Grace and her boyfriend, Ander, are on the run. Every five days, Finn hunts them down, kills them, and then they all wake up in a parallel universe to do it over again. When will it end? Can Grace and Ander ever get to Finn before he catches them or find a way out of the loop?

Never Apart was a pretty good book. It started with a fascinating premise - Grace, Ander, and Finn running through parallel worlds trying to survive and figure out why. The story is told in the present with frequent flashbacks telling how the characters came to the point in which they started the cycle. The ending took a twist I was not expecting, but I loved it. I can't tell you much about the story for fear of revealing it, though! 

The story asks the question: "How many times would you die for love?" It is a compelling question, but is not exactly what the story is about. The romance takes center stage, yes, but the conclusion of the romance does not answer the question. The conclusion shows characters who decide to make the best choices to grow themselves and move forward in life rather than to do what is expected. The message was a good one, definitely coming-of-age. But it didn't go the direction I thought it would because of the question. 

My biggest critique was that I wished the author had taken more time to develop some of the less important characters. There was so much focus on the main two that most of the others seemed a bit two-dimensional. 

I enjoyed Never Apart and look forward to reading others from Romily Bernard. I recommend it to fans of YA romance. 

I received a complementary copy of this book from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Romily Bernard's Never Apart was one of my most anticipated releases of the fall. Not only does it have a GORGEOUS cover but also an attention grabbing tagline. So to say I was just excited when I received an ARC of it would be a serious understatement - I was jumping up and down ecstatic.

The Result? Romantic, mysterious, and emotional, Never Apart poses the question - how far would you go to save your first love...

Never Apart features two timelines - then and now. Then divulges into the start of the summer, back when Grace, Ander, Jem, and Finn were best friends, spending their days doing everything and nothing at all. Now focus on the Groundhog Day-like disaster Grace's life has began, one that involves Grace spending her days attempting to save Ander and herself from Finn's deadly hands. 

Books involving two timelines can either be a hit or miss, in my opinion, but in the case of Never Apart it was a hit. I thought Romily did a great job of building suspense as well as development through the alternating timelines. Both offered up interesting looks into Grace's life, and without the "then" portion, I don't think this book would've been nearly as strong, as it offered up the perfect amount of backstory to get a full picture look into what was happening in the "now." 

Grace is a character you can't help but love but the start. Her character is for every teenage who has felt that their small town is suffocating as well as silencing and that there's more out there to life then knowing the same people from the day you're born to the day you die. 

Over the course of the book, Grace struggles with her dislike off her small-town. She hates how silent and timid it makes her; however, at the same time, she can't imagine leaving the ones she loves - Jem, Ander, her parents, and even Finn - behind. Worst yet, her family and friends are just as divided as she herself is one the issue. As the book progresses, Grace comes to head with the decision to stay or leave, and her journey is one that I felt was not only pitch perfect but also realistic, even considering the Groundhog feels to the plot. 

More importantly, I enjoyed that Romily Bernard showed that first love can be messy and troubled. From the moment Ander was introduced I couldn't stand him. He had so many issues of his own; however, he only ever focussed on calling Grace out on her short comings. It was hard for me to see what Grace saw in him; however, I appreciated the progress she made regarding the situation as the book progressed. Finn, on the other hand, was the real standout guy - he was intelligent and sweet. I loved how he always tried to get Grace to come out of her shell. No matter how negatively he was portrayed in the "now" portions, I forever held out hope he was the good guy at the end. 

The only aspect of this book that didn't "wow" me was the pacing. It wasn't always even, and sometimes (especially in the middle) it was hard to trudge through. 

Regardless, Never Apart is perfect for fans of romantic suspense, and with the dark, mysterious undertones it contains, I must say it's perfect reading material for chilly October evenings. 

Grade: B

*This review will be posted to Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf on October 18, 2017. It has also been added to Amazon and Barnes and Noble.*

