ARC Review: Falling Away (Fall Away #3) by Penelope Douglas

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
Release Date: January 6, 2015
Publisher: NAL Trade
432 Pages

From the New Adult sensation and New York Times bestselling author of Rival

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

K. 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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I tend to pick up a lot of New Adult novels either at the second or third in the series. Luckily for me, most NA series can be read as individual books and still be understood. Falling Away was no different. Jaxon and K.C. have a history, not in the way that they have dated, but they went to high school together and they definitely noticed each other. 

Now it's after high school and K.C. has gotten into a bit of trouble. Forced to leave college and serve out her sentence in her hometown, she ends up running into the one boy she thought she had left behind. K.C. tries her hardest to stay away from Jaxon, but Jaxon won't stand for that. Having K.C. this close again is something he won't let slip away.

There were parts of this book that I liked and there were parts that rubbed me the wrong way. Douglas doesn't really touch on anything new in the NA genre, just follows pretty much the same formula of other authors. It's a predictable journey but it's what the author brings to the table that makes or breaks the book. In this case, I kind of stand in the middle. 

I enjoyed K.C.'s spunk. She knew her life was in a rut and she was trying to figure out how to change that. She also knew that Jaxon was probably the worst person for her, yet she couldn't ignore him or their attraction. What I didn't like about K.C. was how she hid behind who everyone thought she was. She came from a pretty messed up family situation (really messed up) and I guess I just wanted her to fight more for independence. And also that it wasn't so much a guy who made her see her worth.

Then there was Jaxon. A troubled kid with a temper. Typical bad boy with a heart, one who rarely shows emotions. Jaxon is now a king of sorts in the town K.C. left behind. Everyone knows him and everyone loves him, but he's hiding the demons of his past and with K.C. around, they just keep threatening to slip out. I honestly still cannot tell you if I liked or disliked Jaxon. But one thing I will say is, I didn't like how he handled his anger or how possessive he was. That is just not attractive.

The part of this story that I liked was the fighting for freedom from the past. Both characters had horrible back story's and I liked reading about them breaking through those walls. Unfortunately, I felt those scenes were too far and in between. They seemed to get weighed down by the heavy drama and the sex. Same goes with the chemistry between K.C. and Jaxon. I didn't feel it. Their attraction seemed to be strictly based on sex and that was all that happened anytime they were within five feet of each other. They were either fighting or having sex.

While this book maybe didn't rub me the right way, I did like Douglas's style of writing and am interested in reading the others in this series. Jaxon just wasn't my swoonworthy guy.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.