Falling Away (Fall Away series #3) by Penelope Douglas

Synopsis: Jaxon is the guy she’s supposed to avoid. K.C. is the girl he won’t let get away….

 

1. C. Carter has always followed the rules—until this year, when a mistake leaves her the talk of her college campus and her carefully arranged life comes crashing to a halt. Now she’s stuck in her small hometown for the summer to complete her court-ordered community service, and to make matters worse, trouble is living right next door.

 

Jaxon Trent is the worst kind of temptation and exactly what K.C. was supposed to stay away from in high school. But he never forgot her. She was the one girl who wouldn’t give him the time of day and the only one to ever say no. Fate has brought K.C. back into his life—except what he thought was a great twist of luck turns out to be too close for comfort. As they grow closer, he discovers that convincing K.C. to get out from her mother’s shadow is hard, but revealing the darkest parts of his soul is nearly impossible.…

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4 Stars

I know I said that Madoc’s story was my favorite. Well, this one is a close second.  I saw aspects of KC’s (Juliet’s) upbringing in my past which helped me to really connect with her as a character.  Although Jaxon’s treatment of her in the beginning was questionable to me, you see as you read on that he was trying to help her be the best person she could be.  KC’s mind was molded.  Her free will was stretched and shaped into what her mother wanted her to be.  She didn’t have any idea what she wanted to be, she only knew what was expected of her.  And she acted accordingly.  She seemed a bit lost.  A mask was portrayed to the world that wasn’t who she really was.  Something Jax had in common with her. They both seemed normal but underneath they were both struggling to figure out who they wanted to be.  

Jaxon’s upbringing played a severe role in his treatment of others. He was cold and collected. Always in control, or tried to be.  He was cocky but he didn’t flaunt his power like Madoc or Jared.  

One thing that stood out for me that I had a hard time dealing with was when Jax would make sexual advances to KC and KC would say ‘no’ but Jaxon wouldn’t listen because she didn’t really want him to stop.  I know what the author was trying to do but all I heard in my head was “Consent! Consent! Consent!” I couldn’t get past it and I grimaced every time they had an sexual encounter.  

This book had some serious action going on in it at the end.  It was different than the other books-a tangible antagonist as opposed to an internal one.   

If you can look past the consent issue, which I was able to do, this book was really good and I would recommend reading it.