REVIEW: NO REVERSE BY MARION CROSLYDON

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Book Description:

Book Description:

A girl who needs to undo the past.

A boy who wants to forget it.

In love, there’s no way back.

At high school in Steep Hill, Kansas, Cassie O’Malley and Josh MacBride were the poster couple for quarterback/cheerleader romance until they starred in their own tale of teen pregnancy. No need to say: their shotgun wedding was low-key. But when there was no baby anymore, they went their separate ways.

Five years later, Josh has breezed through Georgetown and is about to finish his post-grad degree at Oxford University. He is set to join a lobbying group on Capitol Hill, owned by his new fiancée’s father. For Josh, the sky is now the limit… only he must first take care of a tiny legal matter: technically, he’s still married to the girl who broke his heart.

Meanwhile, Cassie has been waiting tables in Steep Hill to pay for her sick grandmother’s care. On the day of the old lady’s funeral, Cassie is served with two sets of papers. Josh is asking for a divorce. Her heart squeezes, but, well, he moved on a long time ago. But the second envelope shakes Cassie to the core. So, for the first time, she leaves Kansas and heads to good ol’ England.

There, Cassie finds that Josh has not just “moved on,” he’s freakin’ engaged to some blue-blooded heiress. The feelings Cassie had buried deep rush back to her. But no matter if he keeps thrusting the divorce papers under her nose, she needs him to save the only person she loves more than Josh, more than life itself…

Title: No Reverse

Author: Marion Croslydon

Age Group and Genre: New Adult Contemporary

Expected release date: August 12, 2013

Where to Find No Reverse:

Goodreads |

About Marion Croslydon: 

Marion’s parents are terribly disappointed with her…

They wanted her to have a serious job, providing financial stability and social standing. For years, she really tried to make them happy; she studied hard, got into top schools, graduated with honors and found a high-achieving job.

But deep down, Marion was miserable. She never wanted to be a top executive, brokering deals in New York, London or Tokyo. Marion wanted to be… a ROMANCE WRITER. She wanted to spend her days in that good ol’ tracksuit of hers, in front of her laptop, popping down Oreos like there was no tomorrow. She wanted to fall in love with a different man each time she wrote the first line of a new book (while being happily married to the most handsome man in Great Britain).

That’s exactly what Marion does these days, and it makes her incredibly happy. She loves to share these happy vibes, talk book crush, fictional boyfriends and sexual chemistry with like-minded people. And because she spends most of her days on her own deep inside her writing cave, you are welcome to come and say “hello” from time to time. Just to make sure she doesn’t sink into insanity.

Her friends, family and arch-enemies (there are quite a few) will be forever grateful for your help.

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Our Review:

So what just happened here? I'll tell you. Emotional EFFING whiplash. I'm still not certain if I know which way is up or down after reading this book. The question of what would happen with Cass, and Josh, and Lenor, and Sam had me up way past my bedtime and downloading the Kindle App on my phone so that I could sneak read during my work day today. Yep, that happened.

I'm glad that you are finally on the dark side doing that, although my boss caught me too many times to count. It's a miracle I didn't get fired...lol...anyways...WOW! This is probably by far one of the best emotionally written books I have read in a long, long time. While I love a lot of things, I don't ever say that lightly...so just still trying to process everything that was No Reverse. 

So from the synopsis you know that Cass and Josh got married in high school because she was pregnant. Well, things happen and we find ourselves 6 years down the road and Cass has just lost her only family (her grandmother), is being served divorce papers, and must travel to England to give some news to Josh that she knows he will not appreciate. She's decided that he needs deserves to hear the truth about what really happened 6 years ago. Gosh. Poor Cass. Everything she did, while completely honorable, shattered both her and Josh and I completely understand why she did it...but I also understand his pain and anger with her choices. Those scenes were hard to read because you could feel the pain just oozing through the words.

The emotions that went into every decision that they ever made, while selfless in intent, were some of the hardest that you can imagine. This book is epic because well, have you ever read something that was almost like a love triangle/square...and every person is mostly honorable and would be a good choice, and one decision can't be made without hurting someone else. This was like that and not at the same time. I had clear choices for the way I wanted, no needed things to turn out, but I was definitely preparing myself for whatever was coming with a lot of actual mouth covering/chest clenching. I looked like a complete nutcase reading the last 15%...

Josh. Sigh. What a really great guy. He was completely swooning over Cass. He only had eyes for her, was willing to do anything for her, and was completely gutted by her. Just when Josh felt like he had everything within his grasp--married to the girl he loved and a baby on the way, she tore it all away. He felt that his only choice was to escape his hometown and hyperfocus on success and hating Cass. He finds sweet success in his education and meets Lenor and the pain of his past with Cass begins to ease. Life looks up for Josh, until Cass shows up with news that strikes him to the core.

I wanted to not like him. I really, really did. But I couldn't. Some of the things he did, I totally get. He was reeling from all of the decisions that were made for him. Cassie didn't like that his father had such strong opinions on things, but in reality she did the same exact thing by taking Josh's choices from him. Though, Josh keeps his personal life secret from Lenor for FOUR years. Umm...I would be so, so mad. But again, as he always did, he pulled me back into his spell just like he did Cassie and Lenor and made me love him again. 

And here's where my angst for these people goes from level 10 to level a million. Oh.My.Gosh. What is happening here? I like Lenor, then I don't. I like Josh, then I don't. I like Cass, then I curse her. I like Sam..and, well, I always like Sam. But I'm so thrown. Who am I rooting for? Cass? Lenor? Josh? Sam? Who gets the girl? Who gets the boy? Who gets married? SHHHHHEEEEE-it. Let me tell you...this goes on all the way up until the very end. The. Very. End. I mean we get this teeny, tiny glimmer of a resolution and then you swipe the page to move on...and mutha effer...it's 'to be continued'. What the hell??!!! 

Hahahaha. My feelings EXACTLY! I said I emotionally felt like I was re-reading the Avoiding Series. (If you haven't read those, well they make some really, really effed up choices, and just had my head spinning and my emotions splattered all over the walls...) So it was like that with no cheating. Everyone made so many big decisions that were the so-called "best" but didn't really communicate well with the person actually needing to hear them. But it kept me on the edge of the cliff, before finally pushing me off the edge...and yes...at the very, very last second. Although there is so much for these people to come, I am at peace with how this book ended. 

Normally I am not a huge fan of being this unsettled, but I really REALLY enjoyed this book. It was a page turner and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I will be reading the next installment of this series. It was so good! Like I said earlier, one of the best written emotionally slaying books I've read in a while...and like always it came at the perfect moment in my day! 

Shelley: 5 Stars

Courtney: 5 Stars!

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