5 Smooches!
Synopsis
Autumn Mahal and Hank Basara know they should stay away from each other. Both recovering from the loss of a mutual friend, and each bearing scars of their own, they know their love would look like a worn cliché, a trite romance novel for teens, some crappy made-for-TV movie languishing on your great aunt’s DVR. But as summer gives way to September and flirtation leads to something deeper, they learn there are some types of love you cannot run from, no matter how hard you try to flee.
Hilarious, touching and hopeful, Autumn Rising is a novella about the happiness we ruin for ourselves, the truths we can’t hide with a filter, and that elusive and victorious moment when we let love rush in and carry us to the sky. In a world of constant TMI, prepare to feel a story worth sharing – a story that will stay with you long after the summer fades to autumn.
Review
Ohh, I love a good surprise and Seth King dropped this bad boy in my email and I was all OMG, what is this!? Autumn and Hank! (from The Summer Remains) They are getting their own book! YES! So as soon as I could, I put everything aside and picked up this novella that I was sure was going to ruin me. Because The Summer Remains, it hurt me so good, you know, in the way that us book nerds love. It had all of the feels. But this book, Autumn Rising, it had all the feels too, but it had so much hope and hilarity, and just amazing damn writing!
After all, it is not until the sunset that we even bother looking at the sky.
So this short novella beat out The Summer Remains for me by just a bit and here is why; Seth’s writing is even better this time around. It was flowery and emotion provoking and I simply love his writing style in third person. This book did not have a ton of dialogue and usually this is a big pet peeve of mine but somehow I was lost in Autumns mind which is a fantastically ridiculous place to be and I adored her. And that brings us to another big reason why I loved this book. Autumn. This girl is a hot mess of contradictions. She is snarky, sassy, and self sabotaging like nobody’s business. And Hank. Well Hank is just so sweet and he has a disability which I strangely love in my book boyfriends.
But she knew she would not sleep with him tonight, even though she really wanted to. She was a lady with morals, and also, Hank hadn’t given her any gifts yet.
Goodness, this book made me feel so much. But the main theme here was HOPE! Because these two damaged ostracized people who were not beautiful, beefy, or perfect found each other.
They didn’t care if they were rejects in the eyes of the rest of the world: to each other, they were perfect. And for now, that was enough for them.
While this book had many many sad subjects, I did not find myself feeling sorry or sad for Hank or Autumn. If anything, I felt hopeful, and giddy, and giggly. Seth did such a fabulous job of making this book uplifting and inspirational. Even in the end, I had nothing but good feelings about where these two were going and the things they were going to do. ALL. THE. FEELS. And the writing was just magnificent. Seth’s peek into a young woman’s mind is scarily accurate and hilarious! I sure hope I hear more from Hank and Autumn in Cooper’s book! Thanks for the surprise, Seth!
Because that’s what love does – gives you wings, makes you soar, makes you crash, makes you fly again.
~Amie
