Thursday 26 September 2013

Blog Tour and giveaway - - Be My Downfall (Whitman University #3) by Lyla Payne

 
Synopsis

Toby Wright has always prided himself on being one of the most normal guys at Whitman University. He loves his parents, has a great job lined up after graduation, and with the exception of attempting to cross the unbalanced Sebastian Blair sophomore year, has kept his nose pretty clean.

But the rich never have empty closets, and memories long stashed away come spilling free when notorious party girl Kennedy Gilbert almost dies in his bathroom.

Nobody really knows how Kennedy manages to stay in good standing at Whitman
she never goes to class, doesnt pretend to care about her future, and as far as people can tell, is never sober. This isnt her first meeting with a stomach pump, but it is the first time shes woken up to Tobys concerned brown eyes. Despite the fact that she prefers life without friends, he gets under her skin with his insistence on playing her guardian angel.

No one knows better than Toby that people can only be saved if they want to be, but the realization that she has no one else draws him back into the shadows of Kennedy
s lifeand eventually into her bed. But she long ago came to terms with a truth that Toby refuses to accept: she doesnt want to be rescued, she only wants to forget.

Unwilling to give up on her, Toby
s dragged under by this broken girl and her dark, twisted Whitman University he never guessed existed. If he struggles to the surface, hell abandon someone he loves for the second time in his life. If he doesnt, it wont be long until they both drown.

Review by Janeane - ARC received for honest review

Although this is book 3 in the Whitman University series by Lyla Payne, I have not read the first 2 books and this can be read without reading the first two.  That being said, I will go back and read the first two just to get a better understanding of the characters who were secondary in this book.

Toby Wright is the son of a US Senator, so has always kept his nose pretty clean and lived scandal free.

Kennedy Gilbery has lost everyone she loves and is acting out so she can 'feel' something, anything. Alcohol, rough sex.  Not a stranger to a stomach pump.  Everyone at Whitman knows of Kennedy, but no one really knows her.


When she turns up at Toby's holiday house and their worlds collide, it begins a rollercoaster of a journey. 

That first morning, the emotional walls around her begin to crumble.

Toby has also had loss in his lifetime, and his head knows better than to get involved with someone with Kennedy's troubles, but his heart knows different, and he cannot stay away.

Toby and Kennedy's story is heartbreaking.  There is so much despair in their young lives, and when you get the story of why Kennedy is such a "party girl" your heart will shatter.  She it totally broken, there is no other way to describe her.  She is numb to everything and everyone.

Toby as the 'narrator' of Be My Downfall is perfect.  He is smart, funny, but with the right amount of depth to deal with his troubles as well as push Kennedy to take her story where is needs to go.

Be Me Downfall will have you on an
 
 One minute you will be laughing, the next your heart will be breaking, then you will love then hate the characters.

I loved that their relationship and struggles was not based on angsty, whiney characters or infidelity - so many books these days are all about a love triangle, and that is starting to get a bit old.  It is based on real problems that are more realistic in modern society.  This was a breath of fresh air.

Kennedy - boy I would not want to be in her head.  She has never properly grieved what happened in her past, and feels
I would have liked more of a conclusion to Trent's storyline, it was such a big part of Toby's story and it left me wanting.

It may be because I have not read the preceding books, but gees, some of those secondary characters are douchenozzles!  Ugh I wanted to throw things at a couple of them!!  Then stand there and say this:
I thoroughly enjoyed Be My Downfall and the ride it took me on.





About Lyla Payne:
Ive long had a love of stories. A few years ago decided to put them down on the page, and even though I have a degree in film and television, novels were the creative outlet where I found a home. Ive published Young Adult under a different name, but when I got the idea for Broken at Love (my first New Adult title), I couldnt wait to try something new and Im hooked.  In my spare time I watch a ton of tennis (no surprise, there), play a ton of tennis, and dedicate a good portion of brain power to dreaming up the next fictitious bad boy wed all love to meet in real life.

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