Book Review: Next to Never by Penelope Douglas

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Next to Never
Fall Away #4.5
Author: Penelope Douglas
Reading Level: New Adult
Genre: Romance
Released: January 17th 2017
Review Source: Berkley

Quinn Caruthers has several problems. Her father, Jason, and her three older brothers, Jared, Madoc, and Jaxon.

Under the close watch of the men in her family, Quinn has found it nearly impossible to spread her wings—or even date—without them jumping in to hover. And when a family friend—several years older—from her childhood captures her heart, she knows they’re going to be a problem. Lucas Morrow is a man—experienced, sophisticated, and important. And knowing her brothers, he may as well be forbidden.

But Lucas left town years ago and shows no signs of returning. Quinn knows she shouldn’t wait for him anymore.

But then a package turns up on her doorstep with no return address and its contents reveal family secrets that threaten to turn Quinn’s world upside down. She’s never asked about the tumultuous path of her parents’ romantic history, but she soon learns their happy marriage had a very rocky and passionate start.

As she begins to see things around her with new eyes, Quinn will have to make tough choices about whether she’ll keep waiting…or finally go after what she really wants.

Penelope Douglas became an instant favorite of mine after I devoured Bully and the rest of the Fall Away series. So as soon as Next to Never was offered up to review, I jumped on the chance, I couldn’t wait to get back to some of my favorite characters. While I have read all of the Fall Away series I wasn’t aware of the future plans for writing about the children, so imagine my surprise while starting this book, ten minutes I start googling and get even more excited for future Penelope Douglas books. Next to Never is a catch up novella, a story within a story, a good segue to reintroduce the families, and all the children that are in high school now.

We’re first introduced to Quinn Caruthers, Jared’s mother and Madoc’s father’s daughter. Though this isn’t Quinn’s story she’s the one who receives a mystery book from an unknown sender and no return address. We dive into this mystery book right along with Quinn and get a story I didn’t know I needed until I was hit with it (I’ll let you discover it on your own). Quinn starts to learn more about her family, her brothers, and finally what she wants to do. We also get to meet all of the kids from our Fall Away couples, Douglas provides a family tree (I may have had to check it out a time of two). Furthermore it makes you anticipate the next series even more, there’s definitely a couple of those kids I can’t wait to see what they get into, especially after having Jax, Madoc, and Jared as their fathers.

Any fans of The Fall Away series should pick this up and if you’re not aware of The Fall Away series, what are you waiting for?! Get on it. It’s intense, the feels are there, good and bad, and everything you need in a good angsty romance. I seriously cannot wait to get my hands on Quinn’s story, I don’t know if that was Douglas’ intentions, but it worked. Hook, line, and sinker.

Book Review: Bully by Penelope Douglas

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Bully
Fall Away #1
Author: Penelope Douglas
Reading Level: New Adult
Genre: Romance
Released: January 5th 2015
Review Source: New American Library

My name is Tate. He doesn't call me that, though. He would never refer to me so informally, if he referred to me at all. No, he'll barely even speak to me.

But he still won't leave me alone.

We were best friends once. Then he turned on me and made it his mission to ruin my life. I've been humiliated, shut out, and gossiped about all through high school. His pranks and rumors got more sadistic as time wore on, and I made myself sick trying to stay out of his way. I even went to France for a year, just to avoid him.

But I'm done hiding from him now, and there's no way in hell I'll allow him to ruin my senior year. He might not have changed, but I have. It's time to fight back.

I'm not going to let him bully me anymore.

If you're like me and loooove an angsty romance, Bully is going to be something you want to immediately pick up. The tension between Tate and Jared had my stomach in knots and had me questioning my morals. I mean to be quite frank with you Jared was evil. Literally, he was a bully. He made it his life's mission to make Tate’s high school experience miserable. So you would think I wouldn't love it, I hate bullying, but damn you Penelope Douglas you sucked me in and had me throwing all my previous reservation to the wind.

Okay, let me paint you a little picture about Bully. First Tate moves in next to Jared when they’re in grade school, Tate and Jared become best friends, then something happens, and the bullying ensues. For her junior year Tate spends a year abroad in Europe, no Jared, no bullying. But she's back for senior year and she’s got her “ain't takin’ no shit pants’ on and starts to stand up against her bully which ignites that sweet unadulterated angsty tension we all know and crave!

So yeah, this book’s main guy was most definitely an ass. But we know this, he knows this, she is clearly not oblivious to the fact, but there's history, another story to be told. And you just have to read it to find out how it all unfolds. Good luck to you kind romance reader, I needed chapter breaks because their story had my stomach in knots, but those are my favorite kind of books!

Countdown Celebration: Falling Away | Penelope Douglas | Excerpt | Giveaway

Falling Away
Fall Away #3
Author: Penelope Douglas
Reading Level: New Adult
Genre: Romance
Released: January 6th 2015
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) LLC

Jaxon is the guy she’s supposed to avoid.

K.C. is the girl he won’t let get away....

K. C. Carter has always followed the rules—until this year, when a mistake leaves her the talk of her college campus and her carefully arranged life comes crashing to a halt. Now she’s stuck in her small hometown for the summer to complete her court-ordered community service, and to make matters worse, trouble is living right next door.