Grace felt like she was going to die.  Again as she and Ander run to get away from Finn but he always seems to catch them. Ander promises he will find Grace if they Fall again. as he always does. It’s always the three of them, they always find each. In every lifetime Ander had died and Grace watched. This time Grace  tells Ander “you promised”. Grace repeats it louder as that will bring Finn closer and Ander will have to keep his word. Every other time Ander had fought  Finn and lost.  This time Grace will  fight and Ander will watch and maybe the pattern will break. Grace doesn’t fight very well   but is good at being a lure for Finn. He’s given her lots  of practice. Grace waits and waits and Fin studies her and studies her. Then Finn says Grace and she charges him. Hitting him low, ramming her shoulder into his chest as his nails dig into her arm. Finn plows her into the mud and grace jams the knife deep, deeper but then Grace slips and as Finn and Grace grapple in the mud Ander yanks Grace to her feet and tells her to run but Grace says she can’t. Grace and Ander had done this over forty times with always the same ending. Grace understands how it works, how it ends, how much she loved the boy that she was about to watch die. Once upon a time they were all friends but now…. Ander tells Grace to run but she can’t. She can’t do it anymore, she can’t watch it anymore. Finn was barely past seventeen as was Grace. She says to Finn “ why does this keep happening, why did Finn keep doing thi. They had been friends”. Finn said : “we have to pay for what we did”. It takes Finn five days to find them every time. Grace came to in someone’s house that has a party going on. There are other rules Ander and Grace knw: 1- get your stuff, 2- get oriented, 3- get going because they only have five days before Finn finds them again. A s far as Ander and Grace can tell every time they Fall they surface with different lives it’s like they end up in parallel universes, timelines that belong to other versions of themselves. Grace doesn’t know why her name is always the same, she doesn’t know why Finn always hurts her. This time though things are different. Ander didn’t find Grace, this time Grace’s family is together again including her twin who had been missing in all her other jumps. How can she solve this puzzle alone.  Ander and her twin brother are best friends. This time Ander didn’t remember finding Grace and before he always had. From the time Grace was six she felt connected to Ander. The three had issues- Ander’s was drinking, Grace was extremely shy and had social anxiety. And Finn just wanted to be accepted for who he is. 
I liked this book a lot. I wish I could rate this a 4.5. I loved the twists and turns. I didn’t want to put this down once I started reading this book, it had my interest all the way from the beginning until the end.  This had a good plot and pace. This book draws you in right from the beginning. This was also well written. I don’t usually like going back and forth in a book but it just wasn’t that bad  although I liked being in the past less as for me it dragged some. This is a fantasy thriller and a very good one. I felt this was a sad romance though. I loved the characters and the  twists and turns and I recommend. Once again I wish  I could rate it a 4.5.

Beautifully written with compelling characters and a great premise. This was executed perfectly. Such a great read. 4/5

Never Apart is a highly entertaining romantic thriller that keeps you guessing from page to page. It starts out with a bang, with Grace and her boyfriend Ander being chased and subsequently murdered within the first chapter. This fast paced story doesn't die there though, instead it keeps you on your toes with it's absolutely insane twists and turns. It's been quite a while since a thriller has really kept me in the dark on what's *really* going on as well as Never Apart did. I can honestly say I could have never guessed the things that Romily Bernard throws at the reader. My mind was totally blown when everything started coming together.

I almost don't want to say too much about the story, because I think it's one of those books that is best read if you don't know that much about what's about to happen, so I'll just leave you by saying that Never Apart is a great YA thriller to pick up if you're looking for something to put you on edge this fall. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Wow! My heart started racing as soon as I began reading this book! The book begins with our main character Grace running for her life along with her boyfriend. I was terrified for them and I wasn't sure what was about to happen. They seem so certain that they are about to die at the hand of someone chasing them in the dead of night. 

I thought that it was an interesting that the author chose to have Grace as the only point of view and to have the book go from "now" and "then" during the book. We get to see what Grace's life was like before she began reliving the five days. It helps to give hints and clues as to what is happening to her. Looking back over the course of the book, I can see what the author was doing. I understand a lot of the hints and was able to pick up on more of them when I went back and reread different parts.

I loved Grace! I found her to be so relatable. She was so strong even though she struggled with being comfortable in her own skin.  I could tell that she was trying really hard to be the person that others wanted her to be by trying to be social but that wasn't her. She had so much depth as did other characters but she really spoke to me. It is not often that I read about a character that has social anxiety. Her voice was unique and she was one aspect of the book that I loved.

I was disappointed with the ending of the book. I thought that it was an obvious answer to why Grace kept reliving the five days over and over. I was able to guess it about halfway through the book although I was partially joking when I guessed. I would have liked to have seen something more unique rather than what I felt was a bit of a cop out.

Within the first couple pages of this book Grace and Ander found themselves hunted and killed by Finn only to "fall" and wake up as another version of themselves. This has happened 41 times and it is the same thing with minor differences each time. They wake up as a different version of themselves and five days later they are always hunted and killed by Finn. This time things are different though. Grace has an almost perfect version of her family including her twin brother who has been absent from all her other falls and Ander doesn't know or find her like in all the other versions.

I have to say that in reading the synopsis and even my brief description above that this book sounded like one that I would stay far, far away from. Normally that would be the case but in an attempt to shake things up, I thought I would give it an honest try. Am I ever glad I did! This book really surprised me.

