Trigger warnings: multiple types of abuse, suicidal thoughts, miscarriage, anger issues

Mina has forsaken a social life for her first three years of high school to focus on her academics and dance. Her mom can’t pay for her to spend senior year at the private school she has attended, though, and now Mina must go to the public school in her district. There, Mina meets Oliver, a foster care and child abuse survivor who has moved to L.A. to start over now that courts have emancipated him. The two feel an immediate connection and grow closer while trying to stay safe.

This book was a lot different than what I expected and very frustrating. <spoiler>Mina sacrificed three years of her life to getting good grades so she could get into a good college, yet as soon as she starts her senior year, she starts cutting class all the time?? She showed herself to be VERY immature in her choices and the way she treated her mom. She literally becomes more immature as the book goes on.</spoiler> I appreciate that Oliver was working through his anger issues, but there were multiple times where he behaved in ways that were major red flags for me, and all I wanted was for Mina to get away from him because he was not ready for a relationship. There’s apparently a sequel coming because the book ended with a major cliffhanger, but I won’t be checking it out.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

Wow! I feel like if you liked A Girl's Guide to Murder, you will be into this series as well. I should also mention, I didn't know this was a series! It's going to be a LONG wait until book 2 is released. The story follows main characters Mina and Oliver. They are both at the end of their High School careers and have had some "bumps" in the road for a lack of a better way to put it. As their lives intertwine a spark forms between the two. Oliver develops a protective nature towards independent Mina after an incident of attack on Mina to "send a message" from the Russian mob. The end was the biggest cliffhanger i have yet to encounter in a book! Like i said, long wait for book 2! Ugh. The audiobook was incredible and I think i got more out of the characters by listening to this one.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. The writing was just ok and the story dragged on a lot. It definitely did not hold my attention and I ended up not really caring what happened.

What a rollercoaster of a book! This book has me wanting more and learning more about each character.

Mina and Oliver are the two main characters. Mina is a girl that seems to have it all, her whole life planned out. Until Oliver arrives in town. Oliver has the bad boy image but a dark deep and hurtful past. Once they get to know each other, you keep routing for them.

I did not like how the book ended... But maybe there is a part two coming! Great book all around.

This is a tough review. I kinda had a love hate relationship with it. I listened to the audio version with my foreign exchange student. I'm not real big on YA books, but I got swept up in Mina and Oliver. I enjoyed Oliver much more than Mina. She came across as a spoiled brat that disobeyed every step of the way. I also had to listen to it at regular speed which I normally listen at 2.5 speed, so that was sad for me. The narration was good. Oliver's was much better narration than Mina's, but both were good as their own character. Mina's was so soft though. We listened to this book in the car, so there is the hum of the car, traffic noises, I had to keep cranking Mina's character up and then all of a sudden Oliver is screaming. Those are really my only narration complaints to much of a difference in volume. Now Mina's mother has horrible English, I know they're trying to create a character, but she has lived in the USA for years, her English shouldn't be so poor. My 17 year old exchange student has been in the USA for4 months and has 100% better English than Mina's mother. I was caught up in the story a lot., and that's huge because I wasn't thrilled about YA. I wanted to know more and hear more, but then the book just ended, just like that wham, bam, thank you mam, ended. No resolution, just a giant cliff hanger! So there must be a second book in the works. However I hate cliff hangers, by the time a new book comes out I will have forgotten all about the first one. I hate cliff hangers!!! If you hate cliff hangers this is not the book for you. I'm going to be generous with 3 stars due to the story and keeping me intrigued.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me listen to this book. From the moment the narrator started I was interested in the book. Mina and Oliver come from two completely different places however, they get each other. Mina just wants to succeed in school and Oliver just wants to be able to start fresh after abuse & the foster system. Overall, great book; the author along with the narrator made the experience a great one!

The story was all over the place. It's tagged as a romance but really.... Is this a love story? Coming of age? Drama? Crime? Mystery? It was a little bit of everything that evolved into nothing. Also, really couldn't get into the two main characters. The start-crossed lovers vibe was introduced from the beginning, but even they didn't really seem to like each other. Their relationship just didn't feel meant to be. I wasn't invested in it and actually just wanted it to end. Then there is all this crime happening that feels like it is supposed to somehow explain all the behaviour, but really it just feels disconnected and out of place. I was happy when it was done.
I did enjoy the male and female narrators for each character.

Thank you NetGalley and SERA Press, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Audiobooks for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I just finished this book and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Mina is not a very likeable character, being as self-indulgent as she is. Oliver is... I don't know. A big contradiction. He seems like a nice guy but has a violent streak. The other characters? Mina's mom seems like a stereotype, but that might be my own bias. The end was unexpected and frustrating. I might continue with the series, depending on how long it takes for the next books to come out. Overall, considering the good and the bad, I have to give this book an average of three stars.

