Loss and grief are two of the key themes in this book, however, I thought they slowly became overshadowed by the romance. I liked Alana- she's an interesting protagonist, but she made some questionable decisions, that really made this a negative reading experience. Overall, I liked the story and the pacing, but the plot let it down. Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for an e-arc!

Severance was moving, heartwarming and emotional!

The writing was brilliant and the I adored the characters!
A tragic event separates the before and after. Britt has done such an amazing job at presenting it.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for an emotional read.

This was my first book by N. N. Britt. Although heartbreaking, it was a beautiful & raw story of love & loss.
The story of Alana, dealing with physical & emotional trauma from a night club shooting is very compelling. You get into her story & it makes you wonder how other people & yourself would cope in her situation.
This is a must read!

I had never heard of N. N. Britt before reading this book. I really enjoyed this one. I liked that it involved romance and some issues between the two characters. I love a book with some drama.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. This is isn't the first book I read where the h falls for the brother after such an accident, however, the before and after did not work for me in this book. It was too close comparing the relationship between the brothers with the h and it made me uncomfortable.

No review. We did try with Severance - whilst we loved the premise of the story, we couldn't quite connect. As we did not finish we will not be rating anywhere other than Netgalley or reviewing. Thank you for the opportunity to review.

Heartbreaking and moving at times, but soo predictable at other times. It touched on some tough topics though.
Can't think of anything else to say.


*arc provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Life changes in an instant. Sometimes it takes something unspeakable to change your perspective or to begin experiencing life on your own terms instead of living up to someone else’s expectations. People come and go in in our lives - sometimes for reasons we can’t explain.

Alana Novak is not someone I can completely connect with but she is a well written character. I understood her and felt terribly for what she has experienced. She’s a young woman on the verge of adulthood thrust into a terrifying, life-changing event.

Dakota and Mikah Bennett are both attractive in their own way. They both have lovable qualities and characteristics. I loved them both for different reasons and the impact they had on Alana’s life and she on their’s.

I struggled a little in the beginning. The pace of the story was a little slow and only in one voice. I know this is Alana’s story and I liked the Before and After to get a better understanding of her and the Bennett brothers but I really think it would have been an even more enjoyable read (for me at least) if I had gotten their sides too.

Unfortunately, somewhere in this nation, there is another senseless act just like this one. Sad to say sometimes multiple in a day. The moment I started reading my heart started racing and I wanted to put it down. At the same time, I could not stop reading.
Having a friend who was in the face of such a senseless crime. I can tell you the author did a great job of bringing us the reader along through a fraction of the sheer hell victims go through.
This book shows the seven stages of grief for sure though several of the characters who are at different starting points. Makes it difficult for them to relate to each other. Don’t worry though you will see the progression toward healing.
Because can you really ever recover from such a senseless act especially when it takes so many lives? Hell, can we take but one of our loved ones passing? I think not now amp that up in mass.
This author has Alana who is eighteen along with her grade school friend Jess who gets her to go to a concert where they meet some guys in a band. Jess starts dating Luke the drummer. Alana catches the eye of twenty-three-year-old Dakota Bennett, the lead and frontman for the band. Along with his older brother Mikah, twenty-five, and Blaze who are also in the band.
Three months into their relationship they are to play at a bigger venue so of course, the girls will be there. Even if all this time in order to get out Alana has had to lie to her overly religious parents that she was staying at Jess’s house. She will do it again in a heartbeat to go. So, her parents know nothing. She’s going to hell.
Dakota is the direct line to hell as far as her parents are concerned. The guys start their set. She is so proud of him Dakota has been voted number five on Portland’s Guitar Players Watch for list for 2019. When Alana hears him hit a wrong note. Then another. When she turns and she hears BANG! BANG! BANG! Her life changed in an instant.
You will not want to miss this story. You might feel that Alana appears stuck and whinny and not willing to move on. It’s not that. She can’t. Look at her support system at home, her friend is a survivor too coping as best they can, and her boyfriend is gone.
She is only eighteen and confused. All that’s left is the one man who won’t talk to her, yet she knows what she feels around him.
I give this: 5++++ stars. Provided by netgalley.com. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreview.com.

This new-to-me author gave me a gut-wrenchingly emotional story that tried real hard to drive out one of my coveted tears. It didn't, but it was a great effort.

At 18 years old, Alana still lives at home with her overprotective parents, striving for a bit of independence and grabbing every chance for escape she can get. One night takes her to a rock concert, meeting an up and coming rock star, and eventually falling in love. Unfortunately their love doesn't last forever and with him gone, her life is in shambles. Her parents want her to get over it, her friends are trying to help her push through it, and her grief wants her to just give up. When her dead boyfriend's brother offers an ear, she grasps onto it as tightly as she can, because he gives her hope, freedom, and honesty. Where will this new friendship take her when Mikah's grief proves to be so much deeper than she imagined?

The writing? Brilliant! As hard as this story was to read, it was beautifully written. Alana got on my nerves, which only tells me that the author did a great job of depicting a young girl on the brink of adulthood. She was irrational, irreverent, ungrateful, disrespectful, entitled, spoiled, and everything was about her. Sounds accurate. I was all about Mikah. This dark and mysterious boy was the one in the most pain and it was difficult to really understand it when viewed from Alana's juvenile perspective. She didn't comprehend that while she was grieving for a man she knew for three months, Mikah was grieving for a man he'd known his whole life. Different pain, girl. Not to say her pain was irrelevant, but she couldn't grasp that what he felt could possibly be more horrible than what she did. Regardless, this was an interesting story of young love and living in and then powering through grief. It was tender and sensitive and had its own bit of unique charm.

