Review: "Until Alex" by J. Nathan
"Did you see my face?"
My breath caught in my throat.
A satisfied smile slid across her contented face, as she closed her eyes. "I thought so."
My God. I loved this girl.
Loved?
Oh fuck.
Hayden Martin witnessed the murder-suicide of his parents when he was only ten years old and being left with the burden of carrying the blame placed upon him by his abusive father. Eleven years later, he's living his life without making any real connections with the people he meets, the only lasting relationship being his friendship with his best friend Remy, who he owes a great deal to. He sleeps with countless women but makes it clear that he isn't looking for anything other than a meaningless moment between the sheets. He prefers his life this way. No complications, no commitments. Then he sees the girl crying outside his window, the girl whose beauty caught his attention, but whose sadness held it captive as each day passed.
Alexandra "Alex" Montgomery moved in with an aunt she's never met after the guilt regarding the deaths of her parents and her now former boyfriend's parents got too much for her to bear. None of her so-called friends have even taken the time to see how she's doing, preferring to offer their support and sympathies to her ex-boyfriend. Not a day has passed where she hasn't felt alone, crying for the loss of her parents and the life she once knew. Then she meets a boy who takes the time to sit by her side during one such time and though he offers nothing more than his presence, she finds herself feeling lighter, the tears ceasing. He's captured her curiosity but he refuses to share anything about himself, trying to keep her at a distance.
Until Alex is a standalone new adult (NA) romance novel by and the debut publication of author J. Nathan and one that pleasantly surprised me with its uncanny ability to convey such an emotional story of love, redemption, courage, and hope. There were twists where I didn't there would be and I loved that about this book! The connection between the lead characters, Hayden and Alex, was so palpable that it was undeniable, no matter how hard Hayden pretended he was unfazed by his new neighbor's presence. While seemingly different in terms of personality and family life, they actually have more in common than you would think, possibly making them better equipped to understand what the other has had to go through.
For any book to have had this much impact on me deserves my admiration and respect, but the fact that this was a debut novel made me want to stand up and applaud the author for the remarkable work she put into it. There were dark and light moments plus times I wanted to give the characters a hug and times I wanted to shake them. There's a great deal of drama and heaviness but there's also some humor and all those push and pull scenes between Hayden and Alex made me want to both squee in delight and scream in frustration. I know this book was released last year but I'm still highly recommending it to anyone who has yet to read it and I hope you'll love it as much as I do. Until Alex is a 2015 favorite and gets five-plus stars!
Date Read: 23 April 2015
Learn more about J. Nathan here.
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