Review: Losing Track by Trisha Wolfe

Losing Track is the second book in the Living Heartwood series by Trisha Wolfe. These NA books are not the typical story you would expect from the NA genre. While this is the second book in the series, each book can be read as a standalone and I honestly don't think it matters what order you read them in. While I liked this book better than the first in the series, I still had some issues. 

Melody and her best friend Darla have been inseparable since they became friends as kids. Now years later, they spend their time traveling around on bikes with tatted guys and are always looking for a good time. But when then a tragic accident changes everything, and Melody is forced to face her demons. When she meets Boone Randall, she sees a good guy looking to tell her why she should be living the sober life. At first they clash, but the more they are around one another the more drawn to each other they find themselves. Soon Melody finds out that Boone is so much more than what she first thought, and she realizes that she had no idea who he really was. Now she must decide if she is willing to change the path she was on, or if she isn't ready to leave the only life that she has ever known. 

I liked both Boone and Melody. Melody is a total tough chick, and I love how comfortable she was in her skin. She wasn't afraid to be her own person, and I liked that she didn't let others get away with any crap. She was feisty and could hold her own, and I really admired that about her. She did have her issues though, and I was glad that Boone was around to help her start to see some of that. Boone was the same as her in that he wouldn't let her get away with any BS. He forced her to sort of face things that she hadn't before, and I was glad that she had him to help her ease into life after the tragedy. Boone was so much more than I expected at first, and he surprised me in a lot of ways. I enjoyed learning more about him as the story went on, and his layers were peeled back. I thought that these two had really strong chemistry from the very start, and they also clicked on a level that they didn't with others. They seemed to be able to understand one another in ways that no one else got. I liked that they had things in common, but that they could also learn and grow from each other as well.

I will say that I thought the first half of this book was very slow. I wasn't feeling the connection between the characters, and I wasn't invested in the story. There were a few times that I thought about giving up, but then something would happen that would pull me back in and make me want to continue. After about halfway through though, things really started to pick up and I started to really enjoy the story. I wish it wouldn't have taken so long for it to pull me in though and I think that was a lot of my issues with this book. I will also say that there was something that happened in the very beginning of the story that I felt like got swept under the rug far too easily and I wasn't happy that it didn't get dealt with in a different way. Though I liked Jesse at times, he did something truly awful and was granted almost instant forgiveness as though it wasn't a big deal. I didn't like that at all, and I wish it had been better dealt with. It wasn't okay what he did, and I felt like it really changed my opinion of the characters and the story. While I had these issues I did like parts of the story, and I was really interested in finding out what would happen between Boone and Melody. I liked these two together a lot and thought that they were really great for one another. I am curious to read more from Trisha Wolfe in the future, and I will continue this series. But I will say that this series is so raw and rough, and there are some really dark elements to it. I think that readers should beware that there are some things in these stories that might be triggers for them, and decide if these books are right for them before reading.

**Review Copy Provided by AToMR Tours**

Purchase: | Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depository | iTunes | 

Review: The Darkest Part by Trisha Wolfe

The Darkest Part is the first book in Trisha Wolfe's Living Heartwood Series. This is the first book that I have ever read by her, but it sounded really good so I couldn't wait to give it a shot. While I did enjoy parts of it, there were some things that didn't work for me. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I do think that it was different from other NA books out there, and part of that was that although it isn't a paranormal book it does have a paranormal sort of feel at times with what the main character is going through. While I am not a huge fan of the paranormal genre, it didn't bother me in this case. 

After losing her fiance in a horrible accident, Sam has barely been surviving. She has withdrawn from everyone around her and prefers to spend time alone, as it is the only time when her fiance Tyler appears to her. While everyone around her believes that she is crazy, Sam believes that Tyler's ghost is there for a reason. Thinking that he will forever be trapped as a lost soul, Sam knows that she needs to help Tyler move on. She convinces his brother Holden to help her get some of Tyler's ashes to spread on a road trip that would have been her and Tyler's honeymoon. As Holden and Sam set out on the trip though, they quickly realize that the connection they once shared has never gone away. As Sam and Holden face their feelings and Sam's psychosis, they also begin to unravel the many secrets that Tyler and Holden had between them. Soon Sam begins to realize that Holden and Tyler had much more to their lives than she ever knew about, and she begins to question everything she thought she knew.

One of my biggest issues with this story was that I never felt like I could connect with the characters. Sam annoyed me for much of this book, and I thought that she was weak a lot of the time. Yes she had some mental things going on, but yet she knew exactly what was happening to her. She knew that the things she was experiencing weren't normal, and yet she preferred to stay in the dream world where Tyler still talked to her rather than to take her pills and try to move on with her life. She had let everything go that she seemed to love before, and she really was just a shell of her former self. Holden cared about Sam and Tyler that was obvious, yet he seemed to just give up easily at times without ever putting up a fight. He had given up Sam for his brother Tyler, and didn't even tell his brother how he truly felt. He lied about it and left. I also didn't like how all the secrets he kept about Tyler and things that he did never came out willingly. If he truly loved Sam as much as he said he had all those years, I have to wonder why he never thought that she deserved to know the truth about the man that she was going to spend her life with. While Holden and Sam did have a connection that she hadn't shared with Tyler, I felt like it wasn't really as strong as it should have been for the love they were proclaiming. These two hadn't really been together as kids, though they did have a very brief thing before he left her. Then they go on this trip after not having talked or spent time together in a very long time and they love each other? After she had been engaged to his brother and been in a relationship with him for years? I just didn't buy it and didn't see how it would have been so strong so quick. I did feel the tension and attraction between them, but their sexual chemistry was about the only thing I felt was really easy to believe at that point. 

I will also say that my other big problem with this story was the back and forth. This book alternates POVs as well as shifts between the past and the present and I felt it was a bit confusing and disorienting at times. I like getting to see inside both of the main characters heads, but I felt like in this case there was just too much going on to keep straight. There had to have been a better way for the author to give us the information that we needed about the past and present without making the reader feel lost and trying to figure out where and when we were and which character's head we were inside. I do think that this story was good, if a bit slow at times, but I just wish that it had been arranged differently. I wanted to see more of a connection building between Holden and Sam, with less focus on her and even her relationship with Tyler. There was so much about Tyler that was revealed throughout the story, and I found the whole thing interesting. But I felt like Holden and Sam's connection with him got a bit lost in everything else. I will say that this was different than other NA books out there, and that it was worth the read. I am interested to read more in the series after meeting a few other characters in this book. I am hoping that they don't have the same issues as this one did though and that I am able to connect with those characters better.

**Review Copy Provided by AToMR Tours**

Purchase: | Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depository | iTunes |