UNTIL YOU
Series: Fall Away #1.5
Genre: New Adult Romance
Author: Penelope Douglas![]()
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Penelope Douglas comes a companion novel to Bully.
This is Jared’s story.
Have you ever been so angry that hitting things felt good? Or numb to all emotions? The past few years have been like that for me. Traveling between fury and indifference with no stops in between. Some people hate me for it, while others are scared of me. But none of them can hurt me, because I don’t care about anything or anyone.
Except Tatum.
I love her so much that I hate her. I hate that I can’t let her go. We used to be friends, but I found out that I couldn’t trust her—or anyone else. So I hurt her. I pushed her away. But I still need her. She centers me. Engaging her, challenging her, pushing her—it’s the one last part of me that feels anything anymore.
But then she went and screwed everything up. She left for a year and came back a different girl. Now, when I push, she pushes back…and I’m not sure either one of us will ever be the same.
Becoming hard at heart isn’t an intersection in your brain where you have a choice to turn left or right. It’s coming to a dead end, and you just keep going, over the cliff, unable to stop the inevitable, because the truth is you just don’t want to.
There is freedom in the fall.
If I’m being perfectly honest, I was actually hesitant to read this. Last time I read a companion novel, the only thing it managed to do was make me hate the heroine with the fire of the worst kind of venereal disease. Not that I’d know what that felt like, but you catch my drift. What I mean to say, is more often then not you’re getting the same regurgitated novel you already read but in a different POV. Well this wasn’t that at all. Not even a little bit. Not even close. While this is essentially in Jared’s POV it’s a completely different book. So much so, that you can read it as a standalone, which I wouldn’t recommend since you need to see it from Tate’s POV first in Bully. You may be asking yourself, why wasn’t this just written as an alternating POV initially? Well you, my doubtful friend, clearly haven’t read the first book, because then you’d understand that no way would it have had the same effect if you got both their POVs in one book. Nope. This story was meant to be told in two books, it two different experiences, by two very different people.
I wanted her to hurt. I didn’t want her to hurt.
I hated her. I loved her.
I wanted to violate her body in a hundred different ways. I wanted to keep her safe.
I fell in love with Penelope Douglas’s storytelling in Bully, and the only thing this book managed to do was completely reaffirm that. Everything and I mean everything that I wanted more clarification and answers on in Bully was addressed here. While I adored that book, I found the reasons that Jared gave Tate for his behavior in it a little…weak. I felt like it had to be something more, something bigger for him to flip that switch and be the way he was with her. Until You delivered those answers in spades. Penelope truly allows the reader inside Jared’s head and you understand him and all his behavior so much more. Plus I loved getting more of him and Madoc and their banter together.
Anyone who sees the way you looks at her knows you don’t want to hook up with her. No, right now you’re looking at her like you want to tie her up and give her a big, fat spanking.”
Stupid ass.
I wasn’t into shit like that, or…I didn’t think I was. Never tried it. Might try it, I guess. You should try everything at least once.
Except crystal meth.
What I loved the most about Until You was that it was a totally different experience from Bully. You get to see everything from an entirely different perspective. You also get to see that year that Tate was away in France and the spiral that hit Jared. And get to experience all the events that finally lead up to his epiphany about his feelings for her.
Right at that moment, I wanted everything from Tate. Everything. Her anger and passion, her hate and lust, her body and soul.
I wanted control of all of it
I adored Tate in Bully and I was so happy that didn’t change seeing her from Jared’s eyes. If anything, it made me like her even more. But what this book managed to do, was endear the reader to Jared completely. The bully that you loved to hate and hated to love in the first book really lets loose his vulnerable side and you appreciate his behavior and the why’s of it so much more. It just clicks.
The hair, the outfit, it was the perfect blend of good girl and bad girl, of salvation and danger.
There was no point in lying to myself. As much as I hated her, I wanted a taste of her.
If you’re on the fence about reading this, you need to get the fuck off it! Seriously. The only thing this book will do is make you love Bully even more and fall in love with both these characters even deeper than before.
And this is coming from a reader that has a shorter attention span than a fly. If I get a HEA in one book I’m not typically one to read a second book for them. I call it my book ADD. But this incredible book made me change my view on that completely. I’m so glad I experienced it because it only made me love their story that much more. I’m now a huge fan of this author and can safely say that absolutely anything she’ll write, I’ll read…without a second thought.
Read it. Love it. Trust me.
THE SERIES
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Becoming hard at heart isn’t an intersection in your brain where you have a choice to turn left or right. It’s coming to a dead end, and you just keep going, over the cliff, unable to stop the inevitable, because the truth is you just don’t want to.







God. This book. I mean, THIS BOOK. Words fail me to describe just how much I loved this. I’ve had this in my kindle for what feels like ages since I got it as a freebie way back in 2013. I’ve seen it making the rounds on Goodreads and for some reason I still hadn’t read it. If I can kick my own ass for not reading this sooner, I would, because this book? This book reminded me about all the reasons why I fell in love with New Adult romance to begin with. And I’m not talking about the manufactured angst, stupid decisions, at at times gratuitous sex scenes. No. I’m talking that all-encompassing feeling, just the right amount of gut-wrenching angst, you hate but love the hero, and you want to high five the heroine kind of read. It was like it was custom written just for me.

I can’t remember the last time a book kept me up all night, completely incapable of setting it down for even a second because I needed to know what happened next. I was sucked in from just the first chapter and read this in one sitting. This is exactly the kind of angst that I’m starving for. Imperfectly perfect, rage inducing and yet flawless. That probably doesn’t even make sense, but if you’re an angst whore like me, you’ll know what I mean. My absolute favorite trope is the enemies-to-lovers, hate/lust thing and Bully delivers that in spades. While there were parts I wanted more from, I still can’t rate it down for that simply because this book absolutely enthralled me. So much so, that I couldn’t even bat an eyelash at any minor quibbles it may have had.





Last year I read a book and fell hard for a fictional couple. I swooned, I sighed, and I fell irrevocably in love with Jessica Topper’s incredible writing. 









Gritty, captivating, unpredictable and completely and utterly unputdownable. Ricochet will suck you into the dark vortex of depravity and vengeance.




















He absolutely makes me nervous. He’s John fucking Logan, one of the most popular guys at this college. And I’m Grace fucking Ivers, one of thousand of girls who are crushing on him.






































I’m going to fix this. I have to fix this… I hate every moment that I’m away from her, but I will do whatever it takes to find the man she once loved and bring him back to her.”


















































