Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Review: One & Only (Canton #1) by Viv Daniels


One night they can't forget...

Tess McMann lives her life according to the secrets she's sworn to keep: the father who won't acknowledge her, the sister who doesn't know she exists, and the mother who's content playing mistress to a prominent businessman. When she meets the distractingly cute Dylan Kingsley at a prestigious summer program and falls in love, Tess allows herself to imagine a life beyond these secrets. But when summer ends, so does their relationship -- Dylan heads off to Canton College while Tess enrolls at the state university.

One love they can't ignore...

Two years later, a scholarship brings Tess to Canton and back into Dylan's life. Their attraction is as strong as ever, but Dylan has a girlfriend…who also happens to be Tess's legitimate half-sister. Tess refuses to follow in her mother's footsteps, which leaves her only one choice: break the rules she’s always followed, or allow Dylan to slip away for a second time.

...And only one chance to get things right.



 



I've never read anything by Viv Daniels before and I wasn't totally for sure what to expect. This New Adult genre is pretty diverse and you never really know what you're going to get when you crack one of these open. Thankfully, I was pretty impressed with One & Only. It was a bit deeper than I had suspected it would be and it read more like a contemporary romance novel than a New Adult. But is there really much difference in those two other than the age group of the characters? I'm beginning to suspect not. 

I enjoyed getting to know Tess and delving into her family life ... which was a disaster, by the way. Tess knows her dad but no one else (other than her mom) knows about her dad. Tess has been told from a very early age to never tell anyone about her father, who he is or anything. It's a bit like a fatherly fight club. The first rule of FFC is that you don't tell anyone about FFC. The second rule about FFC is that you don't tell anyone about FFC. It was a bit surreal, actually. She can't acknowledge her father in any setting, if she sees him outside of her house, she can't call him dad and a bunch of other things. It was wild. What kind of life is that for a kid? So many things happen in your childhood that your father should be involved in. This isn't a case of abandonment, no ... her father is in her life. This isn't a case of him not loving her, no ... he does. I've just never read a book with a situation in it like this and to say the least, it kept my attention. 

The whole thing with her dad is going on in the background of the story. At the forefront is her education and (of course) a boy, Dylan. I found it hard to not become attached to Dylan. He's a sweet and honest character that had this adorable sense of humor that never ceased to make me smile. I won't lie ... he pissed me the hell off at a couple of points in the story but that didn't last for long because he's such a sweet guy. 

The storyline was interesting. I didn't get bored or tired of reading about their science stuff when the book would geek out for a little bit. I really enjoyed the flow of the novel ... it wasn't slow in any parts and it kept up at a pretty quick pace for pretty much the entire read. I'm looking forward to getting some free time so that I can read the next novel in the series. I'd like to see how this story continues. And keep in mind ... there is an ending to this one ... it doesn't leave you hanging with the Tess and Dylan story but the next book does cover some of the secondary characters from this one. All in all, I really enjoyed this one and I'll be reading this author again. 

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *



Available Now


No comments:

Post a Comment