Happy New Year friends! Welcome to my blog! I’m still alive. Just taking a little bit of a break to rearrange my life and take some stress off so I can enjoy it again! Today I have a review for you of Never Leave Me by Jody Hedlund. This is the sequel to Come Back To Me, where you can read the review here.
In the last stages of a genetic disease, Ellen Creighton has decided to live out her remaining days at the estate of her longtime friend Harrison Burlington. Harrison cares deeply for Ellen, but as a wheelchair-bound paraplegic, he’s never allowed himself to get serious in a relationship. However, he’s desperately trying to save her by finding the holy water that is believed to heal any disease.
When he locates two flasks, Ellen refuses to drink one of them because she believes the holy water killed her sister and father. In an effort to convince her to take it, Harrison ingests the contents first, and when Ellen witnesses the effects, she can no longer deny the power of the substance in the bottles. Dangerous criminals are also seeking the holy water, and Ellen soon learns they will go to any lengths to get the powerful drug–including sending her back into the past to find it for them.
Ok, I have been trying to taper off my reviews and take some time to catch up on other things in life (including my current TBR that has nothing to do with reviewing). However, when this book came into my inbox I threw reason to the wind and hit the request button. I have been waiting for this one! And of course, I got accepted so here it is…
The Characters
To start, I have to say I liked Ellen. I wouldn’t say that she was perfectly portrayed. I felt like the author had a bit of trouble tying together who she was in the two separate POVs. However, she was still a strong girl with a heart of gold, even if she was a bit stupid and reckless at times.
Her relationship with Harrison was kinda… I mean the relationship itself was not bad, at all. They had chemistry for sure, and a dynamic where they complimented each other (they were such a sob story. “What would you like, love?” “Whatever you like, my dear.” eyeroll*)
I’m being mean just cuz that’s how I am… XD It was actually really sweet and they were meant for each other, even if the I’m-too-scared-so-I’ll-lie trope gets oooooold.
I would also like to add that the Ellen before she was healed and the Ellen after she was healed tied together so smoothly. I really liked how the author was successful in portraying the same sweet soul of a character in spite of the huge change. Now Harrison was a different story.
Harrison, poor, poor Harrison. I wish he hadn’t been healed. The sweet gentle man from the first book was completely revolutionized and turned into a strong cliche that most romance novels will have. Yes, he was still sweet. He was fully in control of his emotions and desires and he was gracious. But he was irrational at times, and kinda desperate. It’s not to say I didn’t like this Harrison. He just changed from the first book. Also, his POV of Ellen, at least at the beginning of the book, was not who Ellen was as a whole in the book.
Nicholas, I wish so much we could have read more about him. He had a very big Will vibe, and I wanted more of it. I was glad, after all was said and done, he was who he was and it didn’t turn into love triangle. I admired Ellen’s loyalty, even though she didn’t know it at the time. But I think there’s more to the story that we may get if Mrs. Hedlund has more plans for this series…
The Plot
Ohhhhhhhh the plot was good. I jumped in second chapter feet first and waited for it to take me away, and I was not disappointed! This is a hangover book for sure!
The timeline was handled AMAZINGLY even as time travel is so confusing. I didn’t get lost for a moment, and I was able to mostly follow the trail of the timeline for the entire book.
I also appreciated how the author fine tuned the method of time travel, and that she didn’t try to complicate it from what she’d already created in the first book. It was a lot of fun to dive in with a solid idea of what we were getting into without having to deal with more quantum-confusion mumbo-jumbo. It wasn’t broken, so she didn’t fix it.
The ending was so satisfactory. Everything turned out just how perfectly tied together with a bit of suspense and a bit of mystery just long enough to make the ending so satisfying you walk away happy. Ready to read it again. There were parts that I didn’t like tho…
The Content
Similar to Come Back To Me, there was a lot of romantic content in this book. The “romance” itself was sweet… and well paced I think. Considering everything we know about these characters from the first book, it wasn’t rushed at all. And Harrison was very justified in his feelings. Ellen seemed a little confused, and then cleared up at the end. However…
I supposed I could get by by saying there was more heat than I would recommend as reading material for teens. That’s not surprising, considering this is not a teen book, however I just wanted to make that clear. The kisses were heated and passionate, there was more than one or two. I just wanted to make sure that anybody reaching for this book from my review was provided with a warning. Take it and consider what you feel comfortable or uncomfortable with. Even though the plot could easily have been developed without it, its ingrained quite deeply, and therefore I felt the need to bring it up.
I think at this point that I would want to dock more than just one star for the content, but considering the plot was really good, and the fact that this book is not filed under teen or children’s fiction, I don’t think it would be fair. So Four stars.
HoweverI do not recommend for anyone under the age of 16.
Thank you to Revell and the author of Never Leave Me for this free copy! A positive review was not required, and all opinions were my own!
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