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The Lost Year Secrets of Neverwood Book 3 edition by Libby Drew Romance eBooks

Download As PDF : The Lost Year Secrets of Neverwood Book 3 edition by Libby Drew Romance eBooks

The Lost Year Secrets of Neverwood Book 3 edition by Libby Drew Romance eBooks

The Lost Year integrates a gritty, street-smart realism with the tender romanticism of a benign maternal ghost. It treats the challenges faced by runaways who end up on the street experience when trying to find their way back to trust and community. Those are themes that appeal to me, for they help me to explore the essential human need for intimacy.


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The Lost Year Secrets of Neverwood Book 3 edition by Libby Drew Romance eBooks Reviews

Secrets of Neverwood is a three book trilogy with each book following one of three foster brothers Calvin, Danny, and Devon. The brothers, who vaguely remember and feel no brotherly love towards each other, come back to their old home when their foster mother Audrey dies, leaving her run-down family home, once a grand Victorian estate, to the three. The men run afoul of a deceptive developer who will do anything to get his hands on Neverwood and must learn to work together, trusting and opening up to each as brothers, to keep the house and carry on Audrey’s legacy of taking in gay or questioning youth who have nowhere else to go. Under the overarching storyline of keeping and bringing Neverwood back to its former glory, each book deals with the men discovering Audrey is still with them in spirit, coming to terms with personal demons, and finding love.

Devon McCade has been able to turn his inability, and unwillingness, to emotionally connect to others into a career as a photojournalist, where he can be safe from emotional attachment, protected as he is by the other side of the photo lens – or so he tells himself. When desperate father Nicholas Hardy sees his runaway son, Robbie, who’s been missing for a year, in one of Devon’s photos, he begs for help in locating him. Devon agrees and the two set out to find the missing boy. Along the way attraction leads to attachment and Devon fears his carefully crafted emotional shield won’t be able to protect him from Nicholas’s certain departure from his life once his help is no longer needed.

I found it quite interesting Devon kept thinking he was so detached and “emotionally handicapped”, when it was obvious how big a heart he truly had. He was not immune from the subjects of his assignments any more than he was immune to the anguish in a father’s eyes. Like his foster mother always knew, he has the heart of an adventuresome knight – wanting to seek out the truth and help others. And I worried for that unknowingly soft heart of his. When Nicholas and Devon first get together it feels more like comfort than any real attachment on Nicholas’s part. Nicholas’s first priority is his son, as it should be, but that means his focus is more on that relationship and not really on the budding romantic one he has with Devon.

This book is told completely through Devon’s perspective and I really felt for him the whole time, becoming emotionally invested in his journey to getting the guy. Audrey, the dearly departed foster mother, was also invested, helping in her own ghostly way – although how much of a nightmare would it be to have your mother, no matter how well-meaning or right she may be, meddling in your love life at any given moment, with no expectation of privacy? The addition of Audrey the helpful ghost mom was interesting and I liked the little paranormal touches to the story.

The Lost Year is the third book in the Secrets of Neverwood series. As with most books in a romance series, the book stands on its own, with couples from other books making appearances – in this instance it’s Devon’s two foster brothers, Calvin and Danny, who found love with their respective partners before him. I love romance series for this reason – so much love going around and being able to revisit characters from previous books and seeing them happily settled into domestic bliss.

I greatly enjoyed this book and the characters within, and it was this book that made me decide to read the whole Secrets of Neverwood series, and I'm so glad I did!

*I received an ARC of this book to review. You can find this review and others like it at BookAndCoffeeAddict.com, along with recommendations for a fantastic cup of coffee.
Libby Drew wrote this as the finished product with the two other authors each exploring one foster brother of three. The first two authors dd a marvelous job(Copland and Lindsey) of creating a firm ,solid story without overdoing the love interests. Romance was there but not the main draw.
It had more to do with establishing broken ties, creating a home and adjusting to a novel life situation. Admittedly, Drew did an excellent job in the
the letter to Devon by Audrey. I especially liked the idea that we are all only looking for a "simple, peaceful existence". Unfortunately, the author
gets carried away with now creating an actual ghost story instead of the subtlety of the effects of mourning a loss by the previous authors.
Also, Devon's instant attraction to Nicholas by being turned on completely was a bit hard to believe. It's like just the sight of Nicholas can set the guy
off. Where the other two authors did the love scenes with taste not overwhelming the reader, Drew goes on pages describing erotic detail. Yes, this
is where I start skipping pages.

This story wasn't all bad and did have redeeming qualities. The interactions between the other characters still had a familiarity. Perhaps, I just
didn't like where the author took the story concentrating too much on the erotic and creating a living breathing ghost. Well, I guess to each his or
her own.
When I requested a review copy of The Lost Year on Netgalley I had no idea that it was the third book about Neverwood. However, the reason I ignored my usual book series OCD was that Calvin and Danny's stories are written by separate authors and each book stands alone. Whilst Libby Drew does a fantastic job at filling in the Neverwood history for her reader, I also felt that I was missing the meaning behind certain interactions between the brothers and I now plan to read the three books together.
I honestly felt there was a slim chance that the three men would all be homosexual, yet this did not ruin my enjoyment of the novel in any way. If anything it added to my interest about the characters and their backgrounds.
In The Lost Year Libby Drew is able to balance the separate family dramas with the supernatural occurrences and the mystery of the house. I liked how the three plot threads came together, meaning that eventually the characters share deeper connections than before.
This book is Devon's story, who is the self-confessed emotionally detached brother. He returns to Neverwood during its renovation, after a particularly hard assignment and his exhaustion is obvious. There is remaining tension between him, Calvin and Danny which is made worse when he agrees to help a stranger find his son. It is during this task and his emerging friendship with Nicholas that we watch a softer side of Devon surface and he begins to adjust to his new role as one of the Neverwood caretakers.
Although Libby Drew makes no attempt to disguise Devon's initial attraction for Nicholas, their romance grows out of a need for comfort. Theirs is not an easy romance and the difficulties they face are namely Robbie, Calvin and Danny, yet this is a couple we long to see have their happy ending.
The fact that Audrey's ghost has such an important part in this story did not unsettle me, in fact I think her presence adds to the change we see in Devon's character. Not only does Audrey continue to protect her home and her sons, but she continues to have influence over Devon's decisions and I think this is one of the reasons we see a turnaround in his self-esteem.
The Lost Year is a great story in which each character plays an important role and it is a book I would recommend to fans of M/M romances.
I received this as a complimentary​ copy, in exchange for an honest review.
The Lost Year integrates a gritty, street-smart realism with the tender romanticism of a benign maternal ghost. It treats the challenges faced by runaways who end up on the street experience when trying to find their way back to trust and community. Those are themes that appeal to me, for they help me to explore the essential human need for intimacy.