Review – Reckless (Thoughtless Series) by S.C Stephens

HAPPY EVER AFTER!

Title: RECKLESS (Volume 3 of the Thoughtless Series)
Author: S.C Stephens
Pages: 532
Genre: New Adult – Contemporary Romance
Reviewer: Nicole

Blurb:

When the band hits it big, Keira and Kellan must ask themselves: Can their love for each other withstand the constant pressures of superstardom? The friendships they’ve formed, the new family they’ve found, and the history they’ve forged will all play a part in helping them navigate the turbulent waters of the band’s exploding popularity. A greedy executive hell-bent on success, a declining pop star looking for an edge, and a media circus that twists lies into truths are just some of the obstacles the lovers will have to overcome if they are going to remain together. Fame comes with a price – but will it cost Keira and Kellan everything?
 

Review:

I know I have said it before and I will say it again, S.C Stephens has delivered! This time in the fantastic finale to her Thoughtless Series, Reckless, by finally portraying the challenges a relationship can withhold, and that if you have “trust” in a relationship, as  a team you are untouchable!

In this instalment, Keira is about to go on tour with Kellan and the D-Bags, but before their tour begins a high profile pop princess along with the D-Bags Label show a big interest in Kellan. The pop princess sees it as an opportunity to catapult her career and generate herself and the Label significant financial returns despite the cost or consequences, in particular to Kellan and his relationship with Keira. Kellan is forced into all sorts of unseemly situations he must squeeze out of, but this time he has Keira’s support and understanding and together, as a team, they work through the situations they are confronted with and fight to stay together.

Finally!!! Keira has evolved into a character that I can admire.  She has grown, matured and transformed all of her insecurities into strengths. She now understands what makes a relationship work; that it’s not only about your wants and needs but your partners as well. It was a real pleasure to witness her character’s growth in this book! One of life’s greatest challenges is to know your insecurities and be able to turn them around and not many people can be true enough within themselves to be able to do it successfully.  I guess if you have the support and love in a relationship like she had with Kellan, anything is possible! Keira was faced with a lot of ugly scenarios in this book, with what she had to witness between Kellan and the pop princess and not to mention that abusive fan!  She gracefully took it all in and handled it amazingly, the Keira from the first book (Thoughtless) would have run off crying into a big dark hole. I feel really proud of Keira and her accomplishments that she now holds a place in my heart.

I am so in love with Kellan’s character, not only with the way he deeply loves Keira and wants the whole world to know that she is his wife, but also with his humbleness towards his music and fans, the way he wants to stay true to his music and not all the other industry jargon that comes with it. I admire the way his character is loyal to his band and other supporting bands and for just wanting to be a better person.  Kellan’s is truly an amazing character, if only there really was a Kellan in the world, the world would be a better place!

 Reckless is a book in which all the characters, not only Keira and Kellan, but supporting characters such as Griffin and Anna who evolved and showed growth throughout this book.  Witnessing Griffin’s protective ways with his baby was particularly beautiful. It was a real pleasure to read and witness this happening before my eyes and I am so glad they all got their happy endings.

Reckless is a beautifully written story about the challenges and battles that are present in all of our relationships and it was wonderful to see that a strong relationship can really stand up and shine.  S.C Stephens could not be more right in saying: “Passion, friendship, love, loyalty, trust…..if you found the right person…..you really could have it all!”

 

Check out my reviews on Thoughtless, Book #1 and Effortless, Book #2 on the Thoughtless Series by S.C Stephens

Review – Effortless by S.C Stephens

LOVE IS EASY…TRUST IS HARD!

Title: EFFORTLESS (Volume 2 of the Thoughtless Series)
Author: S.C Stephens
Pages: 487
Genre: New Adult – Romance
Reviewer: Nicole

Blurb:
After being caught in the middle of a love triangle which led to a devastating betrayal, Keira pledged to learn from the mistakes she’d made. She was determined to never inflict that kind of pain on anyone, especially the soulful, talented man who held her heart. But life offers new challenges for every relationship, and when Keira’s love is put to the ultimate test, will it survive? Love is easy….trust is hard.

Review:
S.C Stephens has delivered on another fantastic instalment to her Thoughtless Series, Effortless, by portraying the real, raw emotions and situations that occur in a relationship that began and blossomed in the betrayal of another relationship.

This instalment begins with Keira and Kellan happy in their relationship.  Keira is still living with her sister Anna, starting her final year of college and working at Pete’s Bar.  Kellan and the D-Bags are still rocking at Pete’s Bar and have landed a spot at Seattle Music Festival, Bumbershoot! But at the festival, the D-Bags get noticed and are offered an opportunity of a life time – to go on six month tour with a group of reputable bands. Keira, not wanting to make the same mistake twice, encourages Kellan to follow his dream and his talent even though her insecurities start to resurface. At first, Keira finds her time apart from Kellan surprisingly easy given all the romantic gestures he has left behind for her, but the more time they spend apart the more challenging it becomes for Keira to fight her insecurities. Keira feels like Kellan is hiding something from her, so when Keira bumps into her ex Denny and discovers he is back in Seattle for good, they rekindle an innocent friendship that she decides to keep hidden from Kellan.  When Keira and Kellan’s hidden secrets come out in an explosive confrontation, they discover that love, lust and desire are the easy and fun part of the relationship.  The hard part is trust, honesty and communication and it is “trust” which is the key for their relationship to survive.

For the first three quarters of this book, I still didn’t like Keira. I found her insecurities frustrating and annoying to the point I would call her being pathetic and hypocritical! I found her selfish and self-absorbed in her relationship with Kellan and her jealous streak demonstrated a real childish side to her character. She needed to be honest in her relationship with Kellan and stop playing games. But what I found even more frustrating was that Keira identified these qualities and emotions within herself, said she had to work on changing these qualities, but then kept on doing it! She kept making the same mistakes and going around in the same circles….arrrh she was so frustrating! But hallelujah, finally in the last quarter of this book I started to change my perspective towards Keira, she started to grow up and mature and all her good qualities started to shine, to the point she started to grow on me in a positive manner. I just hope this new self-discovery and growth for Keira keeps travelling in a positive direction and does not do a U turn when she hits a bump in the road – that will be her real challenge and true test!

Kellan, is the most romantic, emotional and soulful person, I love his character. His love for Keira is so deep and pure that his romantic gestures towards her when he was on tour won my heart! I loved how the story’s twist stirred up pain from his past, which leads him toward self-discovery and growth, not to mention giving a healing quality to him as well.

Effortless is a book in which all the characters, even Griffin to my pleasant surprise, all evolved and showed growth throughout the book. It was a real pleasure to read and witness this happening before my eyes and I look forward to their further self-discovery and growth.

Effortless is a beautifully written story about the new challenges and battles we face in relationships, self-discovery and growth. The reader truly witnesses some beautiful moments that I really enjoyed. I loved the Bathroom scene between Keira and Kellan at the party, but my favourite scene would have to be Christmas day and meaning of that day to Kellan, it really touched my heart.

I look forward in reading the next and final instalment of this series Reckless to see where the journey of self-discovery and growth for these characters ends!

Check out my review on Thoughtless, Book #1 and Reckless, Book #3 of the Thoughtless Series by S.C Stephens