Unstuck Pages
  • Home
  • About
  • Gushes and Rants
    • How I write reviews
    • Latest reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Review Requests
  • Features
    • Blog Tour
  • Contact Me
Top Posts
Shipped by Angie Hockman
Flight by Laura Griffin
Sweet Dandelion by Micalea Smeltzer
Hard Pursuit by Pamela Clare
Ever After Always by Chloe Liese
To Whatever End by Lindsey Frydman
Yes & I Love You by Roni Loren
Mission: Her Justice by Anna Hackett
Tamed by Alison Aimes
Thanks for Last Night by Lauren Blakely

Unstuck Pages

Gushes and rants about fictional worlds

  • Home
  • About
  • Gushes and Rants
    • How I write reviews
    • Latest reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Review Requests
  • Features
    • Blog Tour
  • Contact Me
Contemporary RomanceNew AdultReviewsYoung Adult

Agony by Kaylee Ryan

written by Dísir 24th June 2020
Agony by Kaylee RyanAgony by Kaylee Ryan
Published by Amazon Digital Services, Amazon Publishing on 18th June 2020
Pages: 221
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
three-half-stars

Reese

Cooper Reeves was the boy-next-door. Every milestone, every memory of my youth was entangled with his.

We were inseparable... until college.It wasn’t his friends, girls or even sports that came between us— it was me.

Tired of being in the friend zone, I finally made a move. Turns out it was the wrong one.

Cooper walked away to play his first year of professional football and left me behind with a broken heart.

Cooper

It’s always been her. Even before I really knew what love was, Reese Latham was by my side, making me swear we’d be best friends forever.

And we were... until one night changed everything. I knew how she felt because I felt it too, but I pushed her away to save our friendship.

The longer we’re apart, the more I realize she’s not only my best friend, Reese is the love of my life.

I was kidding myself thinking I could let her go because now I know that living without her is the worst kind of agony.

‘Agony’ by Kaylee Ryan is an angst-fest from start to end; having gone into this without realising that this is a duet made it worse because it ends on an unhappy cliffhanger, despite you know that this has an HEA down the end of the line when the second book finally releases.

The childhood-best-friends-to-lovers trope is a long, drawn-out one here and isn’t entirely fulfilled in this book, as poor timing and drastically-changing circumstances finally shift the game…and that is where the book ends.

‘Agony’ was surprisingly easy to read however, maybe because of Cooper Reeves’s repetitive emphasis on best friends only and nothing more despite the growing feelings and attraction that he denied up until the very end. In contrast, Reese seemed more enlightened even as she dealt with a broken heart and a willingness to move on after finding out that friendship seemed like the only end game for Cooper.

What I didn’t entirely get was the necessity of having this push-pull stretched over a full-length novel with early scenes of their college years that felt superfluous, some of which could have easily replaced by a faster-paced second half that could have dealt with conflict resolution. In fact, Cooper/Reese’s interactions felt more of the same as the pages wore on and their individual stances on their best-friends relationship which had obviously long crossed the line started to ring hollow given the multiple affirmations of their holding pattern.

As eager as I am for their resolution however, having this end unsatisfactorily (while knowing there is a happy ending to come) dimmed my enjoyment quite a bit – blame me perhaps, for needing it all wrapped-up nicely from start to end.

three-half-stars
Agony by Kaylee Ryan was last modified: June 20th, 2020 by Dísir
  • Related Posts
Insatiable by Cari Quinn
Armored Attraction by Janie Crouch
Into the Firestorm by Kat Martin
Ignite by Karen Erickson
Wrecked by Cynthia Eden
Contemporary Romancecookie-cutter-clichesHair Pulling FrustratingMade my chest acheNew AdultSkimmed throughSports
0 comment
0
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Dísir

previous post
Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan
next post
Loud Mouth by Avery Flynn

You may also like

Friends to Forever by Nikki Logan

10th July 2014

Knocked Out By love by Abby Niles

21st July 2016

Diamond Legacy by Monica McCabe

11th August 2015

Shifter Planet: The Return by D.B Reynolds

2nd October 2019

Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey

4th January 2019

Medley by Layla Reyne

27th February 2018

Not Okay Cupid by Heidi R. Kling

9th December 2015

Genesis by J.M. Madden

6th July 2018

Dirty by Callie Hart

5th March 2019

Second Chance Summer by Jill Shalvis

8th January 2016

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

@2016 - PenciDesign. All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by PenciDesign


Back To Top