Review: After the Game by Abbi Glines

After the Game – Abbi Glines

Author: Abbi Glines

Series: Field Party

Release date: 22 August 2017

Hardcover | 352 pages

Juvenile Fiction / Love & Romance

Synopsis (Goodreads)

Two years ago, Riley Young fled from Lawton, Alabama. After accusing the oldest Lawton son, Rhett, of rape, everyone called her a liar and she had no option but to leave. Now she’s back, but she’s not at Lawton High finishing up her senior year. She’s at home raising the little girl that no one believed was Rhett’s.

Rhett is off at college living the life he was afraid he’d lose with Riley’s accusation, so Riley agrees to move back to Lawton so she and her parents could take care of her grandmother, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. But the town still hasn’t forgotten their hate for her, and she hasn’t forgotten the way they turned on her when she needed them most.

When town golden boy Brady Higgens finds Riley and her daughter, Bryony, stranded on the side of the road in a storm, he pulls over and gives them a ride. Not because he cares about Riley, of course, but because of the kid.

But after the simple car ride, he begins to question everything he thought he knew. Could Brady believe Riley and risk losing everything?

Review: 3 out of 5 stars

I requested After the Game not realising that it was a part of a series or that it had a storyline that I am usually not a fan of, but I have enjoyed a few titles by Abbi Glines so I decided to give it a go.

After the Game is the third book in the Field Party series and is told from the POV’s of Riley Young and Brady Higgens, both from very different walks of life and heading in different directions due to their circumstances. Riley was forced to leave the small town of Lawton after accusing the town golden child of rape, she was branded a liar and made to feel like a leper so she left town with her parents and ended up giving birth to a baby girl, Bryony. Brady is the popular school quarterback and an all-round nice guy, he was a part of the group that shunned Riley two years prior but after meeting her he begins to change his tune and believes the story that she had initially told.

I am usually not a fan of books where children are involved but Bryony was a sweetheart and Riley was a great mother! It also helped that she had the most wonderful support system from her parents to deal with what she had been through and also with the care of her daughter. All of the secondary characters were great but I did feel that Rhett, the boy who had raped Riley was let off too easily and without repercussion.

There were a few difficult subjects touched on such as rape, teen pregnancy and motherhood, family break-down, cheating and Alzheimer’s disease but I felt they were all handled very well by the author.

I did feel that the romance was a little rushed but overall I was satisfied how it all panned out in the end and couldn’t help but hope for a happy ending for both Brady and Riley.

I enjoy Abbi Glines writing style but there were a few errors throughout the book, they were easy to overlook such as names replaced (Bryony instead of Riley used) and it never overly bothered me.

Thank you to Simon Pulse via Edelweiss for the opportunity to read and review After the Game.

Review: Take a Chance: A Rosemary Beach novel by Abbi Glines

Take a Chance: A Rosemary Beach novel.

Author: Abbi Glines

Series: Chance #1

Pages: 288

Publisher/Source: Simon & Schuster Australia

Amazon

Release date: 25^th February 2014

Synopsis:

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Abbi Glines comes the story of Grant, the sexy Playboy who first captured readers hearts in Fallen Too Far.

When Harlow Manning's rocker father goes on tour, he sends her to Rosemary Beach, Florida, to live with her half-sister, Nan. The problem: Nan despises her. Harlow has to keep her head down if she wants to get through the next nine months, which seems easy enough. Until gorgeous Grant Carter walks out of Nan's room in nothing but his boxer briefs.

Grant made a huge mistake getting involved with a girl with venom in her veins. He'd known about Nan's reputation, but still he couldn't resist her. Nothing makes him regret the fling more than meeting Harlow, who sends his pulse racing. Yet Harlow wants nothing to do with a guy who could fall for her wicked half-sister even if there are no strings between Grant and Nan. Grant is desperate to redeem himself in Harlow's eyes, but did he ruin his chances before he even met her?

Review: 2 ½ out of 5 stars

Take a Chance is the sixth book in Abbi Glines Rosemary Beach series but the first book for Grant and Harlow and despite enough background details given on the previous books and characters to fully understand what has happened it is tied in strongly to the other books so I do recommend reading them first.

This book unfortunately had so many elements I found myself not enjoying but it was also a story I found I couldn’t put down because I needed to know what would happen.

The characters in Take a Chance were all flawed, we revisit a few from previous Rosemary Beach books which I enjoyed but womaniser Grant who I liked in Fallen Too Far turned out to be my biggest disappointment; he was a complete douchebag in this book and treated Harlow like absolute rubbish, I lost all respect for his character, I found his actions insulting and his behaviour to be inconsistent. Harlow had hidden depth and a quite strength and determination; I sympathised with her and felt the pain and the betrayal she went through but I admired that she was no push-over. Nan is a character I continue to despise; she’s a real piece of work! A character we do get to meet and who I really liked was Mason Mannign, Harlow’s brother; he was intriguing.

The storyline follows not only the complex relationship between Grant and Harlow and how Grant slowly comes to terms with his insecurities about allowing himself to love but we also got more background details about Kiro, who I was pleasantly surprised about, there were some admissions I definitely wasn’t expecting. If it wasn’t for Grant’s actions I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more than what I did.

