Christy's Review:
Nova and Quinton: No Regrets by Jessica SorensenMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
4 healing stars!!!
Forgiveness. If only more people could do it. Then maybe there’d be less pain in the world.
Jessica Sorensen is the queen of hitting me right in the feels. Every. Single. Time. Has she written a book I haven’t cried while reading? I don’t think so. She is one of my go to authors. I love her broken characters and heart wrenching stories. Quinton and Nova’s story has been difficult and painful to read. This one had it’s moments, but overall it wasn’t as devastating as the others.
When we last saw Quinton, he was getting the help he needed. With Nova’s help and persistence, he was trying to get better. She has been the one person who has always been there for him and fought for him.
Now he’s back in Seattle with his father, trying to pick up the pieces of his life. Trying to stay sober. And he’s not ready to see Nova yet...
Nova is still in school, still making videos and living with her best friends. She’s playing drums in a band and deciding what she wants to do with her life. Nova hasn’t seen Quinton for a while. She gets updates from Tristan, but that’s not enough. She wants to talk to him herself. So once he’s out of rehab, she calls.
“What do you want to talk about?”
“You.”
“What do you want me to tell you about me?”
“Everything... I want to know everything about you, Nova like the car.”
During this story, Nova has to learn some lessons the hard way. Things are constantly happening that are out of her control. As much as she wants to, she can’t save everyone...
Quinton and Nova continue to talk on the phone. Every day. They are closer now than they’ve ever been. Just friends is working for them, even though some of their conversations start to closely ride the line of ‘just friends’ talk. Quinton holds a lot of guilt about the way things happened in the past. Nova isn’t one to hold things against him. She forgives him and thats that.
“You don’t need to be sorry for anything. I told you that and I mean it. What happened in the past is in the past. We’re moving forward now. Remember, a clean slate.”
Quinton is slowly healing, doing things in his life that mean something. The more Quinton’s life starts to come together, the more things in Nova’s start to fall apart. For once, she will need Quinton to be there for her. Be the strong one. Is he ready for that? Or will the pressure be too much for him to take...
Even though we don’t get much of Nova and Quinton ‘together’ I really did enjoy all of the phone calls and texts. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a fan of (view spoiler). But the short amount of times they were together. Wow. Nova and Quinton were so different together when they were BOTH sober and okay.
Emotions pour out of us as we grab each other, our tongues entangling, hands grasping each other. All the passion. Heat. Fear. Worry. Longing. Want. Desire. Need. Resistance. It all blazes through my body at once.
I have a soft spot for both of these main characters. I’ve grown to love and care about them as this series has continued. I love my broken boy Quinton, and how he wasn’t quite so broken anymore. He was stronger than he thought. It was nice to see Nova not always being so strong for everyone else at a point in this story. She needed someone to be there for her for once, not the other way around.
The conclusion to Nova and Quinton was good, but it just wasn’t as good as the first two books for me. Lets be honest, after being emotionally invested in these books for the last 7 months, I was hoping for MORE of an ending, an epilogue. Something. That was my biggest issue for this book and the reason it didn’t make the five star mark for me. It was still an engaging story that made me smile, cry, swoon and sob. Perfect combination for this reader.
Overall, this series has been one of my favorites that Jessica Sorensen has written. The characters are damaged, their story is gritty and not always happy, it’s beautiful, emotional and raw at times, and that works for me as a reader. IF that type of series works for you too, I would recommend giving these books a go!
“You give me hope, Nova Reed. Hope that even though life is really, really hard- even if it fucking sucks sometimes- that it’s worth living.”
*ARC kindly provided by Forever (Grand Central Publishing) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*View all my reviews
Today is the first day of Quinton Carter's new life. The toxic guilt of his past left him in pieces-but one girl unexpectedly put him back together. Thanks to Nova Reed, Quinton can finally see the world with clear eyes. She's the reason his heart is still kicking behind the jagged scar on his chest. And he would love to have her in his arms every minute of the day . . . but he's not ready yet.NOVA AND QUINTON: NO REGRETS by Jessica Sorensen (April 15, 2014; Forever E-Book; $4.99)
Playing drums in a band and living with her best friends are just some of the highlights of Nova's life. But the best new development? Talking to Quinton on the phone each night. She wishes she could touch him, kiss him, though she knows he needs time to heal. Yet shocking news is on the way-a reminder of life's dark side-and Nova will need Quinton like he once needed her. Is he strong enough to take the final leap out of his broken past . . . and into Nova's heart?
Prologue
Nova
December 28, the day of the funeral
It’s a strange feeling, getting ready to watch someone get put under the ground into their final resting place. I’ve been to enough funerals to know that my senses always become hyper-aware of everything going on around me: the touch of the wind seems stronger, the sun a little more blinding, the smell of the leaves, grass, and fresh dirt overpowering. It’s like my mind is reaching out and trying to grasp each aspect of the moment, when part of me wants nothing more than to forget.
I’m actually at the church earlier than I’m supposed to be and I don’t even know why, other than that sitting home for a second longer just didn’t seem possible. So I left the house without telling anyone and got in my cherry-red Chevy Nova, the car my dad left to me when he died, and drove it to the church where my dad’s and Landon’s funeral took place. And in just a bit, I’ll say good-bye to another person I once knew and will never see again.
Now that I’m here, staring at the brick building with a white tower pointing to the sky, I’m not sure what I should do. I’m three hours early to a funeral, which might say a lot about me. A lot of people would likely show up late, wanting to avoid death for as long as possible, but I’ve become so familiar with it it’s unsettling.
After sitting in the car for about ten minutes, watching snowflakes fall from the sky and frost the grass and the windshield, I decide to take video instead. I didn’t bring the fancy camera my mom gave me, but the one on my phone works and honestly I use that one a lot more because it’s handy for sporadic recording, which seems to be my specialty.
I blow out a deep breath as I sit back in the seat, aim the camera at myself, and hit record. I have the screen flipped to me and my image immediately pops up. I look tired. The bags under my eyes are pretty obvious, even though I’ve tried to cover them up with makeup, and my brown hair wasn’t being cooperative so I ended up pulling it up into a ponytail. I’m wearing a black dress and earrings and the contrast with my fair skin makes me look pallid.
“It’s amazing how everything can seem so perfect one moment and then suddenly it’s not. How quickly perfection can evaporate… how rare it is.” I pause, gathering my thoughts. “I’ve seen a lot of death. More than the normal person, probably. I watched my father’s life vanish in front of me within minutes. Found my boyfriend’s body right after he took his own life. Too early. Too suddenly. Both of them. I never had time to prepare myself and I thought it was the worst feeling in the world. I always wondered how different it would be, if it ever happened again. If maybe the third or fourth time around, I wouldn’t hurt so badly. If it’d be easier letting someone go now that I’ve had so much practice.” I tuck a fallen strand of my bangs behind my ear and swallow the lump in my throat. “And maybe it has gotten easier… but it still hurts. I still shed tears… it’s still agonizing… painful…” I trail off as a few tears slip from my eyes and roll down my cheeks. “Even now, just thinking about some of the stuff I saw… I should have stopped it… should have done things differently…” I trail off, staring at the window. “But I didn’t… and now they’re gone forever.”
About Jessica Sorensen:
Jessica Sorensen is a #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who lives with her husband and three kids in Idaho. When she's not writing, she spends her time reading and hanging out with her family.
No comments:
Post a Comment