Bloom Books – Romance Reviewed

Kyland by Mia Sheridan re-released yesterday through Bloom! This was a beautifully written, at times bleak, new adult romance set in an Appalachian coal mining town. It’s a story of sacrifice, hope, and true love overcoming all.

Tenleigh and Kyland are both in the running for a college scholarship that could help one of them leave their small town behind. Both have been raised in abject poverty, with food insecurity, housing insecurity, and no real support from their families. They are both desperate to leave, so neither of them needs an entanglement with the competition, but they are drawn to each other nonetheless.

I think the book does a really good job of exploring a desperate situation while still maintaining a feeling of hope. The romance was so sweet and I was really rooting for them.

Their situation made my tummy hurt and I can’t say I didn’t see the majority of the plot coming from a mile away, but I was still interested to see how it would all unfold! Overall a great read.

Things We Hide From the Light is out Tuesday! Thank you to the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Things We Never Got Over was easily one of my top reads of the past year so to say I was excited for Things We Hide From The Light is an understatement. And thankfully, Nash and Lina’s story did not disappoint! TWHFL picks up right after TWNGO, and I do recommend reading TWNGO first – I had to skim over the last couple chapters of TWNGO to remind myself what happened.

Nash is the nicer, kinder, more upstanding Morgan brother who is still recovering from the events of TWNGO, both physically and mentally. He meets his match in Lina, his brother’s badass ex-girlfriend who becomes his new neighbor while she’s in town for reasons unknown. The chemistry between them was immediate and I loved their flirtations even as they tried to fight it – but once they gave in, boy was it molten hot.

The magic of the author’s writing is not only in her humor, which is guaranteed to make me laugh out loud, but also in her ability to write such realistic characters and settings that you feel like you might actually stumble across this rough-around-the-edges town and hang out with these characters that feel like friends. Her characters are wonderfully flawed and make mistakes and I love how realistic that is.

Along with the laughs, steam, and emotions, this story also had a good bit of danger and mystery that I loved watching unravel. Despite its length, I tore through the pages of this and was never bored for one second. It has all the excellent characters from TWNGO, plus we pick up a few more new friends as well and it was a delight to read them all interacting. There is not much I love more than small town shenanigans and Knockemout has those in spades.

I was left with a smile on my face and a blush on my cheeks and I just really enjoyed the ride from start to finish. There’s a reason Lucy Score is one of my all time favorite authors and this story just cements that even more.