Book review: YOU WERE NEVER NOT MINE, by Monica Murphy

Lancaster Prep Next Generation #4

August & Sinclair

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Young adult as only Monica Murphy can write them!  She gets their personalities, insecurities, catches that they’re beginning to mature but are not there yet, feeling the promises of the future but not sure yet where they’re going.  I love reading these YA books because I love the possibilities and the fumbling they do as they figure out their lives.  And this author shows it so brilliantly!

This story is told in two times, when Sinclair arrived at Lancaster Prep for freshman year and August was a senior.  He bullied her all that year, and she hated him and stood up to his insults but they did hurt and upset her.

Then four years later, August is a senior again, this time in Thornhill University and Sinclair arrives, again as a freshman.  He’s captivated from the beginning, but he has a role to play in this university, and that is of the arrogant and selfish wealthy guy who doesn’t mingle with the riff-raff.  He doesn’t recognize her which is wonderful because she hates him and treats him like he’s a monster, which baffles him.  I thought it was wonderful and just the right touch to tumble him from that pedestal he lived on.

I loved the story, loved how they moved on from enemies to friends to lovers, loved how much August changes.  He swore that the Lancaster curse was not true, nevertheless he kept his feelings tied up tight and didn’t get involved with any girl, just a hookup and done, so the curse will not activate.  And it did, regardless of his precautions.  I loved how caught he was! And he asked his father and his sister and they all ruled that, yep, he got it.  

The juxtaposition of falling in love for your bully was a wonderful plot and I loved the whole story.  August was sweet once he got over his uppity ways, he was so considerate and loving.  Sinclair was the perfect heroine, she didn’t kiss his butt, she sassed him, challenged him; in a way, she made him grow and develop all those good person feelings which were inside of him, lying dormant.

This was the perfect page-turner, YA story and a great finale for the Lancaster Prep series.  I only wish there was a Thornhill series because I would love to read Cyrus Thornhill’s story!

Purchase links

FREE with Kindle Unlimited

Amazon: https://bit.ly/40aejGg

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3WaQNb5

About the author

Monica Murphy is a New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling romance author. Her books have been translated in almost a dozen languages and have sold over two million copies worldwide. Both a traditionally published and independently published author, she writes young adult, new adult and contemporary romance.

A native Californian, she lives on fourteen acres in the middle of nowhere with her husband, son, their goofy dog, and three cats. When she’s not writing, she’s thinking about writing. Or reading. Or binge watching something.

 

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