This book is more than appropriate for readers of all ages including the younger YA audience. It is relatively clean with only a little kissing from time to time. It also has the key ingredients that would appeal to that audience as well. Teenagers and young love and first crushes were ample with the added suspense and mystery of the "falls" and the parallel lives. There was definitely enough to hold the interest of the pickiest of readers.

I found myself clawing through the pages and finishing it rather quickly in an effort to find out how it would all play out. The story was told from Grace's point of view after the latest fall and from before the falls began. I wanted desperately to know how Grace and Ander could go from being friends with Finn to being hunted by him. As someone who is outside the YA audience I was surprised by how much I devoured this book. It was a refreshing change of pace. Admittedly, I had it figured out before the final twists and turns in the book but I am glad that I did. I think I might have been disappointed if I had been wrong about the outcome.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think I will leave it at that. I'm afraid it would spoil it if I said too much more. Sometimes it really pays off to pick a book up that it generally outside of your comfort zone.

After having died over 40 times Grace and Ander hope, once again, for a different outcome in their new life. I liked this beautifully written story and until the end I hoped so much for them to be able to be together. When the ending was revealed, I was not just a little shocked. I couldn't believe it, but still loved it. I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing!

Grace, Ander, and Finn are in a vicious cycle of living and dying together. Grace and Ander are together and something tragic happened at the hands of Finn. Grace isn't quite sure what is going on, but she finds herself waking up in what seems to be a parallel universe after several days of getting chased by Finn. When Grace wakes up this time, her new universe seems to be the most similar to her own, especially because her twin Jem exists in this universe. However, Ander doesn't remember anything and Grace doesn't know how she is going to be able to save him this time. Grace may have more control over the events than she thinks and she just might have what it takes to find a way out of this cycle and save Ander.

I enjoyed this novel. It was an interesting concept and I thought the ending was intriguing. I wish the guys were better developed, I wasn't as invested in either guy as I would have liked to be. All in all though, Bernard knows how to keep her readers on their toes.

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
I was really excited when I first saw Never Apart because I loved Find Me and I had no idea that Romily was releasing a new novel. I’m not a huge fan of mystery, but I knew I had to read this one, and I’m so glad I did. 

I wasn’t expecting for it to be set in a parallel universe sort of thing, so that was really interesting for me because I haven’t read very many books set in an alternate dimension. And the fact that it revolved around reincarnation was super cool to me because I haven't read many of those either.
I really liked the descriptions in each of Grace’s Falls and how she adapts to each one. Aside from the setting, I enjoyed the character's and how each of their backstory is slowly revealed. My favorite thing was probably how Grace was a bit of an unreliable character. I also ended up liking Finn, and I really liked how the characters were crafted because there was a lot more to them than it seemed at first. 

The thing I loved the most about the plot was how I wasn’t able to expect what would happen next (I can’t even count how many times I mentally screamed “What is happening?!” while I was reading). Although, I did guess the ending way back in the beginning but I didn’t think about very much because I thought it was wrong, so I was actually really surprised when my prediction turned out to be right. 

One thing that I wasn’t a huge fan of was the switch between past and present. I think it really helped piece together everything in the end, but it was a bit jarring to switch between when reading. 

Overall, Never Apart was such a great book. It had me on edge throughout the novel, and I could not stop myself from reading. Even though it’s a fairly long book, it was a super fast read and I just flew through it. I highly recommend it to fans of mystery and sci-fi!

Good read. I liked the way you didn't really know what was going on till near the end. Very interesting way of telling what happened. 

I didn't like the tragic parts but t hings like that do happen. Especially these days. Kids needs to know how bad things could be, so they don't act stupid.

"You can be with someone for a year and feel nothing, but you can be with someone for a week and feel everything. Time is not an accurate measurement for love"


Author Romily Bernard's Never Apart is a young adult, dark contemporary, science fiction story with romance. It's a story about a girl named Grace Freeman who knows that every 5 days she is going to die. She knows this, because it has happened over 40 times already. She knows that she will once again wake up in the same inescapable nightmare without any hopes of finding a way out. She knows that Ander Hall and Finn Larkin will also join her in the next reality as well because it has always been the three of them from the beginning. 

She knows that no matter what her life is like, or where Ander is, she will always find him, and Finn will always find them, and the death dance will repeat itself over and over again in a never ending loop. But, the 42nd time is much, much different. Grace wakes to a reality where Ander doesn't remember who Grace is, & her brother Jem is back in the story for the first time since the beginning. This is the first time there has been any sort of variation to the continuing nightmare. But, the strangest part may be that Grace is perhaps the closest to who she was before she fell the first time.

