Monday, November 4, 2019

Book Review: Landon & Shay (part one)

YOU GUYS. If you've been following this blog for awhile you know that I'm currently boob deep in an obsession of Brittainy C. Cherry and every book she has ever written. I have a few more to read but as soon as an opportunity came to be on her promotional team for her newest duet for Landon & Shay I knew I had to do it. I follow her on Instagram, I've seen the teasers, and they were NOTHING compared to this book. I was not prepared.

Landon & Shay, Pt. One - Brittainy C. Cherry

Shay Gable hated my guts, and I hated hers, too.

We went out of our way to avoid one another at all times. When she came my direction, I went the other. When we locked eyes, she’d turn and walk away.

All of that changed the day I was presented with a challenge. It started out as a stupid bet: make Shay fall in love with me before I fell in love with her first.

That was an easy bet for me to win.
I didn’t love, I hardly liked.

Yet slowly the game started to shift. Shay made me crave things I never knew I wanted.
Love.
Happiness.
Her.

The closer we grew, the more she challenged my darkness, and the parts I kept locked away.
The hurts.
The pains.
The truth.

The game between us became too real, our feelings intermixed, and the risks of hurting one another grew higher.

But you know what they say...
All’s fair in the game of love and war—especially the heartbreaks.

You know when you want to talk about something but there is SO MUCH to say that everything in you feels like it is shaking because you just can't get it all out in a reasonable, coherent way? That's exactly where I am. I also am an emotional wreck because this ends on a cliff hanger and I know full well part two is coming and I'm equal parts ready to beat a door down to get it but I'm also so emotionally fragile I don't know if I can even handle it.

That's what every Brittainy Cherry book does to me but none more so than this one. I'm not kidding- every book of hers is SO DANG GOOD and I cannot love them any more. I would literally burst.

Phew.

OK. So in this book we have Shay, super good girl with a drug dealing dad and mom who isn't strong enough to leave and she does the best she can to not rock the boat at home. I identified with her so much. She's just the best of the best. We also have Landon, approaching his 18th birthday but his birthday is the one year anniversary of his beloved uncle's suicide and he isn't handling it well. A kid who is basically raising himself with an ass of a dad and a mom who is always gone, he's lost and alone, clearly depressed and struggling.

They don't like each other because they don't understand each other and don't realize they are more alike than they could even know. A party leads to a bet that neither are sure they can win but neither are sure they even want to- which one can make the other fall in love first?

What embarks is a spark of friendship that turns into more and the discovery that they are so very much alike with a lot of the same struggles, each getting from the other things that they need. Let's just say this is maybe one of my favorite tropes, good girl changing/helping the bad boy, and if there is an author who excels at this? It's Brittainy C. Cherry. Not only did I love Shay every step of the way but as someone who was her once, and now as a mom, my heart broke for her in so many ways. I also really loved Landon because you could feel his pain from start to finish and you just want the best for this guy and man..... I hope part two gives me the ending I so desperately want.

I'm not kidding, my heart is breaking thinking there is a chance it might not end the way I want it to and I'm just not ready.

I loved the characters, not just Landon and Shay, but all of their friends and their family. Though they aren't major parts of this the author does a great job making them feel completely well rounded and real. I love the gentle arc of the story, I love that we don't have the heart shattering moments, the author breaks our heart gently and softly but at the same time giving us hoping by reminding us part two is coming. This book really centers around depression and how sneaky it is and how easily it hides. I loved Shay's determined support even when her heart was breaking. I loved Landon's strength even when he was terrified. So many things about this book were beautiful and perfect.

Brittainy C. Cherry writes like nobody else and honestly, I don't know what else to tell you to convince you that not only do you need this book, you need everything she wrote. I read this in the span of three and a half hours. I couldn't put it down and I know that part two comes out in December but I'm telling you I won't make it. I want it now. 5 stars. No question.

A huge, huge, HUGE thank you to Brittainy C. Cherry for letting me be on this tour but also to Social Butterfly PR coordinating it and my million emails (especially you, Catherine! xo) This post contains affiliate links. GO BUY THIS BOOK, you need it. 

2 comments:

Beth (Coffee Until Cocktails) said...

This sounds like an amazing read with great characters, I like a romance that has a bit more "meat" to it so to speak. I'll have to check this out!

Anonymous said...

This sounds like a really fun book. I need some light reads for the rest of this year because I’ve been in the middle of a few pretty heavy books.