Let's talk about the star of this book for me: Noah Riley. My sweet angel baby, Noah 🥰 Noah is so pure with a true heart of gold. I loved the way he adored his mom and the love he had for her. Noah is the definition of "he falls first" and "boy obsessed". He met Arianna by accident and was taken with her right away. He was caring, sweet, adoring, and absolute perfection. I loved how he paid attention to what was important to Arianna and made her life easier. Acts of service is definitely his love language and it showed in the way he took care of her. He deserves all the love in the world and has the patience of a saint. I would give anything to have him call me 'Juliet' or 'baby' 🥺 My heart broke for him after the tragedy and the events that unfolded. There's so much trauma that he'll have to work through and I just wanted to hold him. i have never felt so deeply for book characters in my life, the love i have for them is unreal. i felt so at home reading about them and their relationships, and seeing how they develop through the book. and i am in awe of the characters and how beautifully they go together. It basically starts with the kids spending the summer at the families beach house. Because of what happens to her and her life long crush with one of their friends, Chase, college doesnt start off that well for Ari. She's hurt, even though she wanted it to happen. Its not what she did that hurt her, but how the friend she thought she loved responded to it, telling her it was a mistake, and withdrawing from her. I was so upset finishing this book solely because I never wanted it to end. If i could read it over and over again forever, I would. This story was perfect and beautiful. But so heartbreaking and raw and painful. You will go through every emotion possible with this book. But it will leave you feeling complete. I will love this book forever and ever and will never stop thinking about it.

Say You Swear By Meagan Brandy |The Works

Noah, sweet sweet Noah ~ what an all around delightful guy he was for being only 21. He and his mama had such a heartwarming relationship. A main trope in this book is a love triangle, but it's honestly so much more than that. It has a love triangle of sorts, but not really, in my opinion. The heroine does feel conflicted at times, but it's pretty clear for most of the book that the triangle is heavier on one side than the other to everyone but the heroine. I know love triangles aren't for everyone, but I swear this isn't like other books with this trope and there's a clear winner between the two men. Also Ari’s brother and his two friends were strangely protective of Ari and her best girl friend’s honor or something and wouldn’t even let a guy look at or talk to them. Who acts like this unless they are religious? Arianna has been crushing on her brother's bff, Chase, for years, but of course deemed off limits. They get carried away on the beach one night and Chase calls it a mistake soon after. Arianna goes into a bit of a depression, but eventually meets Noah. I just love when a book makes you feel so many emotions throughout the process of reading it and this book did just that and more!!When she meets Noah they become friends first. He teaches her to cook, talks with her and truly gets to know her. Noah is a gem of a man. QB of the football team, devoted son, and all around good guy. You can’t help but root for him. He’s not pushy with Ari, he knows she had feelings for someone else she’s getting over and he takes his time with her. So I liked this well enough, but I feel like I could have liked it a bit more about 10 years ago, not when these characters are close to my daughters age. I can’t be thinking about my precious girl doing all the things these kids are doing ~ fake id’s, underage drinking and hookin up and what not. Can’t say I didn’t do it myself, but ya know, not my sweet baby girl. Going to have to start phasing out of reading YA romance. A College Romance… Coming February 18th. For years, I’ve dreamt of what college life could bring and while some things changed, there was always one constant. It didn’t matter how wild I allowed my imagination to run, it always led me to the same place in the end. It led me to him. My future was clear, and he was it. Until suddenly … he wasn’t. Now I’m a shell of who I was, on a path too blurry to follow, and I see no way out. No way up. They say first loves last forever. That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. Say You Swear by Meagan Brandy – eBook Details Featuring ~multiple 1st person POV, 18 yo characters, college, twins, WAY over protective brother and friends, football, love triangle~ish, minimal steamage The mfc Arianne, and her over protective older twin brother Mason, Brady, Cameron (a girl), and the newest member because he joined their group later, Chase.

Say You Swear by Meagan Brandy | Goodreads

The smut doesn’t start until about 50% in. It really disturbed me that he didn’t wear a condom or even discuss birth control with Ari yet he supposedly cared about her. They’re 18 and 21. They weren’t ready for a baby yet. Ari is heart broken, she hides herself away missing important life events her and her bestie Cam had planned years before. Say you Swear is a love triangle, college football sports romance with angst, friendships, love, and heartbreaking moments that took me on an emotional rollercoaster and had me feeling all of the emotions. Also, can I just add a more general observation. This is not particular to this book only, I’ve seen this done 100 times before and that’s the overprotective brother routine. Ari is a real cutie. I loved her character and I’m just so glad that she got what she deserved after having gotten treated so badly by Chase.

Christmas Cards & Gift Wrap

fear not the fall, but the life that comes from having never leaped at all.” i smile through my tears. “i’ll always leap if the jump leads me to you, noah riley. always.” Since i haven't read one review mentioning this, let me tell you the premise of the story is in fact a FREAKING LOVE TRIANGLE. I'm obviously in the minority here.. but I couldn't. I DNFd @ 35%. If you want to read my rant about this book scrollllllll down. FYI I read the synopsis when adding this to my TBR before it was out. So of course when it came out, I saw all the gushing over it, and I went straight in not reading the synopsis since that TBR add.. so I really went in blind.. not to mention the synopsis did a crap job of explaining this book.