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My Review:Title: Lennon Reborn
Author: Scarlett Cole
Series: Preload #4
Published by: Swerve
Release Date: May 1, 2018
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 384
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »
Source: NetGalley
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 Finishing the Series Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge
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My rating:
Blurb:Lennon McCartney is not a broken man. Because being broken implies being whole once. When a horrific accident deprives him of the one thing he loves―his talent as a fierce and explosive drummer―Lennon is left with a life chained by an abusive mother, by crushing guilt over a tragic past. A life he doesn’t want.
Dr. Georgia Starr is a legend. She’s one of the most successful neurosurgeons in the world, coming from a long-line of respected New York doctors. Her life is built around solving complex medical cases in order to bring relief and hope to sick children. But the one problem she can’t solve is how to live her life. How to be shake loose the burden of being her elitist, arrogant father’s daughter. How to be free.
Can a man who despises his life and a woman who desperately needs to live find the answers, and love, with each other?
4.5 stars — Well, that was another emotionally loaded book! It was a fantastic end to what has been an emotionally charged series full of characters that make me feel so much.
Lennon was both not at all what I was expecting, and yet made total sense at the same time. I think that was a hard thing to balance, b/c he’s a serious dick in the previous books, and so I, as a reader, really needed to understand what was behind all of that. I get the impression that this author does a lot of research, so I feel more comfortable in trusting the existence of the things that affect her characters. It was heartbreaking to finally hear about Lennon’s past, and how that shaped him both emotionally and from a psychological perspective. My heart hurt for him from the very first scene of the book, and just kept getting put through the ringer with all the new challenges he was facing. But he also made me feel so hopeful. I truly believed in his transformation…in how Georgia managed to finally connect with him on his level, and convince him of his worthiness. I appreciated the steps he eventually made to get help.
I found the disability fascinating as well. As someone able bodied, I can’t speak to the nature of how Ms. Cole dealt with that, but it didn’t feel ableist. It felt like it was treated with respect. But I’d look to others for more educated opinions on that.
I kind of loved that Georgia’s life was so remarkably different from Lennon’s, but she suffered from her own form of neglect and lack of love. My heart hurt for her as well, though I sometimes had a harder time remembering that it was most of what she knew, and not getting cranky with her when she held on to some things. I loved that she was so smart, but also extremely compassionate.
In the end it was really the relationship that they developed that was the stand out. And most of that was because Georgia brought out honesty in Lennon by being honest with him and not playing games. I loved how upfront she was, how she didn’t hold things back, how she took the time to truly *see* him, and she wasn’t afraid to show him that she saw him. And through all of that, she encouraged Lennon to finally feel comfortable enough to open himself up and be honest himself. That connection was something truly spectacular, and I loved the chemistry that they had. It was emotional, but also extremely playful.
I think my only complaint is that the book sometimes felt shorter…or maybe parts of the relationship between Lennon and Georgia felt fast. But maybe that was just me. I just remember being at 77% and thinking that I had expected for more to have happened. But it kind of settled in with those last 20%, so maybe it worked? Maybe I’m just greedy?
As always, it was nice to see the family we’ve fallen in love with as it’s grown. There was somewhat less of that in this one, just by the nature of the story, but what was there was great.
So yeah. Emotional, heartbreaking, uplifting, playful, sexy. I really enjoyed my time with the boys of Preload. I think Jordan’s still my favourite though. 😛
I would have taken more of Georgia and Lennon, too.