To Be Your Last ARC Review

Hey guys,

How was your weekend? I basically spent all of mine reading because I got some great books from Netgalley (This being one of them) and I just couldn’t put them down! I know I don’t typically post reviews on a Monday but, I might have gotten a little click-happy on Netgalley the other day and now I’m kind of drowning in books so I’m upping it to two reviews a week for the rest of this month probably.
That was kind of a way to segue into my wee speech that I put at the top of all ARC reviews – I was very very kindly gifted this in exchange for an honest review. This will not sway my opinion on the book whatsoever, as always my thoughts are all my own.
Now that that’s out of the way let’s hop into my review.

** P.S – This is definitely an 18+ read. It contains Sex, Drugs and Alcohol. **
**Personally I loved that but just so you know **

Title: To Be Your Last (To Be Yours #3)
*It can be read as a standalone – which I did
Author: Rae Kennedy
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: RAKE Publishing
Publication Date: 26th June 2020
Pages: 261 pages
When I Read It: 7th June 2020
Goodreads Rating: 4.67 Stars

Goodreads Description:
When I decide to run away with a sexy stranger and follow his band on tour all summer, I’m running away from more than home. I’m running away from the lies I’ve been telling my family, away from expectations, away from being perfect Gracie Gallagher.
Perfect Gracie would never. But this summer I’m going to be Fun Gracie. Exciting Gracie. Gracie who takes chances and gets a little reckless.
But now I’m telling a new kind of lie: Pretending to date a broody, tattooed Rockstar. Except my feelings aren’t fake and as I start to find myself, I risk losing more than just my inhibitions and my virginity. I’m risking my heart.

My Goodreads Review: *aka my initial thoughts, straight after (and during) reading

June 6, 2020 – 17.0% “I am loving it!! It gets straight into the action. So far all the characters seem great. And it’s already had me laughing. Do I sense a new favourite on the way?”
June 7, 2020 – 100% “I loved this!! It gave me such Fall from Grace vibes except without the angels and the demons. (Even the character had the same name 😂) The banter between the group was adorable and I loved the plot! What more could you ask for: Sexy brooding Rockgod, fake relationships, a bit of a love triangle, witty and sassy main female. It was super! Definitely an 18+ read – drugs, alcohol, sex. But it all just added to the greatness of this in my opinion. If I could of asked for anything it would have been more of Logan’s games cause they were always my favourite bits! Great read. 4.5 stars – really recommend!”

My Favourite Quotes:

He’s cute. He waves out to the guests and flashes a big white smile. He’s really cute actually.
*I loved this quotes because you could already tell this wasn’t an insta-love. Even the main character didn’t see how cute he was until further inspection.
“Don’t take what Colin said personally. He’s just in a bad mood from having to navigate around the giant stick up his ass.”
I glance down at my hand and it’s much higher than I thought and the tip of my fingers touching not leg. Not Leg. Not. Leg.
*this is two quotes which were about a page apart – but they kind of go together.
He made sure to get a room with two queens and obviously, I’m cool with it. I’m cool with all of it. Obviously.
Okay. Maybe I’m not cool. I’m not cool at all.

*There were more quotes I loved but they either spoiled things, required too much context or just are more funny when you read it yourself. That was a serious theme of this book – I laughed A LOT!

Characters: I really liked every character in this book. I cannot think of one poorly written character. They all have such distinct and interesting personalities which was great. I adored Gracie. She was a perfect balance between sassy and willing to stand up for herself, but also she had her insecurities and her imperfections which just made her such a believable and relatable character.
My favourite character however…goes to Logan. He is so sweet and perfect and adorable and funny and such a daredevil and I love how great he was to read. He made you smile from ear to ear. He was like condensed sunshine!
Now Colin…he just took my breath away. It may be a cliche but what the hell – what girl doesn’t love a tattooed rockgod with an amazing voice? Even if you say you don’t then your lying. He was sexy, broody, protective, mysterious and just glorious to read. He had me melting with just a look! He’s up there with my all time fave book boys. Shane (From Fall From Grace) has some competition…or well since they are exactly the same tattooed Rockgod type does it really count haha.
Characters = 9/10

