Review: Falling Away by Penelope Douglas

Falling Away
(Fall Away #3)
by Penelope Douglas
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: Jan. 6, 2015
Genre: New Adult Romance
Rating:

Jaxon is the guy she’s supposed to avoid.

K.C. is the girl he won’t let get away….

K.C. Carter has always followed the rules—until this year, when a mistake leaves her the talk of her college campus and her carefully arranged life comes crashing to a halt. Now she’s stuck in her small hometown for the summer to complete her court-ordered community service, and to make matters worse, trouble is living right next door.

Jaxon Trent is the worst kind of temptation and exactly what K.C. was supposed to stay away from in high school. But he never forgot her. She was the one girl who wouldn’t give him the time of day and the only one to ever say no. Fate has brought K.C. back into his life—except what he thought was a great twist of luck turns out to be too close for comfort. As the bond between them grows, he discovers that convincing K.C. to get out from her mother’s shadow is hard, but revealing the darkest parts of his soul is nearly impossible.…

 

 

My thoughts…

Jax has always been an interest of mine since the series started. He’s Jared’s younger half-brother who was abused by his father for many years leading up to Jared’s summer-time visit as a teen. That’s when Jared found out that not only did he have a brother, but also that his brother was in a very bad place. Luckily his mother was able to gain custody of Jax and has been trying to provide him with a stable home since. However, years later, he still has that edge to him. He still has his internal scars and he’s not going to allow himself to be anyone’s joke. There’s was just something about his character that drew me in when we meet him. He was just this broken kid, and I really wanted to know how he’d grow up and if he’d ever get his happily ever after.

K.C. on the other hand was not on my radar for getting her own book. Let’s just say that I wasn’t her biggest fan in the first book. She was just really shallow and self-absorbed. Not to mention some of the stuff that went down with her that left a sour taste in my mouth. So to say that I wasn’t happy with the pairing of these two was an understatement. However, as it turned out, I liked K.C. a lot more than Jax in this book. I think that had to do with the fat of how much growing KC does in this book. She’s not the same person we met in the first book. She evolved into a wonderful young adult and I really liked the change in her, but Jax didn’t grow up at all.

Like the previous books in this series, there’s a lot of push and pull between these two. They like each other, they fight, they go their separate ways, then they come back to each other only to repeat the process all over again. I think that’s fine if it fits that particular character’s personality but I kind of wished for more from this story. I could have easily swapped the characters out with Madoc and Fallon, or Tate and Jared. It just felt too similar to the previous books. It pretty much followed the same story arc, character profile, and had the same overall feel to it. So needless to say, while I was really excited for Jax’s story, it left me wanting something more, something deeper. Not a bad-boy who sleeps around, throws crazy parties, and is a major jerk to the girl he likes, and definitely not a girl who takes all that abuse and then still stays with them. I just wanted more from Jax and even though I disliked KC, I wish she had the balls to leave him high and dry.

Falling Away is a nice way to see everyone get their happily ever after. While I felt like Jax should have been a bit more mature given his past and his current accomplishments, I really appreciated the growth KC had. The author was able to take one of my least favorite characters from this series and make me like them.

 

Favorite quote…

“I need to remember how I survived. Not what I suffered,” I said. “How I fought, and not how I hurt.”

 

Previous reviews from Fall Away
Bully
Until You
Rival

 

 

15 Thoughts on “Review: Falling Away by Penelope Douglas

  1. Wow, reading about Jax, this one sounds intense. And 3 stars definitely not bad. Great review Kristin 🙂

  2. Debbie Haupt on 4 June, 2017 at 4:16 am said:

    It looks good thanks for sharing!

  3. That sounds like a really good book. I like characters that have an edge to them or are emotionally scarred in some way. I haven’t read this author before so I’ll have to look into her books. Thanks for the review. #getsocial17

  4. *stares at dreamy eyes – almost forgets to read review* lol

    I love when an author can change your opinion about a character you didn’t like earlier on.

    Stopping by for Anna’s Get Social Blogger Event!

    For What It’s Worth

  5. I’ve never read any books by Penelope Douglas but have heard that they are pretty good. I’ll have to check one out someday.
    Stopping by from the #getsocial17 blog hop. It’s nice to meet you.

  6. This book sounds intense! Thanks for sharing #getsocial17

  7. This sounds like a good book but I really wasn’t a fan of Bully so I’m hesitant to read more of this series.
    #getsocial17

  8. I loved this one too. Penelope Douglas’s books are great! Stopping by to say hi as part of the #getsocialblogger event 🙂

  9. I am sorry that Jax’s story did not meet up to your expectations. It is good though that you were able to still enjoy the story.
    I visited your blogseveral time, but never commented before now 🙂
    #getsocial17

    Totally Addicted to Reading

  10. That quote was great

  11. I also am visiting from the #getsocial17 blog hop. I’m always glad to make the acquaintance of a reviewer, but I’m sorry to say I’m not a booksniffer. If they’re dusty, doing so bothers my allergies. 😉

  12. I read Bully and the follow-up story from the opposite point of view and hadn’t decided if I was going to continue with the series. I liked those, but then I read a few of the blurbs on the rest of the series and suspected that they would become formulaic to me. Looks like, from what you’re saying, it might be the case.
    Interesting how you went in thinking the heroine would be a problem and it ended up being the other way around.

    Great review, Kristin! And thanks for dropping by for #GetSocial17 Nice to meet other book lovers. 🙂

  13. The fighting, separating then getting back together multiple times would annoy me after a bit.

  14. That stinks when they start having cookie cutter aspects to them like that.

  15. My co-blogger read a few books from this author and the content was very deep. At the time I was dealing with some bullying issues with my daughter so I couldn’t pick up her books.

    This one sounds interesting.

    #getsocial17

    Shari @ Delighted Reader

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