her whole life as she knows it changes, and with it, her future.
Now 3 years later, things change again. A blast from her past returns and she finds herself unable to stay away from him.
Quade suffered the same life changing moment as Lacey, but he chose to deal with it very differently to her. He ran away.
As the story evolves you see why he did what he did & your heart will break for him because honestly, sometimes people are just
A***holes.
Now they have a second chance to find out if being together is everything they thought it would be. There are just a few small obstacles they
need to get through to make it to their HEA.
Jennifer Ryder had changed it up with this book. She is famous for her love of writing MX stories and Losing Faith is very different from those books. She has
shown her ability to adapt and has shown a different side in her story telling. Quade has a bit of a softer side to him than any of her other male characters have
had before, but she has kept the alpha male trait in-tact and it shines through at exactly the right moments. When push comes to shove, he will have Lacey’s back 100%.
Lacey isn’t your typical romance heroine either. She also has a softness about her & is so grief stricken it has overtaken her whole life. But she knows who she
Is and what she wants.
These characters are complex and emotional and they are individually extremely head strong. They are loving and protective of those they love.
It is very hard not to get caught up in the emotions of these characters because you can easily imagine that it could have been you in their situation at their age and
that makes this story not only realistic, but relatable. In fact every single one of the characters are relatable in this story. I don’t think there are any that you
wouldn’t empathise with on some level.
If you are looking for a book that has all the feels, a dash of sexy, a splash of drama & the exact right amount of romance and brilliant story telling then you certainly will want
to one click this book. You will not be disappointed!!
5 Stars
Review by: AMY C
Watching the events of one evening unveil and fall like dominos. Seeing lives shatter and relationships stretch. Feeling like there won't ever be the ability to breath easily. Close your eyes and just imagine trying to make sense of everything swirling between all of the characters and then BAM....lives altered forever. Fast forward years and now the past is even more current than ever.
Lacey's quest for the truth isn't making her a ton of friends. In fact it really alienates her from her past relationships forcing her to forage ahead and build everything new. She is seeing things with fresh eyes...yet being held by one string to the life she needs to grieve. Quade wants to invest in the feelings he once squashed years ago. But convincing Lacey to pick up where they once left off may be a challenge. Seeing them through the course of the book was a building process through so many emotions.
This book was a challenge for me. It was very authentically written and left me struggling with flow throughout. I enjoyed the story completely. The concept was entertaining but having it intertwined with seeking Faith by Lauren K. McKellar left me flipping back and forth so many times. I wanted to love this story but I wasn't able to fall in love with it.
3.5 stars
Jennifer Ryder
Jennifer Ryder is a bestselling author with five novels in the Spark Series published to date. She loves to write about boys on dirt bikes, detectives and strong females who aren’t afraid to fight for what they want.
Living on a rural property in New South Wales, Australia, she enjoys the best of city and country. Her loving husband is ever willing to provide inspiration, and her two young cherubs, and sheep that don't see fences as barriers, keep life more than interesting.
Series Trailer
Title: Seeking Faith
Series: Surfers Way
Author: Lauren K. McKellar
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance
Release Date: May 19, 2016
Blurb
The inseparable are well and truly split.
Mack, Faith and Lacey, joined at the hip since they were kids, are about to graduate high school. You might think this sounds like a book about coming-of-age and taking that leap into adulthood.
It is—except one of them doesn’t make it …
Mack, Faith and Lacey, joined at the hip since they were kids, are about to graduate high school. You might think this sounds like a book about coming-of-age and taking that leap into adulthood.
It is—except one of them doesn’t make it …
Mackenzie Carter has one solid thing on the agenda for her future—get out of town and focus on her post-school studies. After all, she’s wanted to be a vet since she was a little girl, and nothing, not the thought of being apart from her two best mates or the idea that maybe she’s got more-than-friendly feelings for a sexy local surfer can alter that … can it?
Graduation changes everything.
Almost three years later, and Mack’s high school dreams are just that—figments of her imagination, thanks to the guilt that haunts her on a daily basis. Will a faux relationship with Byron Leckie be the thing she needs to get her life back on track? Or will it make everything worse?
One thing is for certain. When these two collide, the damage will be fierce. After all, graduation was never meant to end like this.
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Review by: LEEANN
This story is about Mackenzie and Byron. And it is just as heartbreaking, emotional and joyful as book 1 in this series.
Mackenzie has spent the years since her best friend died blaming herself and running. She is running from her friends, her family and her feelings. She has made a new life for herself and is doing OK until someone from her past shows up as turns her life upside down.
Byron is as in love with Mackenzie now as he was years ago when she just up and left. He has no idea why she ran and has moved on with life as best he could. Now she is back in his life and he is not letting her get away a second time.
When you are young you view the world a certain way and it takes just 1 event to turn your world on its axis and take away that innocence. That is what happened to this young couple. As time goes on it can sometimes be hard to gain perspective and see things as they are rather than how you think they were.
There is a huge mystery in this story and when the culprit is revealed and the truth comes out, it is the last person in the world you would have expected.
What I love is that through it all Byron holds on to his love for Mackenzie and not once does his love falter. He stands by her though everything she has to go through. Even when she tries to push him away he holds fast.
Mackenzie is a complicated character because not only is she dealing with her own guilt she also has family issues to contend with. Her father is mean and her mother over compensates. As the story developes, she evolves and becomes stronger and more determined to sort out things with her father and those she hurt with her past actions and she also learns to fight for what she wants and what she realizes she deserves. Byron is there for every step of her journey and he also learns a few things about himself along the way.
Mackenzies journey is not just about rediscovering herself but also about finding her way back to the love of her life and the life they both want and deserve. It is full of love, lust, angst, mystery, hope, joy and a boatload of sexy and steamy times!
I absolutely adored this couple and this series. I look forward to reading more by this author!
5 Stars
Review by: AMY C
One night changes the course of so many lives and alters the future in an irreversible manor. A hint of desire, a whiff of jealously, smoothed down by fear of loosing the one you thought was yours forever. So many people danced around a powerful bonfire of flames that literally scorch and send everyone running for an array of different reasons. Trying to piece this story together and make it smooth was a challenge that I set myself up for from the start.
I loved the idea of theses three best friends who have grown up together and have their future set. Until one brush with fate send all three into different directions. One into an eternity and bound by peace; another it's a frenzy of need to locate the truth and the last into anonymity. Nothing can bring Mack back from the depths of the secure life she has recreated for herself until someone from her past literally runs into her and shakes her to the core. Unable to hide Mack needs to face the fact that Byron isn't the one to run from but rather the one to cling to.
This book was absolutely perplexing to me. As much as I believed in the story,the fact that it mirrored and was so interwoven with Jennifer Ryder's Losing Faith made me scratch my head many times. I felt that this side of the story flowed well and kept me entertained. I enjoyed the coming to terms between Mack & Byron. I would have liked to have seen more development from their past into the current, but that didn't detract from the overall feel of the book. It was cute and endearing while dragging out literally every emotional feeling from me. I liked the book and would recommend it.
3.75 stars
Lauren K. McKellar
Lauren lives by the beach in Australia with her husband and their two dogs. Most of the time, all three of them are well behaved.
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