Friday, 5 April 2024

πŸ’œ Jay McLean πŸ’› NOT MADE TO LAST πŸ€

 ©  Bianca ✰ Janeane 



• 5 April 2024
• standalone Young/New Adult

• slightly connected to the Heartache Duet


★★★★
4.75 Stars 

Two simple words hold the truth of our love: wait and hope.

 

Olivia

Rhys Garrettrecent high school graduate, ex-captain of the basketball team, and my brothers rival both on and off the court.

Oh, and he’s also the guy I just hit with my truck.

Awesome.

To be fair, he had it coming.

Why else was he dressed in all black, in the middle of the night, if not to hide out amongst the darkness?

 

Rhys

I wasn’t looking where I was going or what was around me. I didn’t even see the headlights. Just felt the impact. And I thought, as strange as it was, that getting hit by a car may be the best thing that could’ve happened to me.

Until I opened my eyes

and she told me her name.

*

Some might call it fate, destiny, kismet

A collision of souls.

One night.

One chance encounter.

The problem?

One night wasn’t enough.

But the more time we spent together, the more truths came to light.

And soon, we’d discover that what we once thought was meant to be

is not made to last.




ARC received for an honest review

Aah McLean, you've done it again.

It has been a while since we have had new words from Jay, but man oh man, was it worth every second of the wait for those words.

Now, I am at of an age where I really could be all these character's mother, but that doesn't bother me, as the stories are so intriguing, so heartbreaking, but so heartbreakingly good.
 
Right from the start, Olivia and Rhys' story drags you in. You don't want, but need to turn the page to find out what is happening.

There's a fair bit of mystery and intrigue in the story, and as you are reading you keep wondering "when is she going to rip my heart out?" and then BAM, there it is! But you also know that she is going to put it back together again.

It is one of those books that you just need to dive in and devour






Olivia + Rhys

We already met Rhys in the Heartache Duet. He used to date Ava and played Basketball with Connor in Highschool.
Now that is all over. Highschool is behind him. He just turned 19. He's rich - has it all. But that's not really the truth.
Things happened in his past and he just doesn't know what to do with his life. Or if it's worth living at all.
That's when he meets Olivia. She kinda almost kills him with her car.
And then they spend the whole night in the ER and they keep on spending time together - even though they shouldn't. For various reasons. Only one of them being that Olivia's brother hates Rhys - they used to be Basketball rivals.

🌺πŸ₯‘

I really enjoyed reading this. One might think that I'm too old for such young books - but pfft. I'm on my 17th round of 29 - so still pretty youngish! LOL!
There are a lot of 'mysteries' scattered through the story. I didn't love that. It was too much. You read a scene and something strange is said or happens and then you don't get an answer and your old brain thinks... did I miss something earlier? Or is this supposed to be building up suspense and mystery? It was the latter all the times. And I really didn't like that. Especially in those few chapters where it says: 3 years earlier and you read and read and suddenly you realize that the three years earlier thing was just a few paragraphs long, but nobody told me that we're now back in the present. To summarize things: this book was too complicated for me. BUT I still loved Rhys and Olivia and Max and it was sweet and funny and heartbreaking - even though you have NO idea why most things are heartbreaking because it's all a mystery and you won't find out until the end.
Well. I wished this would've been written a little less complicated.
But I still loved reading it. It was a beautiful New Adult Love Story .... I even had some tears in my eyes here and there...


NOT MADE TO LAST was a very sweet and funny and moving New Adult romance drama! You will so fall in love with Olivia + Rhys + Max - READ IT!!!

Tiny little thing that bothered me a bit. Or a lot. The main thing about the book. about Rhys. Why he is the way he is? What he did? Kind of not okay with me. That's not something you should do - no matter who did what to whom. And then he only spent such a short time in juvie? Hm. Didn't really like that whole thing at all.



 LINKS TO THE BOOKs & AUTHOR 
 



 
  






Jay McLean is an international best-selling author and full-time reader, writer of New Adult and Young Adult romance, and skilled procrastinator. When she’s not doing any of those things, she can be found running after her three little boys, investing way too much time on True Crime Documentaries and binge-watching reality TV.
She writes what she loves to read, which are books that can make her laugh, make her hurt and make her feel.

Jay lives in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, in her dream home where music is loud and laughter is louder.

For publishing rights (Foreign & Domestic) Film or television, please contact her agent Erica Spellman-Silverman, at Trident Media Group.