Lucy Braden is everything Park is not. She’s sweet, caring, and an all-around nice person. She tries to follow Lucy's Rules to Live By everyday.
When Park moves in with Jessie, which happens to be the floor below Lucy, Jessie's one stipulation: Lucy is off limits to Park. The problem with that is Lucy is determined to be a good friend to Park and see past the drinking and random girls to find the man beneath it all. The other problem: Park follows his own rules.
*This is a New Adult novel. Recommended for 17+ due to sexual situations, harsh language, and drug and alcohol use.
Before Now is a companion novel to Sometimes Never, and many of its characters are in Park’s story. However, it can be read as a stand-alone book.
4 Star Review
Park Reed was dumped. We first met him in Sometimes Never, as Hope’s quasi boyfriend. Once Hope met Mason, the die was cast. Park was devastated. Clearly he cared more for Hope than she felt for him. He found comfort in his favorite things; drinking and whoring. Along the way he managed to screw up, drive drunk and almost kill his best friend, Guy.
“I leave the party, and my girl, to take Jessie’s sh#t back
to him. That’s it. This simple fu*king act that I’ve done so many times before.
Only, when I come back, I’ve lost my girl. My best friend has betrayed me, and
the new kid has everything that’s mine.”
Months later, Park is living with a good friend, Jessie. In
the apartment above, lives Lucy and her best friend Bree. Jessie and Bree have
a friends with benefits relationship. Park feels an instant attraction for
Lucy, which means she is off limits to him. Besides his own reservations,
Jessie has made it plain as he can that if Park messes with Lucy; he has no
problem kicking him out. Park resists and retreats. Lucy likes Park, in spite
of his reputation of loving and leaving.
“Calm your ass down. I’m cool. I promise, I won’t touch the
hot hippie chick in 3B. All right?”
Eventually, hormones win out and they stop fighting what they
feel for each other. But of course they clumsily attempt to hide their
relationship. Park is a master at self-sabotage and we can expect no less from
him here. If he pushes Lucy away by reverting back to his old ways, then she
can’t hurt him right? Never mind the collateral damage to Lucy and just to add
to the pot, Hope is back in town for a visit. Of course Mason is with her, no small
amount of stress for Park right?
“I can’t make sense of all the questions swimming through my
head. Why is she here? Why won’t he move? Why does she have this effect on him?
Is he in love with her? I need to know what she looks like. This girl that
affects him in so many ways.”
Park screws up royally, and the fall out is life threatening
for him. Lucy can’t help but worry about
him, but forces herself to stay away.
Has Park learned his lesson that maybe taking a chance on Lucy won’t
backfire on him? McIntyre has written a well-rounded story with great secondary
characters. Chase and Annie are friends that bicker constantly (maybe trying too
hard to act like there isn’t something else going on), Bree and Jessie and good
friends with great lines softening the sometimes heart breaking story line.
Guy, Hope’s foster brother is still as cool and wise as ever, would love to see
this guy find his HEA. In Sometimes Never, I didn’t really care for Park, he
seemed liked a shallow ass hat who partied way too much and seemed incapable of
moving on from Hope. In Before Now, Park is such a tortured soul who has spent
his whole life trying to find someone in his life that he can count on to stick
around. My heart hurt for him and I loved the alternating POV’s between Park
and Lucy. I really enjoyed this book. Hopefully, there will be other sequels
about the secondary characters.
“I’ll get this right, Lucy. I’m going to make a lot of
mistakes. I always will, but I’m trying."
Barnes and Noble Blackbird
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wow this sounds like a great read would love to win a copy thanks :)
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