Having spent the previous year pretty much focused on hockey and dating as many different women as possible, Bridger Macaulley’s life drastically changes when he realises that his dead-beat mother isn’t just doing drugs anymore, but that she’s now part of a gang that actually cooks meths at home. He takes his seven-year-old little sister Lucy out of there and hides her in his dorm room, while spending every available moment while she’s at school taking a double course load so he can graduate faster […]
Yet another enjoyable Bowen romance
Part of the reason I liked The Year We Fell Down so much is that it felt so realistic and relatable. The Year We Hid Away definitely stretched the boundaries of realistic, but at least the characters were still believable in how they dealt with their individual situations and fell for each other. I really liked both of the characters and that always goes a long way to making a romance lovable. Scarlet, previously Shannon, is escaping the nightmare of her family situation via her […]
There Should Have Been Too Much Sadness In This Book, But It Worked Very Well
When I finished reading The Year We Hid Away I commented on Goodreads that the struggles these characters face should make this one unreadable, but Bowen has a knack for writing believable characters in unbelievable circumstances. I was completely absorbed in the world of Bridger and Scarlet Normally the topics at hand in The Year We Hid Away would be found in darker, grittier fiction – not the Romance Novel department. Bridger, who we met in The Year We Fell Down, is in his junior […]
Even More New Adults in Romantical Situations
So many “new adult” romances, so little time. I recommend The Ivy Years series by Sarina Bowen and will be looking into her back catalogue. Taking place at a New England college, Harkness, the stories are not light and yet avoid melodrama. These are young people coming into their own and figuring out who they want to be. Each story features at least one character who is an athlete, mostly they are involved in hockey, but there are also soccer and basketball team members, and […]


