*I recieved ARCs from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not in any way affect my opinion, and all thoughts expressed in this review is unbiased and my own.*
Title: Always Second BestAuthor: Elodie Nowodazkij
My rating: 5 hearts
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publication date: October 10th 2015
Publisher: Createspace
Synopsis: Sometimes being first isn’t what you expected. Seventeen-year-old ballerina Emilia Moretti is tired of always being second best. And she’s going to prove the world she deserves to be first. In her upcoming School of the Performing Arts showcase. In the eyes of her birth parents. And in the heart of the guy she loves. She spends hours rehearsing, hours dreaming about becoming number one, hours imagining how her entire life is about to change. But when nothing goes the way she planned, she’ll need to realize what it really means to be first.
Eighteen-year-old Nick Grawski doesn’t want to follow Daddy Dearest’s rules any longer. He's going to prove he's meant to be a dancer—not a lawyer—and he is not going to stay away from Em just because his father demands it. He needs to show Em that—this time around—he’s there to stay and that he won’t break her heart again. Even when her world goes down to shit, even when he finds out his dad may have been trying to protect him all along, even if being there for one another is harder than falling in love.
ALWAYS SECOND BEST is a novel of hope and heartbreak and broken dreams. It’s a novel about falling in love and discovering that being first isn’t always what matters. (synopsis from Goodreads)
My thoughts:
A Summer
Like No Other
I was
actually happily surprised when I read it. I had been a little disappointed
with the previous book in the series, although it was still a good read, so
when I started reading this, I was a little surprised that I couldn’t put it
away. The characters were awesome, I love both Emilia and Nick, and the
chemistry between them felt so real. The plot was a little slow at times, but
the interaction between Em and Nick kept it interesting.
Always Second Best
“Nonna said the biggest strength came from family, that
we should never forget that family comes first.”
Emilia is
struggling with making her parents proud of her, and she feels like she’s never
good enough. This has a lot to do with the fact that she is adopted. She is
also trying to get her birth-mother to talk to her. At the same time, she’s
struggling with her feelings for Nick, especially after their summer together,
and trying to figure out who she really is and what she wants to do.
I found Em really relatable. She reminded me
a bit of myself, which made it really easy to relate to her. Everything about
her felt real and genuine. I felt everything she felt. And her relationship to
her grandmother was really sweet and touching.
Nick is totally swoon-worthy
He’s so protective of Em, and it’s really
sweet.
The plot was great. I was actually surprised
that it was taking place around the same time as One Dream Only and One, Two,
Three, I thought it would be after, but I’m not complaining. It was
actually interesting to see what happened at School of Performing Arts after
Natalya had her accidents, to see how it affected everyone, especially Em. And the plot twists – especially one – were really unpredictable. I did not see it coming. I was so shocked when all was revealed. And the ending was also pretty unpredictable, although it didn’t really shock me, but it wasn’t what I’d expected, either.
And I cried so much at one part of the book, you who have read it probably know which part I mean, but I won’t write it, because it’s a big spoiler. But I will say that I haven’t cried this much since I read The Fault in Our Stars.
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
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