Begin Again (Again: Book 1) by Mona Kasten

Begin Again (Again, #1)

4 stars

Publisher: be-ebooks

Date of publication: November 14th, 2017

Genre: Romance, Women’s Fiction, New Adult

Number of pages: 278

POV: 1st person

Series: Again

Begin Again – Book 1

Where you can find Begin Again: Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Book synopsis (from Goodreads):

He makes the rules. She breaks them all.

A new start. It’s the only thing keeping Allie Harper going when she packs up her life and moves across the country to Woodshill, Oregon. She’s about to start college, desperate to leave the ghosts of her past behind her. Even if that means never talking to her parents again.

Now the hard part – finding an apartment before classes start. Just when it seems she’ll have to live out of her car, Allie visits one more place. It’s beautiful. With one exception: can she stand being roommates with campus bad boy Kaden White? Sure, Kaden is sexy with his tattoos and careless attitude, but he’s also an arrogant jerk. With nowhere else to go, Allie moves in.

The first thing Kaden does is make a set of rules. Either Allie obeys, or she’s out:

1. Don’t talk about your girl problems.
2. Keep your mouth shut if I bring someone home.
3. We will NEVER hook up.

Easy enough, thinks Allie. Who would want to get involved with a brute like Kaden? But the more she gets to know him, the more she sees beyond his gruff facade. He, too, is harboring some painful secrets. For Kaden and Allie, it gets harder and harder to ignore the sparks between them. And the lines between the rules start to blur-

Begin Again is a beautiful romance that shows us just how possible it is to start over. To find freedom in heartbreak and love in the most unlikely places.

Trigger Warning: rape, sexual abuse, talk of suicide

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The New Dark by Lorraine Thomson

The New Dark

3 Stars

Publisher: be-ebooks

Date of publication: November 1st, 2017

Genre: Fantasy, Dystopia, Young Adult

Number of pages: 221

POV: 3rd person

Where you can find The New Dark: Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Book synopsis (from Goodreads):

“She thought she knew who she was and where she came from. Then her home was destroyed. Her brother lost amongst the ashes. And the boy she loves vanished. She owed her own survival to a mutant — the very forces behind the destruction. Now Sorrel will never be the same again.”

There is no “Before”, there is only “Now”. Because now there’s no internet, no TV, no power grid. Food is scarce, and the world’s a hostile place. But Sorrel lives a quiet life in the tiny settlement of Amat. It’s all she’s ever known …

Until a gang of marauding mutants destroys the village, snatching her brother Eli, and David, her boyfriend. Sorrel sets out after them, embarking on a journey fraught with danger. Can she survive? The only thing that keeps her going is Eli and David. They are out there somewhere. They must be alive. And if she has her way, she will find them.

THE NEW DARK is the first book in a new YA-trilogy and will be published in November 2017. The second and third books in the series (THE NEW DAWN & THE NEW DAY) will be released in 2018.

Lorraine Thomson was born in Glasgow. She won a UK writing competition and was short-listed for the Dundee Book Prize. She now lives in Ullapool on the rugged north-west coast of Scotland.

Follow the author on Twitter: @LGThomson1

Trigger Warning: remembrance of infanticide

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