Humour: This was by far the standout quality of this book for me. I found myself laughing endlessly! It was witty and sarcastic which is exactly my sense of humour and also I think it fit the characters so well. I cannot convey how integral this was to my love for this book. I don’t tend to like drawing comparisons between books but the humour was another element that was really similar to Fall From Grace by Christine Zolendz which is my all-time favourite book series…so you can get a sense of how much I loved this.
Humour = 10/10

Atmosphere: I loved the atmosphere of the book. I worried at first it might get a little repetitive between bus life, and then the shows each night but it didn’t. It always felt fresh and new each time. And I think the close quarters of the bus really helped the story flow and the characters have a good banter etc.
Atmosphere = 8/10

Writing Style: I loved the writing. It was a really interesting mix between the short sarcastic conversations between everyone, and then some really elaborate and stunning verses of songs, poetry and description. It’s hard to make a flow between the two and it really worked here.
Writing Style = 8/10

Plot: The plot gripped me from the beginning. If you read a lot of my reviews then you’ll probably have gathered by now that I’m an impatient reader. I don’t like long winded openings where not much happens – this book was completely opposite to that. It jumped straight into the action of the plot. A risk that can come with this is that you feel overwhelmed by an info-dump or that you don’t get the characters motives because you don’t know them yet but again this book really avoided both of those. It was great. The arc of the plot throughout was pretty well paced throughout the book. There was constantly something happening and there were no filler chapters (another pet hate of mine.) My one gripe with this plot is there was a section in Chapter 15 which made me feel a little awkward, and not the second hand embarrassment awkward that you get for a character – no this made me feel physically awkward and I had to stop reading for a moment because I was uncomfortable. I’m all for sex in books – it’s not something that bothers me and if it adds to a story then I’m 100% all for it. But this scene…it just felt intrusive. However, the other sex scenes in the book were amazing and I thought they were brilliantly and very tastefully written!
Plot = 8/10

Intrigue: I’ve got to confess, intrigue wasn’t really an issue for me with this book. Normally I am very aware of it in the sense of either wanting the story to progress more to I can get the answers I want or to progress more to get to a more intriguing part. However, in this I didn’t even consider it. I felt swept up in the magic and majesty of Wicked Road just like Gracie was. Which, I think it a good thing, if I’m so enamoured with a read that I stop waiting for things to happen and just enjoy it then it’s got be great!
Intrigue = 10/10

Logic: It seemed like a very logical book. I never questioned the motives of a character so that has be good. I can’t really evaluate the accuracy of the road trip timings etc because I have no sense of the USA whatsoever but I presume it makes sense. Part of the plot is that she just wants to be someone else for a summer, which is probably the most relatable and logical part of the book to me. Who wouldn’t want to run away with a rock band for a summer and reinvent themselves, do all the crazy things they couldn’t do in their usual lives.
Logic = 9/10

Enjoyment: If you couldn’t tell already, I thoroughly enjoyed this. It is definitely comparable in many ways to Fall from Grace which grabbed me instantly. And this really could have been up there too if it wasn’t for that chapter 15 scene. It really made me feel awkward and I can’t give it full marks when it caused me such discomfort sadly, but it’s definitely in my top 5 of the year.
Enjoyment = 9/10

Relationships: Right at the start of the book there is a definite love triangle, which I’m all for! It’s one of my favourite tropes of all time so it just roped me in so much more. Obviously, I don’t want to spoil anything so I’m not going to use names but once the couple took hold I was very very happy. Let’s just say she picked the guy I would have picked ahaha, and my heart definitely had a few melty moments when they had cute scenes. So it’s a great mix of sexy stuff and cute stuff. I would ship them more if I didn’t want him for myself.
Relationships = 8/10

Overall Score = 79/90 or 8.7/10
Star Rating:

I really loved this book. It just brightened my day and put a smile on my face – what more can you ask of a book? As always, if you’ve read this or you like the sound of it tell me below what you thought of it. Have a great day, see you tomorrow!