I'm not sure where to begin with this story. The synopsis made it seem like a cute high-school romance but it wasn't. I felt like the main theme behind the story was odd and neither of the characters I cared for. The things they did and how they acted turned me off. I was going to dnf it but since it was a netgally book I figured better finish it. But I kinda wish I didnt. I believe there is going to be another book on how it ended on a cliffhanger but honestly I could care less on what ends up happening. 1.5 stars

Thank you NetGalley for this audio arc in exchange for my honest review

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the audiobook for a review.

Synopsis: Mina's life is going according to plan; she's acing AP Calc and is perfectly content with her nonexistent social life. Though only a high school junior, Mina knows time is an investment, and she's putting all her capital into academics. Oliver, a child abuse survivor who grew up in the foster care system, is ready to burn down his old life and start from scratch-complete with a new name and emancipation papers-in L.A. When the two are thrown together through circumstance and develop an unexpected connection, they discover how hard it is to keep the past in the past.

My thoughts.

Wow WOW wow.

I don’t read many indie authors and this reminds me on why I should. This book was absolutely wonderful.

First, the character development is the absolute best I have ever read. The author took the time to really make sure we knew the important details of the two main characters. I was enthralled by both main characters and every page was better than the last. Mina reminds me of the song Brutal by Olivia Rodrigo.

Now- this book made me feel things. Like emotions that haven’t been unlocked since I was a teen - First real loves, teen angst, social norm being questioned, realizing the world isn’t as nice as we grew up to believe, and overall just being a teenager.

The audiobook is amazing. So worth the download. Both narrators have amazing voices. The female voice was my favorite because she was so soothing.

This a duet novel, so don’t get upset with the cliff hanger, it was stated and you have been warned.

This book is offered free if you have Kindle Unlimited.

I’m am pumped for the second book.

Content warning: sexual assault, recollections of child abuse, discussions of suicidal thoughts, and mention of miscarriage.

So we have a young adult romance book, telling the story of Oliver and Nina, teenagers studying in the same school.

In the beginning, we meet the characters and get to know their life - Nina has just been abandoned by her father, while Olliver has grown up in foster homes, and has been a victim of assault, who just escaped his hometown.

When she sees him, Nina momentarily finds Ollie interesting, and by the irony of fate, he saves her later. So that's where their story begins and continues to develop till the end of the book.

I have to say that I am a bit disappointed, mainly because I forgot that I was reading a clean romance (aka Young Adult), but also the readers made me cringe.

Now a little bit about the characters - Nina is from a Russian background, and her mom speaks in a cliche way with a strong accent. I really liked Nina at the beginning, but as the book advanced, she became less and less likable. She was fighting with her mom non-stop, she was making dumb mistakes, and honestly, I couldn't see any character development at the end.

Oliver/Olliver/Ollie - I really felt sad for the boy, but his personage was a bit unrealistic, and couldn't really connect with him. This whole deal and the business thing was weird, and he definitely didn't act like an assaulted person - no PTSD, no trauma (Usually people who are assaulted hate being touched, have ticks, don't connect with other people, have trust issues, etc).

The readers:

The girl, who was reading Nina's parts, was doing amazing - she had a nice voice, had a great way of expressing emotions, and really made different characters sound in an alter way - I liked her representation of Nina's mother, and even her male (deeper) voice was okay.

The boy... The boy just made me cringe. When he was reading Nina's parts, he sounded like a drag queen, which made it really hard to focus on her character, the same thing for her friend - as well as the same tone. Every girl and every old man sounded the same, while the girl reader made them all sound unique.

The book was fine, I really missed the passion or the hotness, and couldn't feel strong chemistry between the characters, but maybe that's on me.

The cliffhanger though was really great and unexpected.

I would recommend this book, but I have to warn you THIS IS YA, so respectively NO HOT SCENES

This is quite full on, full of trigger and difficult to address issues.
I do feel these issues have been dealt with well and in the right light.
Nina and Oliver are both complex characters, that were a pleasure to get to know better.
I enjoyed the audiobook, but was gutted it ended on such a cliffhanger. I will have to watch out for the next book in the series..


I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

There are lots of content warnings, but they are discussed in the blurb and within the book before the prologue. They are in the past but appear pretty vividly at times.

I looooved this book! It pulled my heart in all the ways. The characters all felt alive and their pain was so powerful. Everything was written in a respectful way and I never considered the struggles with mental illness to be ‘faked’ or ‘forced’ like some other YA books. I highly recommend! The audiobook version had a great narrator for the Russian accent and it really sold the mother/daughter relationship and the prejudice experienced by those characters.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review thanks to the publisher through NetGalley.