Despite being a huge Abbi Glines fan, I can’t say this book was a favourite mainly because of Grant’s poorly thought out decisions, especially when it came to Nan, the drama, angst and betrayals were overload and it finished on a cliff-hanger. I’m curious to see how it all pans out but I’ll be reading other reviews before I pick it up.  One More Chance is their second book. It releases September 2.

Thank-you to Simon & Schuster Australia for the opportunity to read and review Take A Chance.

   

About the author: Since publishing her first novel Breathe in May of 2011, Abbi has also released The New York Times bestselling Seabreeze Series which includes Breathe, Because of Low, While It Lasts, Just For Now and Sometimes It Last, The Existence Trilogy that includes the USA Today Bestseller Ceaseless. New York Times and USA TODAY bestsellers The Vincent Boys and The Vincent Brothers. Last but not least her most popular series to date, Rosemary Beach which includes The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers Fallen Too Far, Never Too Far, Forever Too Far, Twisted Perfection and Simple Perfection. Her newest book scheduled to be released on December 17th, 2013 is Misbehaving (Seabreeze).

When Abbi isn’t locked away in her office typing away she is hauling her kids to and from their many social activities. You could say her second job is the Glines Kids personal chauffeur. It’s a rather illustrious job.

REVIEW: Because of Low by Abbi Glines

Author: Abbi Glines

Pages: ebook

Genre: Young Adult

Amazon: Because of Low

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

In my debut novel, Breathe, Sadie may have fallen in love with the teen rock star, Jax Stone, but readers fell head over heels for Marcus Hardy. This is his story…

Marcus Hardy had hoped to enjoy a year away at college while he put the summer he’d rather forget behind him. But instead, he’s jerked right back to the coastal town of Sea Breeze, Alabama due to a family crisis. His dear ol' dad found himself a girlfriend only a few years older than Marcus. So now his sister needs help dealing with their mother who is mentally falling apart. The only bright spot to returning is the fascinating red head who sleeps over several times a week. The problem is she's sleeping in bed with his new roommate, Cage Watson.

Willow “Low” Foster needs a place to live. Running to Cage’s apartment every time her sister kicks her out isn’t exactly a long term solution. Juggling her courses at the local community college and a part time job doesn’t produce excess income. But Cage has a new roommate and suddenly sleeping over at her best friend’s apartment isn’t such a bad thing. Not when she gets to see those sexy green eyes of Marcus Hardy’s twinkle when he smiles at her like he wants her there.
Even though Cage seems a little territorial where Low is concerned, Marcus finds time to spend with Low without upsetting his roommate. Cage may use his small college baseball star persona to sleep with every hot female in his path but he’s still under the disillusion that when he’s through sowing his wild oats, he’s going to marry Low. Marcus intends to change that assumption for both Cage and Low. Until his carefully laid plans come crashing down with a revelation he never expected. He’ll have to choose between Low or his family. Because once the truth comes out.... there’s no other choice.

REVIEW: 4 out of 5 stars

We first met Marcus Hardy in Abbi Glines debut novel, Breathe where he worked alongside and fell for Sadie White. I absolutely adored Marcus in this book so I am relieved Because of Low is his story.

Marcus has left college to return to Sea Breeze, Alabama to help his mother and sister through a family crisis, his father has decided to find himself a much younger girlfriend so he is left to pick up the pieces of his broken family.

Willow ‘Low’ Foster has had a lot to deal with in her young life, she spends most of her time worrying about where she will sleep, her horrible older sister Tawny allows her to stay with her only on nights where she looks after her young niece Larissa so at other times she is either in a shelter or with her closest friend, Cage York. Low initially came across as quite weak and defeated but she grew in strength as the story progressed.

I didn’t have a very good first impression of Cage, he seemed sleazy and self absorbed but the one constant in his life has always been Low and his belief he will one day marry her.

When it came to love triangles, this one was quite interesting; whilst there was no doubt in my mind who Low would end up with it was still a struggle to see it all play out. The emotions evoked were very real and someone was always going to be hurt.

The bond Cage and Low shared to me was based more on mutual trust and the knowledge and understanding of the past they shared, I didn’t see anything romantic there whatsoever but a really sweet friendship where they had come to rely on each other to always be around, I just wish Low could have been upfront with Cage from the onset rather than allowing him to believe they had a future. I really hope we see Cage with a story and HEA of his own.

I absolutely adored the gorgeous, green-eyed Marcus; he was so sweet and caring and the chemistry and attraction between him and Low was undeniable. I liked seeing them learn to trust one another and open up despite the hurdles they encountered along the way.

I enjoyed the journey each of the characters had to make as well as the decisions, it was a tough and emotional road for them but they came through with a more positive outlook, there were a number of miscommunications that could have and should have been sorted out before they exploded but the personal struggles were dealt with well.

I really enjoy Abbi Glines writing style and the beautiful romance stories she writes. Because of Low was such a heartfelt, enjoyable, emotional roller-coaster that kept me captivated, I literally finished it in one sitting.

Overall, I really enjoyed Because of Low and definitely look forward to reading more books by Abbi Glines.