Jaxon Trent is the worst kind of temptation and exactly what K.C. was supposed to stay away from in high school. But he never forgot her. She was the one girl who wouldn’t give him the time of day and the only one to ever say no. Fate has brought K.C. back into his life—except what he thought was a great twist of luck turns out to be too close for comfort. As the bond between them grows, he discovers that convincing K.C. to get out from her mother’s shadow is hard, but revealing the darkest parts of his soul is nearly impossible.…

Excerpt - Chapter 5

“So, how did this happen?” I asked, holding the gauze on his skin, under the cuts, to catch the saline.
His abs flexed, probably from the cold fluid, since saline didn’t sting, as I poured it over the cuts, cleaning them.
He sucked in air through his teeth. “Some of the science kids have greenhouses on the roof,” he grunted, and I almost laughed out loud. “Masters asked me to go up and make sure the roofs were closed, but I slipped coming back down the stairs. Scraped myself on some bolts.”
Ouch.
I used the rest of the gauze to wipe up the solution, and then ripped open a package with a wet wipe and made sure the blood was cleared up.
“You should be using gloves,” he pointed out. “You know? Blood and all.”
“I thought any girl was safe with you,” I shot back, tearing open bandages. “Isn’t that what you told me?”
Jax was silent for a minute, narrowing his eyes farther and watching me as I placed three rectangular bandages on his stomach.
“I said any girlfriend of mine,” he finally clarified. “But you shouldn’t be so careless. Use gloves next time.”
I ignored him, feeling weird on the occasions he acted like this. Jax had a habit of scolding me, sometimes acting as though he was protecting me, and then following it all up with being an asshole. I finally figured out condescension was his way of gaining superiority. Making others feel stupid.

I sat back, looking him in the eye and changing the subject. “Is anything else hurt?”
He hesitated only a moment. And then folded his arm back, lifting his right elbow to reveal the scratches I’d noticed earlier.
Repeating the same procedure, I stood up and leaned over him, catching the saline wash as it cascaded over his wound and into the gauze.
He hissed, and I blinked.
“Blow on it,” he ordered.
“It doesn’t sting,” I scoffed, knowing damn well that saline didn’t hurt.
“K.C., Jesus,” he barked, wincing.
I rolled my eyes but gave in. Holding the underside of his arm—his hard triceps—I leaned down and released a slow, cool breeze over the scratches. Jax’s scent wafted over me again, and I desperately wanted to close my mouth so I could breathe him in through my nose.
But I didn’t. I could tell his eyes were on me.
“Why are you watching me?” I asked, wiping up the rest of the solution and blood.
I didn’t look at him, but I heard him swallow.
“This is just the first time you’ve ever made me feel good, is all,” he replied in probably the most candid way I’d ever heard him speak.
I pinched my eyebrows together.
The first time I’d ever made him feel good. I didn’t know what to say to that. Hell, I had nothing to say to that.
Keeping quiet, I finished applying his bandages as fast as I could and didn’t meet his eyes again.
He’d tried to be nice to me in high school. He’d tried to be a friend. Maybe friends with benefits but still a friend. Now here I was, forcing my attention on him, and he probably had no patience for me anymore.
“Can I ask you a question?” I ventured.
“What?”
“That night you drove Liam home . . .” I swallowed, smoothing my fingers over the bandage I’d fixed to his arm. “You said you had tattoos. Too many.” I repeated his words, my eyes fixated on his forearm. “What did you mean?” I pressed, because clearly Jax didn’t sport any tattoos. His statement hadn’t made any sense.
Even though I hadn’t looked at him, I noticed his head turn away as he inhaled a slow, deep breath. Kind of as though he was getting ready to dive deep underwater and knew he wouldn’t be up for air for a while.
“Sorry,” I said quietly, straightening up and crumpling the bandage wrappers in my fist. “I just . . . I don’t know . . .” I trailed off. “I just want to understand.”
I finally met his eyes, and he studied me silently. I didn’t know if he was trying to figure out what to tell me or if he wanted to tell me anything at all. Funny thing was, I’d thought about what Jax said that night a lot over the years, and while I was curious, it wasn’t until I’d overheard his conversation with Jared today that I knew it had something to do with his childhood.
And I realized that I didn’t know Jaxon Trent at all.
He rubbed his forearm and narrowed his eyes briefly before relaxing. “If you could get a tattoo, what would it be?”
I blinked, shocked by his question. “Um.” I laughed softly, thinking. “I thought about a set of angel
wings, I guess. With one of the wings broken,” I admitted.
“It has something to do with your past?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“And it’s something you want to remember?” he pressed.
“Yes.”
“That’s why I don’t have any tattoos,” he concluded. “People get tattoos for all kinds of reasons, but they’re always badges of what has made them who they are. I don’t care to remember what and who made me this way. The people that gave me life. The people that brought me up . . .” He shook his head, defiant. “The places I’ve seen or anything I’ve done. It’s all in my head, anyway. I don’t want it on my body, too. I don’t care about anything that much.”

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Penelope Douglas was born in Dubuque, Iowa and has a Masters of Science in Education from Loyola University in New Orleans. She lives with her family in Las Vegas.

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