I listened to the audio of this book and it really sucked me in quickly. The story of two teens both trying to overcome loss and tragedy in their lives was so real and heartbreaking. The emotions, anxiety, angst and stress of these teens was so raw and relatable and the topics tackled were all incredibly heavy and weighed on me. I really found myself rooting for them. The ending was really abrupt so hoping that there is a sequel coming?

Thank you to NetGalley and SERA Press for an e-arc of Love and Other Sins in exchange for an honest review.

Love and Other Sins tells the story of Mina and Oliver, two teenagers with very different backgrounds. Newly emancipated Oliver moves across the country to start life on his own, but things are thrown into chaos when he meets Mina, a dancer who’s life is in danger thanks to her father.

The novel deals with very heavy and dark themes in a way which often feels forced, more in an effort to shock the reader or force them to feel emotions towards a character who is, largely, unredeeming. The plot can often feel convoluted with no clear beginning, middle and end and, at times, minor plots are included which seem to go nowhere, unravel or disappear completely, lost in multiple info dumps.

The characters show little growth or arc and, in fact, seem to regress. These are not typical teen character who’s motives and lack of maturity can be understood as, as previously states, they are teenagers. Instead this contemporary teen drama/romance is fantastical, the storyline warped so far from reality that the heavier topics and themes feel out of place.

Listening to the narration was, for the most part, not uncomfortable however the accents used for Irish and Russian characters were, at times, bordering on caricatures.

The audio part of this book is amazing. I love the readers, they do their parts wonderfully and that's truly why I kept going. If it weren't audio it would have been a DNR for me.

I wanted to like the book, started off fast and furious and I was hooked. Then it went off in crazy tangents and I was so confused. When authors have so many side things going along I get tuned out. This books is about many things-child abuse, rape, injustice in our system, immigration, Russian mob, ballet, elite schools, public schools, and the list keeps going. I loved the male lead, but the female lead I wanted to shake her. She irritated me. To be as smart as she was supposed to be, she made awful decisions and not just for love.

I truly think I would have really liked this book had I not gone down so many side paths with so many sub plots.

I gave it 3 stars because it is engaging and I liked Oliver's character and I wanted to see what happened to them

I really enjoyed this beginning of this book. I was intrigued about the two main characters. They are interesting and complex with rough backgrounds. I think the audiobook is really great I loved the narrators.

Thank you to netgalley, Emilia ARES and SERA press for providing this audio book.

I feel conflicted when it comes to the book because it was not horrible but it’s was also not great and where’s why:
I couldn’t connect with the characters and i sometimes felt that somethings were too forced, maybe one of the reasons is because this is YA and i maybe it was not for me anymore but some i really couldn’t like the characters and their personalities.
I was also expecting a great love story because of the synopsis and i feel like it was lacking something.

This story deals with a lot of traumatic experiences and it should have been handled differently because each character should deal with their trauma at their own time and therapy and not in order of the other one.

With the ending being a cliffhanger i don’t know if i am going to read the second book but maybe i’ll give it a chance and see what the author did.

However i did enjoy the audiobook and the narrators, i think they were really good and i enjoyed the story at some times.

3.5
Thank you to Netgalley and SERA Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
I can't deny the fact that I listened to about 70% percent of the audiobook in one sitting. I found both of the perspectives pretty interesting but preferred Oliver's. I actually wish more of his development was explored more in-depth.

Thank you to both NetGalley and SeraPress for a eARC of this book! Trigger warnings are listed at the end of this review.

Brief synopsis:
Mina has everything going for her, her advanced classes and great friendships and close friendship with her mother. Oliver has recently escaped his abuser within the foster system. Their meeting and instant connection change their lives forever, however the Mina's family and Oliver's troubled past leave them both with many more questions than answers. This book takes them through their meeting and interactions are they are in school together and leaves the reader unsure where their future will take them.

My thoughts:
I really wanted something light and easy with a bit of romance and this title hooked me immediately. However, I probably should have read a bit more about the description of this book before just judging it by the title. It was very far from light and easy. I really wanted their to be more character development. Oliver had a difficult past growing up with an abuser in the foster care system and I wanted their to be more about Oliver's thoughts and feelings as he navigates life away from his prior abuse. Mina came off very angsty and the relationship between herself and her mother would have been great to have been explored more as I felt like as the reader, I didn't really care whether they got along or not, because their previous relationship had not been developed well enough. Overall, I was disappointed in this book, not because it was not light and fun, but because I did not feel as though the characters and story line were developed enough to make a cohesive story.

Trigger Warnings:
Child abuse, rape, suicide, miscarriage, abortion