Review: Pull by Rachel Van Dyken

Title: Pull
Series: A Seaside Novel #2
Author: Rachel Van Dyken
Publisher: Rachel Van Dyken

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A boxed set of the entire published series so far (#1-#3.5) is currently on a serious sale, go get it!
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Jaded rock star, Demetri Daniels, is in Hell — also known as Seaside, Oregon. Sent to rehab after nearly getting himself killed last year, his record company wants nothing more than for him to lay low, away from the limelight.

Irritated and more alone than he’s ever been in his life, Demetri tries desperately to rebuild his shattered reputation as a drug addict and player, which proves to be difficult when he meets Alyssa.

Alyssa is everything he should stay away from. She’s beautiful, smart, but above all else, she’s damaged. And one thing Demetri has learned is two broken hearts don’t equal a whole.
In the end, he has to decide if he can rise above the life he’s created in learning from his past mistakes, or fall into the darkness of his choices.

I read Tear, the first book, pretty much exactly a year ago and I really, really liked it. I just didn't go for the sequel right away like I usually do and I have no idea why. I saw Pull around a lot but there was always something keeping me from picking it up, huge mistake and a big regret. It's a beautiful story of two people loving, losing, falling, coping before they find each other and start healing. And of course there's a bunch of sarcastic comments and an abundance of male confidence.

Demetri and Alyssa are two amazingly well-written characters that are incredibly flawed without being annoying or ridiculous, which is quite the feat. I've read so many books with characters written for no other reason than to be pitied and that's just sad. You don't pity either Alyssa or Demetri, you just cheer for them.

Both Alyssa and Demetri copes with the death of a loved one in really bad ways, Demetri with drugs and alcohol and Alyssa by shutting down and shutting people out. I think that Rachel has a very good and rational approach to the topic of grief and coping with grief and all that it entails with numbing yourself or lashing out and she manages to make sense of two people who don't make much sense to begin with. Apart, Alyssa and Demetri are a whole lot of messy but they're both funny and quirky and they're so amazingly cute together!

We get to see both Alec and Nat again and I still love Nat as much as I did after reading the first book! She's got that easy going person that takes the edge off a hard time and she's still awesome at raising hell for the boys.

I love that this is a "clean" NA novel. There are a lot of really hot and sometimes just adorable kissing scenes but there is more to this book than just sex, which unfortunately isn't always the case with NA. Sometimes they're just YA erotica. Or erotica with a bit more to the story. Rachel's book aren't like that and I truly love her for that, she's setting the standard for what I want all NA books to be! At least most of them, I don't mind some hot scenes every once in a while but it should be the exception, not the rule.

“My heart wasn't ready to be pieced together again. He did it anyway.
My soul wasn't prepared for heartbreak. He broke it anyway.
My life wasn't ready to be given to a soul male. He stole it anyway.”

“Welcome to the land of the living sweetheart. Everyone's messed up. It's what makes us human.”

“What if you take the one part of me that's finally started to breathe without crying?”

About the author:
Rachel Van Dyken is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author of regency and contemporary romances. When she’s not writing you can find her drinking coffee at Starbucks and plotting her next book while watching The Bachelor.

She keeps her home in Idaho with her Husband and their snoring Boxer, Sir Winston Churchill. She loves to hear from readers!

To reach Rachel, contact her here through Goodreads or by any method below!

Website: www.rachelvandykenauthor.com
Facebook: Rachel Van Dyken
Twitter: @RachVD