Thursday 7 January 2016

Until Now (Just You #3) by Rebecca Phillips


Until Now is the third novel in the Just You series, but can also be read as a stand-alone. A New Adult romance intended for mature readers.

Only two things are keeping Robin Calvert on the right track: the support of her best friend Taylor, and Drake and Lila, her three-year-old twin siblings. Former party girl turned dedicated college student, Robin strives to be a good role model for her younger brother and sister. But when her mother disappears, and her stepfather ships the twins off to live with their grandparents, the stable life she’s worked so hard to maintain comes crumbling down around her.

Without her siblings around to motivate her, she backslides to her old reckless ways—vodka, hangovers, and bad boys who give her nothing but trouble. One bright spot is Jane, the grandmotherly stranger who takes Robin under her wing and welcomes her into her big, loving family. There, she forms an unexpected connection with Jane’s son, Ryan, a divorced single dad whose pale blue eyes make her question her policy against dating guys with kids.

Ryan has baggage of his own, but the closer Robin gets to both him and his family, the more she understands what it truly means to be home.

Kindle Edition, 250 pages
Published October 28th 2014

Terri's Thoughts

I purchased this story immediately upon completion of the first two stories in the series as I was eager to see how the story would conclude.  I was left slightly confused at first.

As warned in the synopsis of the story, this is in the NA genre and can be read as a stand alone.  Ok, I get that as I have read many stories in a series as stand alones without confusion.  What was confusing is that the first two stories are YA and fans of the series may be in for a shock thinking they are going to get more of the same with this one.  Wrong.  This is completely different.  While Taylor and Michael have background roles in this book, it is not about their journey.  I feel that this should not have been marketed as part of this series if only to let the story stand on its own.  It doesn't blend with the rest of the story.

That being said, I was interested to see where Robin's story took us as she was a supporting character in the first two books.  As I am of the correct demographic I was able to make the leap to NA from the relatively clean versions of the previous two books.

I don't know where to start with this.  I had a love/hate relationship going on with Robin.  Her heart was absolutely in the right place when it came to her twin siblings, her head was completely messed up with her own life.  I mean, come on!  you meet a perfect guy who you are obviously attracted to and you just let your life spiral out of control?  I was completely frustrated with Robin's lack of judgement throughout the story.  Don't even get me started on Cody.  I could write an entire blog post or two about the utter slime ball he was which made it even more difficult to support Robin.  It got to the point that when any mention of going to Fusion occurred I wished there was a fast forward button. 

On the flip side, it was love a first site for Ryan and his son.  Of course it was!  The way he was so devoted to his son and did I mention that he was attractive?  The icing on the cake?  He worked in a book store....my total dream man!  His attraction to Robin was obvious at first however as the book evolved I really don't know why he didn't walk away without looking back.  He seemed so centered compared to Robin.  Did I mention that I also loved his mom Jane?  I loved how she was so clearly playing matchmaker.

Now that the series is completed I will say that I wish this story was written in a way that it was not affiliated with the series.  That would have allowed me to judge it on it's own merit.  As a result I didn't enjoy this as much as the others which may not have been fair to the plot.  On its own I most likely would have had a better time with the story.




About the Author


Rebecca Phillips has been a fan of contemporary young adult fiction ever since she first discovered Judy Blume at the age of twelve. She's the author of the JUST YOU series, OUT OF NOWHERE, FAKING PERFECT (Kensington), and ANY OTHER GIRL (January 26, Kensington).

Rebecca lives just outside the beautiful city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, with her husband, two children, and one spoiled rotten cat. She absolutely loves living so close to the ocean.

      

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