Point of Retreat ~ Colleen Hopkins review

Point of Retreat (Slammed #2)
Atria Books
February 26, 2012
(September 18, 2012 - paperback)
302 pages
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Hardships and heartache brought them together…now it will tear them apart.

Layken and Will have proved their love can get them through anything; until someone from Will’s past re-emerges, leaving Layken questioning the very foundation on which their relationship was built. Will is forced to face the ultimate challenge…how to prove his love for a girl who refuses to stop ‘carving pumpkins.

Colleen Hoover's Slammed [my review of HERE], the first book in this series, grabbed me right from the beginning; from the summary, actually. At first I was just curious why an author would, possibly, name their main character Layken. (It's cleared up on the second page, with a much better reason that I had though of.)

I love, love, loved Will and Layken's relationship but also the ones that they had with their family and friends in Slammed. It was a romance, yes, but the two characters didn't live in a bubble, isolated from everyone around them. That's also very much true in Point of Retreat.

older & paperback cover

If you loved Slammed you're almost guaranteed to love Point of Retreat just as much, if not more. Told from Will's point-of-view this time -- Slammed was from Layken's perspective -- Point of Retreat moves continues forward after Slammed's ending.

It doesn't pick up immediately after the previous book so there are some major events that have taken place, that are now part of Will and Layken's history. They weren't exactly in the place I would have expected them to be in, given the time that had passed and what all had happened, but as the story progressed, more things transpired and things were explained, it all fit together. It didn't seem forced for the sake of plot, tension or more story.

The only place I wished for 'more' with Slammed was actually Will's character. With Layken as the narrator, it felt harder to connect with his character as one of the two lead characters. That was not at all a problem here. He was a great narrator and we found out a lot about both his feelings for Layken and his history, things that weren't part of the first book.

We also get to see a lot more of the relationship between Will and Caulder along with how their present situation came to be.

Along with a new character or two, Gavin and Eddie are back and have some great story of their own. I truly heart some of the bits of story line Eddie gets in this book.

Point of Retreat is very much a novel about relationships, bonds and what's important -- not just amorous, romantic relationships but friendships, familial, brotherly bonds as well. Even if you just kind of liked Slammed (for which I may always think of you as a little bit odd), do pick up Point of Retreat, Will -- and Colleen Hoover-- tell a brilliant story.



Rating: 9/10




thank you to the publisher for the chance to read this via NetGalley