Would I read from this author again? Most definitely. I recommend this story to anyone looking to for an emotional read.

Wow, this was a crazy good book. Each character felt like real people and I could understand where they were coming from. Overall I enjoyed reading this.

Alana is a good, church going girl "cupcake queen" who starts dating Dakota who is the lead singer in a band. Everything is new and wonderful until one terrifying night that changes her life and the lives of those around her. Great read, the author did a great job making you feel and think throughout the whole book. Highly recommend reading!

I did really like it, but had some trouble getting past Alana's "young" feeling. I understood that she was pretty much sheltered and had overprotective parents. But some of her thoughts and actions just seemed like a young teenage girl.

Anyway, of course Mikah was favored by me. Hurting, broken, tortured and brooding......yep, that's my favorite kind of book boyfriend.

The story jumps from before and after (the shooting) and how it affects her and the brother of her boyfriend who was killed. Some very emotional moments and I kept thinking about how many people in real life are going through these struggles of losing someone in such a tragic way.

What is really crazy is the current events over the last week (California, Texas, Ohio) and how much this book relates to the world we live in today. The random shootings.....I swear no one is safe anymore......

Holy smokes, this book was intense - and I enjoyed every moment of it. The emotions that came pouring out of the book - love, hate, loss, sadness, anger, happiness, forgiveness - were so deep that I felt like I was thrust right into the middle of them.

When I first started reading this book, I had to put it down for a few minutes because the opening chapter was so intense that it almost felt like I was living it. Mikah, Dakota, and Alana’s story is this complicated tragedy that has a happy ending, which I honestly wasn’t expecting. I loved how the storyline bounced back and forth between the before and after, giving readers a glimpse into life on both sides of such a tragic situation. It kept me engaged, kept me wanting more, until the very end.

This is such a deep and unique book, one that will keep you hooked from beginning to end.

This ARC was courtesy of netgalley - all thoughts and opinions are mine and unbiased

I loved this book

This author is new to me but I will certainly be looking out for more

This is a heartbreaking book but very timely. Haunting descriptions, evocative and emotional language used
Just beautiful

Highly recommended - with a box of tissues next to you !!

This book was a really good read.

This book mentions a club shooting and the aftermath. Depression, PTSD are a part of this story.
Alana thought she had it all, the boyfriend, the best friend and the education until one night that changed it all.
It was not a depressing read, but you could tell the difference between the BEFORE and the AFTER chapters and how Alana felt. I think reading the BEFORE and AFTER chapters of the shooting was important to understand her struggle with moving on, rebelling against her family and drifting away from her BFF. Yes, her parents were very strict especially in the AFTER chapters, but they came around in the end.
It was a bit of a struggle to see her with the brothers, but some of the BEFORE chapters actually mention her slight attraction to the older brother (which she did not understand)

I would read this again and recommend it to other readers! This book was a bit darker and not all rainbows and cupcakes (oh wait! Yes there were cupcakes!) but this will stick with me for a while.

I received this ebook copy from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A great and sexy romance!
Alana has just started living the life she wants, instead of the one her father wants for her, when she loses the man she loves. She has a hard time getting over the loss, but when she starts falling for his brother she doesn't know if this love makes her feel better or worse.

The love-stories are very well done. I really felt the different relationship she has with the brothers, who are very different people, and both of them were written beautifully. Alana sometimes felt like a spoiled brat to me. She is afraid to go against her fathers will, but when she does, there are no repercussions what so ever. Luckily, Mikah calls her out for being a brat and through the story she changes a lot, which made me like her character more.

3.7 estrelas

Esse foi o primeiro livro que li dessa autora e no geral eu gostei muito. Eu gostei do pilot proporcionou toda angústia,drama e também recomeço que eu procuro em um livro.Acho só que a ida e volta entre passado e presente prejudicaram um pouco o livro na minha opino. Se o foco tivesse sido só no presente acredito que a relação entre os protagonistas poderia ter sido um pouco mais aprofundada .

This is the first book I have read from N. N. Britt. I really enjoyed it. The book would be classified as a dark read. The writing was good. The story line is about a rockstar and who doesn’t enjoy a Rockstar romance book?
It’s about an 18 year old girl named Alana who has very over protective, strict church going parents and she meets a guy in a up and coming rockband named Dakota. It all turns when during a show when a tragic event occurs. This is about how Alana the cupcake queen her friends and boyfriends brother cope Before and after the event and the relationships that were formed prior. The paragraphs are formed in before and after. Alana is very unstable through most of the book and turns to Dakota’s brother for comfort.
It about relationships and coping mechanisms for the community. It’s a disturbing insight into anxiety and the body’s coping mechanism.

It really is a very enjoyable read and I will be reading more from N.N.Britt.

A very sweet story about loss, grieving , survivor’s guilt and try to move on when you can’t. It’s a bittersweet tale, given the subject matter very emotional and at times difficult reading. The characters are very real, so relatable and it’s why your heart breaks so much reading, a well written and wonderful read.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion