{Review} What If by Rebecca Donovan

Posted by Donna
Release Date: January 22nd, 2015
Finished Date: February 6th, 2015

Publishers: Penguin 
Genre: NA, Contemporary, Romance
Source: For Review
Format: Paperback

Pages: 384

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

What if you had a second chance to meet someone for the first time?

Cal Logan is shocked to see Nicole Bentley sitting across from him at a coffee shop thousands of miles from their hometown. After all, no one has seen or heard from her since they graduated over a year ago. 

Except this girl isn't Nicole.

She looks exactly like Cal's shy childhood crush, but her name is Nyelle Preston and she has no idea who he is. This girl is impulsive and daring, her passion for life infectious. The complete opposite of Nicole. Cal finds himself utterly fascinated and falling hard. But Nyelle is also extremely secretive. And the closer he comes to finding out what she's hiding, the less he wants to know.

When the secrets from the past and present collide, one thing becomes clear: Nothing is what it seems.

The Review: Cal Logan hasn’t been able to get his mind off one of the girls he grew up with – Nicole Bentley. They used to be close but Nicole left him behind for a new set of friends. When Nicole enrols at Harvard and no-one sees or hears from her, Cal can’t get his mind off of her. But one night at a party, he meets a girl who looks exactly like Nicole except this girl doesn’t act like the Nicole he knew. Gone is the shy person and instead Nyelle is outgoing and strangely addictive. The more time that Cal spends with Nicole the more he’s determined to get the truth.

I wasn’t sure what to expect before heading into What If. I’ve only had one other experience with Rebecca Donovan as an author and I had major issues with it, so of course a part of me was hoping this time I would been blown away because I know so many people love her work. But unfortunately I was left disappointed.

What If is a mysterious story about four childhood friends who seem to lose touch of the years. During the story we have Cal telling the main part of the story but we also get flash backs from the other characters told from when their childhood days. I enjoyed how the story was told. Going back and forth from past to present but I struggled to connect to the childhood days. While I was reading the story was I was trying to think how these chapters fit into the story and even now I’m still impressed by how well these chapters were written and how it tells a past story.

The main issue for me were the characters. They were all so flat. As a main character Cal didn’t stand out. There was nothing about him that excited me and he doesn’t do anything daring. Overall he’s a very bland character. Then we have Nyelle who I just didn’t really like. Her character was weird and I didn’t get her reasoning’s for doing anything she did. She acted half-crazy most of the time and was really aloof.

I understand there is more going on in this story than what we’re first lead to believe and some of the issues are quite heavy, but I just don’t think the author took enough time to explore the issues. And eventually by the time I came to the end of the story and the big reveal happened, I had no excitement for it. I was actually pretty disappointed with it.

In all, What If just wasn’t for me but I know a lot of people love Rebecca Donovan’s work therefore I’d still urge you to read it and make up your own mind.

Thank you to Penguin for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.

A Review for Reason to Breathe by Rebecca Donovan

Posted by Donna
Release Date: February 17th, 2013

Finished Date: January 27th, 2013

Publishers: Penguin UK
Source: For Review

Format: Paperback

Pages: 524
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

An passionate love. 
A brutal betrayal. 
Unwavering hope.

In a town where most people worry about what to be seen in and who to be seen with, Emma Thomas would rather not be seen at all. She's more concerned with feigning perfection, pulling down her sleeves to conceal the bruises. Emma doesn't want anyone to know how far from perfect her life truly is.

When Emma unexpectedly finds love, it challenges her to recognize her own worth - but at the risk of revealing the terrible secret she's desperate to hide.

The Review: 2.5 stars! 

After reading Cindy Bennett's Heart on a Chain a few months ago, I was recommended Rebecca Donovan's Reason to Breathe because of the similarities they have. However, while I loved Heart on a Chain, I'm kind of on the fence with Reason to Breathe.

Reason to Breathe is a heart-wrenching story that deals with abuse in it's worst form. Emma lives with her aunt and uncle and instead of having a loving and caring family, she suffers from daily beating from her aunt - who despises her. We see Emma try to battle between the life she wants and the life she has and honestly, it's very intense at times. 

I honestly thought I was going to love this story. Its is heart-breaking and very emotional and while I did like parts of it, I found it hard to connect with the characters. I've never been in an abusive situation so I can't comment on what I would do if I was in that position but what I didn't like about Emma was the fact that this abuse was happening and she just took it and didn't fight back. She had a number of ways out and she didn't take them. Also, her best friend is aware of what's happening and I felt as though she was more distressed about it than Emma. Emma just kind of took everything - but for what? There is no reason! Her aunts abuse is uncalled for and irrational, so there's no reason why she does this to Emma. But what makes it that much worse was that Emma's aunt has kids of her own and she worships them. Emma even tries to protect them from seeing any of the abuse. But surely if a women like that can abuse her niece, what damage could she do to her own children? It's scary! I guess I couldn't work out why the aunt would be so horrid to Emma but not to her own kids and why Emma wouldn't speak up to people even though people were aware of what was happening. Maybe the answers will come with book two and three and I really hope so because so far, I don't understand. 

Now what I did like about the story was the romance - of course the romance. I have to say it was one of the things that kept me reading. I was intrigued to see how it works out. Emma has to sneak around to spend time with Evan. I loved how the more time she spent with Evan she became more confident and started enjoying the good parts of her life. I also loved Evan's mother - she's the kind of mother that Emma should have because she offers her so much support in such a short amount of time. 

In all, I'm not to sure if I will continue with this series. I guess I'll see at the time if I fancy it and although it's got a promising start, I'm really not sure what could happen next.