Series Review: Is this series worth your time? Does it get better as the novels progress? Or does it get worse? Find out below:
Series: First Things
Author: Rucy Ban
# of Books: 3 (All my Life, Wear You Down)
Book Order: Connected
Complete?: Unsure, Someone Out There has not been published
Genre: Young/New Adult, Romance, Drama
Heat Rating: warm
Point of View: First Person, Alternating
Thoughts on All My Life:
The only reason I picked up this book was because it was free on Amazon and Kobo. I wasn’t too interested in it, but I hoped that the synopsis was trying to be ironically funny and not a sign of the book’s immaturity.
Overall, I thought the books was cute. Kari was a tad annoying–so in the end, the synopsis pointed to its immaturity rather than ironic humour–and rather naïve. Of course based on those two facts, it shouldn’t be a surprise that this is a love at first sight story–ugh. While I liked Neil and Kari together, I didn’t like the age difference between them. Perhaps if Kari was a tad more mature at her age, then I would be ok with it but the fact of the matter is that she isn’t so it came across as icky to me whenever they mentioned his age.
I know that Kari has a big secret and I honestly couldn’t tell you what it is or if I liked it until I reskimmed the novel to write this review. Which I think indicates that this book wasn’t very memorable to me. However, going back to the secret: I give Ms. Ban props for writing about it. I’m positive that it occurs much more often than we are aware of and I like that she brought the topic to light. It was a nice change from the abusive pasts we normally see in the New Adult genre.
I also found this book was more dramatic than I thought it was going to be and I’m not sure how I feel about it now that I am finished. I’m not sure if the events near the end were completely necessary or not.
I probably won’t ever read Wear You Down. There are more interesting books out there that I want to read but if it pops up for free, I’ll probably grab it.
Conclusion:
There is are a lot better “New Adult” reads out there–free or not. Lots of reviews on Goodreads compare it to the Too Far Series and other popular New Adult reads and I have to disagree when they say this book can proudly stand next to them. The Too Far Series just has that little bit of polish to it that an editor can provide and that is what this book is severely lacking. Overall, for a free book it entertained me for the few hours it took to read it but I don’t remember that much about it after that.
Rating: 3/5
Similar Reads: Wanted by Kelly Elliot (Wanted Trilogy#1)
Synopsis for All My Life (from Goodreads):
Seventeen-year-old Kari meets Neil Mars. “Neil as in Armstrong and Mars…as in Bruno.” A boy who beats every vampire, werewolf, highlander fantasy Kari has ever had. But she knows she can’t get close to him. That would mean telling him everything. And Kari can’t bear the idea of changing the way Neil looks at her. His reverence is something too precious to lose. Even at the cost of losing him.Connect:
