Review: Everything you want in a NA read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 1, 2014
I absolutely loved Sarina Bowen’s first New Adult novel, The Year We Fell Down, so I was thrilled to be an early reader for The Year We Hid Away. I’m also excited to say that I loved this book just as much as the first one. You can read this book as a standalone, but I highly recommend you read The Year We Fell Down first because of how great it is, and to get an introduction to the college and to some of the characters.Bridger is a secondary character in the first book, one of Hartley’s best friends, and here he’s the hero of the novel. The Bridger we got to know in Book 1 is into one night stands and partying. He’s not a jerk, but he doesn't want to be tied down. We see a hint of a deeper side with how he cares for his sister and his friends, but he’s mostly portrayed as a good time guy. The Bridger we get to know here is fundamentally the same guy, in that he still has the same good heart and cocky sweetness that we saw glimpses of before. However, Bridger has made a lot of changes, too. We get to see deeper into his life and to why he’s made the choices he has in the past with girls, etc. Mostly, we see who Bridger chooses to be when he's put in a difficult situation.Scarlet is someone who's also in a crazy tough position. She's being judged for who her father is, having to deal with it in a very personal way. She has a lot of stress in her life because of this. Scarlet blames herself for not knowing about things that happened when she was a kid. Despite all the drama that's imposed on her, Scarlet manages to be a sweet and caring girl, though definitely one who holds herself back.Bridger is the one person who Scarlet really connects with right away, and Scarlet is someone who Bridger could see himself opening up to, if only his life was simpler. These two are sweet together from the beginning. I loved the romance and the sexy scenes, but I also loved the friendship that Scarlet and Bridger build. One of the best parts of the book is their encouragement of one other and how they help each other deal with the things going on in their lives.I was worried I would miss the two main characters from the first book since I loved their story so much, but very quickly that fear went away. First of all, there was just the right amount of cameos from Hartley and Corey. They were a part of the story, but not major players, and it ended up being the perfect balance. Second of all, Sarina Bowen managed to write new characters, or in Bridger’s case, a former secondary character, who you want to keep spending time with. It takes talent for authors to create characters you like as much as, or perhaps more than, the ones you first fell for, but that was the case here.This is a New Adult book that has characters trying to figure things out, like every book of this category should, but it also has the characters dealing with situations that make them way more mature than others their age. Another aspect I enjoyed was that there was still a hockey focus to the book, even though Scarlet and Bridger were both "former hockey players" during the book. I also loved Bridger’s relationship with his little sister, Lucy. The way he cared about her was incredibly special.The Year We Hid Away is sweet, romantic, funny, and sexy. Sarina Bowen has the ability to make me cry and feel things for her characters on an intense level. If you’re looking for a well-written New Adult romance that has a deeper level to it, I highly recommend you pick up The Year We Hid Away, and the first novel in the series, The Year We Fell Down. These are romances, definitely, but they are also about these characters as individuals, journeying to triumph over difficulty.