Spoiler Free Review

ARC kindly provided by Give Me Books and Boom Factory Publishing, LLC in exchange of an honest review.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5 stars.

Author: Leslie Pike.

Release Date: January 29, 2021.

Genre: Contemporary Romance.

Trigger Warnings: N/A.

“Don’t mistake that for indecision. I love you without hesitation, darling man.”

A Swift Family crossover.

Tennessee Veterinarian Dominique Grant has a problem. The man who just walked into her life doesn’t fit her well-planned vision. How many red flags can be waving at once?
He’s geographically undesirable.
He’s never known parenthood.
He’s got a Harley and the swagger that goes with it.

But not all storms come to destroy. Some come to clear a path.

California contractor Maxen Ripley is about to discover what lies outside the comfort zone. A beautiful, smart woman has upended the familiar and now he sees a new world where he must choose a life, not settle for one.

For Dominique and Maxen there is no room for romances that require so much effort… Until Now.

Until Now is part of the Aurora Rose Reynolds’ Happily Ever Alpha World. If you loved Until July, then you will want to read Until Now.

Free on Kindle Unlimited

Author Bio: Leslie Pike

USA TODAY bestselling author, Leslie Pike, has loved expressing herself through the written word since she was a child. The first romance “book” she wrote was at ten years old. The scene, a California Beach. The hero, a blonde surfer. The ending, happily forever after.

Leslie’s passion for film and screenwriting eventually led her to Texas for eight years, writing for a prime time CBS series. She’s traveled the world as part of film crews, from Africa to Israel, New York to San Francisco. Now she finds her favorite creative adventures taking place in her home, in Southern California, writing Contemporary Romance.

ABOUT BOOM FACTORY PUBLISHING

Aurora Rose Reynolds and her husband, Sedaka Reynolds, created Boom Factory Publishing to use their experiences to expand and promote upcoming and existing indie authors. With over five years in the industry, and millions of books sold worldwide, we know what it takes to become a successful author and we will use this knowledge to take our authors to the next level.

“As a successful hybrid author in this ever evolving industry, I know that you’re only as successful as the team that is promoting you!” – Aurora Rose Reynolds

I will try my best, but I don’t think I can properly explain how cute, endearing, and absolutely BEAUTIFUL this book was. I am so happy that I read this, and I liked it much more than I expected. And that dog on the cover???? OH MY GOD!!!! This just bring forth all the feels.

So, for fans of the Until Series, this book will be perfect, especially if you like the vibes of Aurora Rose Reynolds’ more recent books. With this I mean that even though the blurb compares it to Until July, it is much more similar to Until December. In my opinion, the only reason why they compare it to the former is because there are many cameos from July and Wes, which were a treat, but that doesn’t mean that both books follow a similar dynamic.

Sometimes peer pressure is a positive thing.

I’ll start off with what I didn’t like, just to get it out of the way. I thought that most of the writing was a little weird. This is very much a sweet book, centered in family and healthy relationships. However, because it is part of the Happily Ever Alpha World, I think the author might’ve felt pressured to make the romance similar to those of the original series, but I didn’t like the way she did it. Now, don’t get me wrong, this only me assuming that that was her intention, and it wasn’t badly written AT ALL. It just wasn’t my cup of tea. I felt like many metaphors were forced, and other sentences were phrased in a strange way, but that’s really it. It is definitely not something that discourage me from reading it or that affected my overall experience.

The plot was very homely and grounded. Dominique and Maxen’s story relationship grows significantly throughout the books, they constantly manage it as adults, in a world in which they’re plagued by responsibilities. I did like both these characters very much, particularly while they were getting to know each other. However, towards the middle point of the book, it became little dull because they had reached a certain comfort in their situation, but then when the final issue started to unravel, things picked up again. All in all, they were very cute and definitely worthy of being part of these group of characters that we love and cherish so much. Definitely worthy of the BOOM.

This will forever be known as The Afternoon of a Hundred Fights.

BUT, what was probably my favorite part of this book BY FAR were the kids. I was touched by both Hunter and Bing. I thought that their situation was unique, and their personalities were gorgeously developed. I am still very young, so it’s still very fresh in my mind everything that I felt when I was their age. I can honestly and whole-heartedly say that they behaved like real teenagers. And then we got chapters from their POVs!!! (don’t worry, not really a spoiler, I needed to mention it because I was very excited when it happened). I’m very impressed by Leslie Pike’s job in this, she did wonderful.

Overall, this is, without a doubt, a short and cute romance novel about family and friendship. If you’re looking for a light read that will make you happy and fuzzy inside, this is the book for you. Even though it’s part of the Happily Ever Alpha World, this author’s voice shines through, which gives it a unique vibe that is very hard to achieve most of the time.