Review: 3.5 Intense, Emotional, Second Chance Stars!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 30, 2014
When I read the blurb of Life After Taylah and saw the mention of a "forbidden" love element, I immediately had to add it to my TBR. Then when I saw it was written by Bella Jewel, who has written some of my favorite biker stories, I became even more curious to find out what she would to with a motocross racer as a hero. ;)Avery is a 22 year old girl studying ballet and teaching dance classes practically every day of the week. Unable to forget about her mother who mysteriously went missing ten years ago, she sought out a way to drown out thought of her mother, Taylah. That's how dancing became her everything. Her entire life evolves around it. And with a controlling father, a fiancé who's only with her so he can carry out her father's business once he retires and a drug addict as a brother, there's not much happiness in her life. So she stays numb, unattached, and still hoping to one day find out what happened to her mother.But then she meets Nate. He's everything forbidden, everything she should stay far away from. Still, she's drawn to him and once they get to know each other and build up an intense friendship, neither of them is willing to let the other one go.Nate is a 30 year old Champion Motocross racer who's the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. For the past three years he's been unhappily married and when he meets Avery, she makes him feel again for the first time in years. With her he can talk, have fun and feel the attraction he once felt for his wife. Because of his daughter he's trying to save his marriage and stand by his wife, but his rapidly evolving feelings for Avery make doing so harder and harder each day.To be honest, Nate pissed me off sometimes. I mean, I understand about him wanting to fix his marriage and fight for his daughter, but how could he have been so blind to all the lies his wife was feeding him for so long? Even I could see they weren't destined to stay together and I honestly don't think a judge would have ever granted custody to a alcohol, negligent mother instead of a hard-working, doting like himself... What I am glad about though is that (view spoiler)Avery, on the other hand, was a strong heroine and very mature for her age. Most of the time she was the one making the smart decisions and I felt really bad for her with all the misery that had been part of her life for so long.All in all, Life After Taylah was an intense, angst-filled, sexy, fast-paced standalone romance that I really enjoyed reading. Some elements of the storyline were a bit predictable or clichéd but the unexpected plot twists more than made up for them. If you're looking for a passion-filled forbidden romance, I would recommend giving this one a try!A copy was kindly provided to me in exchange for an honest review.