Never Apart is a story that alternatives between now, and then. It is a discovery of what truly happened that has caused three people to be caught up in a never ending loop that has seen once good friends, become mortal enemies. But, in this new reality, Grace finds that something has definitely changed, and it might finally be time to uncover what really happened that send her and the boys into a never ending loop where tragedy always strikes after 5 days.

Grace is an intriguing character. She is smart, she has plans, and she genuinely cares what her family thinks without just running off in a tangent and doing anything she wants. The sad part of this story was Grace and Jem, and that's all I can say without delving into the story itself. If you want to get down to brass tacks, I really didn't much care for Ander. He had major issues, including jumping to conclusions without actually understanding the situation. Which, surprisingly, leaves Finn who is much, much, more than the synopsis gives him credit for. 

Never Apart has been compared to Groundhog Day with the idea of waking up over and over and over again unable to stop the merry-go-round from spinning. The story is both heartbreaking and twisted because you really have to allow yourself some patience for the author to lay out the puzzle pieces so that you aren't left totally confused by what happened to Grace and the others. I have avoided the spoilers so that you can read this book yourself and understand the author's intentions and where the book ends up going. I did like the present story much better than I did the before because there was a whole lot of stuff in the past that didn't actually help understand the stories dynamics.

never apart is like a cross between before i fall and infinity. grace keeps reliving the same five days in alternate realities. each reset comes with its own set of rules but the end is always the same—she and her boyfriend, ander, die at the hands of their friend finn.

told in alternating chapters, between a time before the falls (then) and the current fall (now) we slowly unravel the deeper mystery of why grace and ander are stuck in this endless loop. it would be unfair to reveal more of the plot since how grace figures out what is going on is well worth the journey.

bernard does an amazing job of sharing the urgency, the frustration, and the utter hopelessness grace feels at having to relive the same-ish scenarios over and over and always getting the same ending. in the end, this is an excellent high-concept young adult thriller.

Never Apart was an absolutely captivating novel that entranced, delighted, and entertained. This thriller was easily one of the best that I've read lately. The characters jumped off the page. The mystery was beautifully written and the ending was absolutely brilliant. 

Grace has lived the same five days forty times. Caught in a loop, she's forced to watch Finn kill Ander, her boyfriend, over and over again. Each time the loop resets, the three of them are in a different alternate version of their lives. But this latest "fall" feels different. Jem, Grace's twin brother, is in this timeline and Ander has no memories of their previous lives. Grace finally decides to try something different to break the pattern. 

I'm not going to reveal much more about the plot because this is truly one you need to read for yourself. This book does an excellent job of combining a heart-pounding thriller with an adorable romance and coming of age tale. It's told in alternating stories - one is in Grace's present as she tries to stop the falls and the other is in her past, slowly revealing the events that led to the first fall. This book will keep you frantically flipping the pages, desperate to find out what happens next as the mystery is slowly unraveled. 

The characters were absolutely brilliant. They were flawed and extremely realistic. The character development was excellent, I loved how themes like ambition, family, and love were explored. Even as one character slowly started to spiral out of control, it was done in a realistic and believable way. The author also did a fantastic job of portraying how Grace's emotional and mental state was affected by the constant loop of days. 

I would recommend Never Apart to fans of mysteries and thrillers. The pacing was spot-on and the plot was utterly engrossing, The constant plot twists will keep you guessing until the very last page.

ARC provided by Entangled Publishing via NetGalley for honest review.

This story was good. I loved the suspense, the romance, the alternate realities.

I really liked the idea of infinite alternate universes with infinite versions of ourselves and in this story Grace keeps reliving over and over again the same five days but in different versions of her life. Every single time, no matter what she tries and does, her boyfriend gets killed in front of her.

I loved the beginning, it really kept me on my toes and I got immediately sucked in the story. The book is told by Grace’s point of view, and the chapters alternate between her current reality and the beginning of her story when everything started. Although I usually find this past/present chapters kind of annoying, I was really intrigued by the story and wanted to know how everything began.

Since the story is based on the suspense and not really knowing what is going to happen next, I don’t want to ruin the story by revealing too much.

Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Teen for the opportunity to read and review Never Apart by Romily Bernard.  This story is different from what I expected but I still enjoyed the concept, the characters, and the twist. It began as a science fiction story dealing with parallel universes and it turned into so much more! I don’t want to ruin the plot for any potential readers, so I will just say that the story alternates between then and now, the characters of Grace, Ander and Finn kept my interest and their actions kept me guessing. 4 stars for a unique book!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book for voluntary consideration.

