ARC Review: Rival (Fall Away #2) by Penelope Douglas

Hatred, rivalry or love?

Title: Rival
Author: Penelope Douglas
Series: Fall Away
Publisher: Little Brown Books, UK  
My ratings: 4.5 out of 5 stars 
Released: 27th August, 2014
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hen I got a chance to read a new tittle by an unknown author it is a gamble which paid off . Rival sucked me right in from the first chapter and did not let me go. I read this within a day.

 So, the premise goes like this, Fallon and Madoc are step brother and sister. Their parents neglect them and they hate each other. They live in the same house, always throwing verbal barbs at each other and they cannot be more different. Fallon is the punk, rock chick with tattoos and piercings and skate boards while Madoc is a jock, rich and entitled. On the surface they seem to hate each but inside them may have been a little in love with each other and somehow start sleeping together. But one day Fallon disappears which Madoc takes as a betrayal. Now 2 years later, Fallon is back but she has her own agenda.

I loved the set up so so much. How two kids learnt to deal with their issues, slowly grew up together, during the day they hated each other but at night, that was a different story. Everyone thought it was sibling rivalry but in fact it was the attraction they were trying to fight. They were young, stupid but in love, even if they didn’t know it. When Fallon comes back, Madoc is such a jerk towards her but slowly as the story moves forwards, the dual perspective reveals more into how they become each other’s poison.

They had this electrical attraction for the other they could not deny and no matter how poisonous their relationship was, they still wanted each other. The angst was turn up to the maximum and I loved the thrill of the rollercoaster ride Penelope Douglas took me on.

It is true that lately I have become a little jaded with New Adult books and they have all started merge together in my mind but I can assure you Rival is nothing like them. There is sexual tension, hatred, bad parents, love, friendship, sexy times and of course all consuming passion.

 I am glad I read Rival before, Bully as I have noticed with serial romance novels, when side characters get their own books, they lose the essential bit of uniqueness that makes you like them in the first place. Yes, Take Me On, I am taking about you. However, I feel that Rival retains the quirky, cockiness Madoc exuberates. In fact he shines with it and so does Fallon with her own sense of the world.

If I am honest I will say that Rival gave me the rush Beautiful Disaster gave me the first time I read it. I couldn’t take my eyes off it as I wanted more and more and was getting drunk in the madness of this venomous love hate relationship. But in the end something beautiful blooms out of this mess.

 My favourite line has to be

  “I don’t try to kill your demons. I run with them.”  

This encompasses so much between these two people. The hurt, love, hatred, everything seeping out the cracks. Ok, Now I have started to fan girl a little but I suppose it understandable. If I have to pick apart the story then I would say that the story lost a little momentum towards the end.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book which was highly entertaining and managed to put hooks on me and made me lose my mind that I had to write my thoughts down, immediately and thanking the publisher for sending me this book.

Recommended from all fans of Beautiful Disaster and New Adult genre.

  Releases on the 27th of August, 2014 and is available ( via Paitkus) as an ebook now

  ARC received via Little Brown books, UK