Tristan: Finding Hope by Jessica Sorensen

I was a little disappointed with this short.  I realized it was a short story when I started it, but it was like the ending literally just cut off.  And for the title to be Tristan: Finding Hope, it sure didn't seem like there was much hope finding going on.  The idea is definitely interesting and thankfully we should be seeing more about this story because otherwise there would be little to redeem it from the way it was handled.  I think I would much rather just read the whole story instead of what seems like an excerpt from a story.  Fair warning, if you get it on kindle, it is only about 50% of what you are actually getting.  The rest of it is a piece of Breaking Nova.

I can barely give this 3 stars out of 5.  2 1/2 would probably be more appropriate realistically.

Nova and Quinton: No Regrets by Jessica Sorensen

   In the latest installment of the series on Nova and Quinton, Quinton is just getting out of rehab and is about to face the world again.  At this point he isn't even sure if he is ready to or if he can even handle it .  So he's taking it one day at a time, one small step at a time.  Every day is hard.  Sometimes just the minutes ticking by are hard.  Everything seems to set him off and now that he is out of rehab, Quinton now has to deal with living in the same house as his father again.  The same dad that hardly had anything to do with him.  This alone is a huge challenge,  but then there is the new therapist he's seeing, who tends to seem pushy to him.  And right down the road happens to be a place or two where he knows he could score some drugs whenever he felt like it.
   Nova hasn't seen or spoken to Quinton since he left for rehab.  She can't help but think about him and wonder if he's ok.  Tristan is living with her and Lea.  Although Tristan has been clean for a little while now, he is getting increasingly familiar with Nova and it is making her uncomfortable.  She doesn't have feelings like that for him.  In fact, she knows she still has a lot of feelings for Quinton, but even after they start talking to each other again, she isn't sure how he feels about her.  He drops hints about being jealous Tristan is living with her, yet at the same time he says he isn't ready to go there with her yet.  As time drags on, she has to wonder if he will ever be ready.  Quinton wonders the same about himself.  Things get more complicated and painful when someone they  know comes up missing.
   Will Nova and Quinton ever be together?  Can Nova ever accept that she can't save everyone?  And will Quinton ever be able to let go of the past?


   Another intense installment about Nova and Quinton.  This is a different side of things though.  This book shows the after effects of getting clean and Quinton having to deal with the never-ending guilt that comes with having to face his past.  He makes a new friend that will help him in his journey to being able to handle life better, and Nova is always there for him.  There might come a time when he needs to be there for her just like she was for him.  Things are crumbling around her while they are progressing, however slowly, with Quinton.  But he has to decide just how much he cares for Nova and how far he is willing to go for her.

Saving Quinton by Jessica Sorensen

 Saving Quinton is the book following Breaking Nova, and it isn't the last in a line about Quinton and Nova and their very complicated lives.  At this point Nova has gotten herself out of the pit she was in almost a year ago.  She had been doing some drugs and drinking.  Quinton had been doing the same.  They were both running from things in their past that they just couldn't seem to deal with at the time.  Nova had found the help that she needed and was now in college and working at a suicide hotline.  When she decides to go back and get Quinton out of the mess he is in, her mom and best aren't so sure about it.  When she finally finds him in Vegas, she sees just how bad it has really gotten.  He hardly eats or drinks anything, just living for the high that he's getting off of the heavy drugs he is on.  Everyone living in the run down apartment with him is on some type of heavy drug.  Gone were the days of just drinking and smoking pot.  Things have escalated farther than Nova could ever have imagined.  And upon reconnecting with Quinton, her feelings come back for him as well.  It is almost killing her seeing him like that, but trying to get him out has taken a far bigger toll on her emotionally than she could begin to comprehend.  Her mother comes and gets her before Nova can fall back into that dark place that she was.  Nova does all that she can to save Quinton from that awful place, but even she starts wondering if it will be enough.

  This book was almost too dark for even me.  Dark because of the depth to which Quinton had gotten into drugs and the contemplation of death and its release.  His demons are never far away and the drugs keep them at bay.  But he never forgot Nova.  In fact, he draws her a lot still.  But then he feels guilty, like he is betraying his dead girlfriend and so he tries to drown out his pain and his memories.  Quinton  never feels like he is good enough or deserving of anything.  If he doesn't get help, he will slowly die from his lifestyle.  Nova, on the other hand, had her life all in control again.  She had goals and was working towards them.  She was trying to help other people.  But when it came to Quinton, he was a much harder case than anticipated and she would need all of the help she can get.  Every time she is around him she remembers how easy it was to forget everything.  All of her troubles had been much easier a year ago, and it would be so easy to slip back into that lifestyle.  Still, she is determined to do what she can for Quinton, even if it comes at a great cost.