A book that mingles a coming of age story with sci-fi conventions. After reading the blurb I really wanted to read it, because I love time loops and the like! Unfortunately this book doesn't have much to do with time loops, but it really does some very interesting things and I love the characters.

Grace is stuck in what seems to be a sort of loop. She and her boyfriend Ander constantly relive the same five days, running from a former friend named Finn who at the end of the five days will kill them. At the end of each loop (which she calls Falls), the world resets but there are differences, hinting that Grace and Ander are falling into different universes, not back through time. One way or another, Grace wants to save Ander for once! And she wants out.

Running parallel to this storyline, we see what happened before all this time loop business started, in the original timeline. Where Grace and Finn are friends, Ander is her boyfriend but not so absolutely her life partner as he is now, and Jem, Grace's twin brother, overshadows her in her day to day life. And where Grace still wants out--but out of the town and her current life, not out of some nightmarish sci-fi scenario.

I really loved the different characters and Grace's relationships with them! Finn, for example. In the loop timeline he's sort of a menace and very mysterious. In the backstory timeline he's still mysterious but also interested in Grace, and he provides an outsider's POV on the community. His POV contrasted with Ander's and Jem's helps to explain why Grace so badly wants to see the world outside her town, achieve escape velocity from small town life.

Jem is such a perfectly overbearing twin. I have siblings as well (though not twins) and it can be exactly like this sometimes: you know they mean well but what they think you need isn't what you actually need to be happy. And they pressure you to be like them more than anyone else.

And then there's Ander. I think his relationship with Grace is the most interesting part of the book. It calls back to the title: since childhood as friends, he and Grace have been "Never Apart". Grace's parents love him. Jem loves him. The whole town ships it. And Grace feels a level of inevitability in their relationship which is even more poignant in the past timeline than in the loop. She feels like one way or another they will always fall back together. And it's beautiful and familiar and comfortable. And it's also claustrophobic and frightening, and makes her feel trapped.

These three relationships combine to create the sense that Grace is fighting fate to get out of both this sci-fi nightmare and her own past life, trapped in the middle of nowhere with the same old people, doing the same old things.

I would recommend to anyone who jives with the feeling of small town entrapment. Or either big town entrapment! Basically if you want to read a story about a teenager who loves her home and family but still wants out, this is a very good book for that. I felt like it really resonated with me in that sense.

Thanks to Entangled Teen and Netgalley for a copy of the eARC in exchange for a fair review.

Grace and Ander are always running from Finn, they have fallen so many times that Grace can barely remember them all. Finn always kills them and they fall into another life. So when Grace wakes up in a life with her twin back Jem she is kind of freaked but excited. 

However, when Ander doesn't recognize her for the first time she knows that something is different in this life, especially when her current boyfriend is Finn. The one who hunts her in all these different lifetimes.


This Finn is different too, and he keeps telling her that things aren't the way she remembers them and that she needs to remember what actually happened in their original life. After five days pass and she wakes in a different lifeline, Grace knows that she has to remember the truth even if she doesn't want to face it.

 I will say the twist caught me by surprise, despite having figured some things out before getting there. I can't say all I want to about the book because it will give away the ending and the twist so for once I have to work really hard to not say the things I really want to about this book. I loved it though, it was exciting and a quick read. I literally flipped through pages to find out what was going on.

"We Fall again and again, and every time it’s a little different, but it’s never right."

Wow. From the first chapter this book draws you in. Filled with thriller elements and alternate realities, Never Apart keeps you guess till the last page. Grace, Ander, and Finn, every 5 days, fall to different parallel worlds, over and over again, 41 times to be exact. But this Fall is different and Grace must discover why before she loses her reality. They are stuck in purgatory-like situation and only one can figure out how to stop it. 

This book is beautifully written, switching from then and now point of views, then before the first Fall, and now after the Falls. Each chapter slowly gets closer and closer to the reason why the Fall happens. And there revelations you will never see coming. 

The faults of each character are too real to ignore. Ander with his drinking, Grace with her shyness, and Finn with wanting to be accepted for who he is. I could relate to each character. There is a love triangle but it has a different take. The romance doesn't drive this book, the need to find answers and to stop the Fall does.

This book is dark with a tragic (in my opinion) romance. I really loved the parallel worlds aspect. This is one of those books that will leave you thinking after a couple of days finishing the book.

I can go on and on about this book but I might accidentally reveal some spoilerly like elements. You have to discover the revelations and certain clues on your own, but you won't regret picking up this book. Never Apart reminds me a lot like Before I Fall (the book) and Coraline (the movie).