Nova - Book Review

By Rebecca Yarros

Synopsis

He’s got one shot to make it right…

He’s Landon Rhodes.
The Renegade they call Nova.
Sinfully gorgeous, broody, tatted-up, professional snowboarder.

They say a girl broke him once–
That’s why he’s so reckless, so driven, so careless with his conquests.
But I’m that girl.
They can call me his curse all they want.
He and I both know the truth–
He’s the one who destroyed me,
And I’m too smart to let that happen again

Review

NOVA is the second book in The Renegades series and is a second-chance romance between Landon (Nova) and Rachel. Here’s what we learnt about them in the first book. Rachel was dating Paxton (from book 1) but cheated on him with Landon. They fell in love and made plans for their future, but Paxton (out of anger and jealousy), gave Landon an ultimatum: the Renegades or Rachel, because he couldn’t have both. Landon chose the Renegades, breaking his heart and Rachel’s in the process. Flash forward two and a half years later and Paxton regrets his ultimatum and hates what he turned Landon in to. He has therefore created an opportunity for Rachel and Landon to be on the Study at Sea program together in the hopes they’ll reconnect.

So Landon is your typical manwhore who, after breaking up with the love of his life, went out and slept with every woman who made herself available. Of course, that bites him in the arse when he tries to win Rachel back and she keeps using his reputation against him. His reasons for leaving her were kind of stupid, but he does a really good job of proving to her that he will never choose anyone or anything over her ever again. While you can feel that he really does love her, I was disappointed that he never made any effort to win her back until after he found out she was on board the ship.

I loved that Rachel was never afraid to tell Landon exactly how badly he broke her heart when he chose the Renegades over her. I liked that she didn’t forgive him straight away, didn’t fall back into bed with him straight away, and that she made him work for her forgiveness. I thought her conflicting feelings and how she processed them were realistic.

I enjoyed NOVA, although I will admit that I skimmed through it, focusing more on the conversations and skipping over the inner monologue that I sometimes found a little repetitive. NOVA is told in dual POVs and while it’s part of a series, it could be read as a stand-alone. There is no epilogue but there is a really sweet HFN ending for Landon and Rachel. Penna (Rebel) will get the next book in the series, and I hope a little romance will brighten up her not-so-sunny personality she displayed in this book.