Begin (again #1) (Mona Kasten)

EN Mona Kasten is a German author who brings us a series of novels in which the characters interconnect with each other. The main characters of the first book are Allie and Kaden, but in the second book following this one - Trust (again #2) – the main characters are Dawn and Spencer, who are Allie and Kaden's best friends, respectively.

And what can we expect from this first book? Allie Harper has the deep desire of starting over her life and to overcome several events from her past that are still very present in her life to torment her. And, because of that, she decides to move to Woodshill and attend university there. After a complicated struggle to find a place to live, Allie finally finds a place that must share with a young man with the rebellious and arrogant characteristics, many bad boy features and tattoos, which Allie considers sexy. Moreover, Kaden imposed some rules and the most relevant one proposed to never exist any kind of love and sexual involvement between them. Never. Initially the idea seemed easy to accomplish since Allie considered Kaden overbearing and unbearable. But, as time went by, they started to realize that it was not going to be so easy to ignore the strong attraction they felt for each other and that they were trying to hide at all costs.

I was quite surprised by this novel and I admit I didn't think I would like it that much. Despite being a novel that can be considered a bit cliché, there were some twists that I was not expecting and managed to pull some unexpected emotions from me. I was able to laugh a lot, especially with the sassiness between the characters and also, I was able to feel sad and angry with some controversial events. However, I found the ending a bit bittersweet and sudden. I mean, we came across the expected end very quickly, which made me not agree with something so shrewd and wishing for something more well-detailed.

Furthermore, I have to recognize the good taste of the author, since many of Allie's personal tastes are similar to mine: series, movies and good music.

I highly recommend this book for those who want an easy and light reading, since the chapters are small, providing a good flow to the reading. The author has very good writing and she is already in my list of favorite authors. She also provided us with a list of tracks, or a soundtrack, to accompany the book. Very singular as I enjoy it.

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