REVIEW: BEGIN AGAIN BY MONA KASTEN

*ARC RECEIVED FROM NETGALLEY*

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He makes the rules. She breaks them all.


A new start. It's the only thing keeping Allie Harper going, when she packs up her life and moves across the country to Woodshill, Oregon. She's about to start college, desperate to leave the ghosts of her past behind her. Even if that means never talking to her parents again.


Now the hard part - finding an apartment before classes start. Just when it seems she'll have to live out of her car, Allie visits one more place. It's beautiful. With one exception: can she stand being roommates with campus bad boy Kaden White? Sure, Kaden is sexy with his tattoos and careless attitude, but he's also an arrogant jerk. With nowhere else to go, Allie moves in.


The first thing Kaden does is make a set of rules. Either Allie obeys, or she's out:


1. Don't talk about your girl problems.
2. Keep your mouth shut if I bring someone home.
3. We will NEVER hook up.


Easy enough, thinks Allie. Who would want to get involved with a brute like Kaden? But the more she gets to know him, the more she sees beyond his gruff facade. He, too, is harboring some painful secrets. For Kaden and Allie, it gets harder and harder to ignore the sparks between them. And the lines between the rules start to blur-


Begin Again is a beautiful romance that shows us just how possible it is to start over. To find freedom in heartbreak and love in the most unlikely places.

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5 STARS

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Begin Again is an incredibly addicting New Adult romance that left me craving more of Kaden and Allie. Leaving her life in Lincoln, Nebraska behind Allie reclaims her life and her independence by going to college at the other side of the country. What she doesn’t expect is having to room with Kaden White - and he doesn’t want her there any more than she wants to be.
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Where do I begin? I am obsessed with this book. It perfectly captures my favourite trope of enemies to lovers and has left me craving more. Mona Kasten is a german author who now lives in Edinburgh and I briefly met her at Estelle Maskame's Event in summer. I stumbled upon an e-arc of the first book in Mona's "Again" trilogy and was thrilled to be approved. I expected to like this book, maybe even love it, but I absolutely did not expect to fall head over heels for Kaden White. I did not expect to be so caught up in their story. I did not expect to be this desperate for the next two books in the series to be translated. 

I admit I have left writing this review a little late; normally I write up initial thoughts in the first 24 hours after finishing a book and then edit if I feel I need time to dwell, but Begin Again? I'm in such a book hangover. I'm managing to read something else but I just cannot formulate my thoughts. 

I'm a sucker for the bad boy/good girl trope. I'm a sucker, too, for characters that instantly loathe each other and then fall in love. The way Mona handled this scenario was so unique to anything I have ever read. There were actual reasons behind character actions, and as if it wasn't perfect enough, there was a small mystery element involved too. 

You know what? I really cannot express my thoughts. All I can say is if you want to get lost in a story that has tropes but written in a refreshing new way then this is for you.

The only light negative I have is that I do think there were a few things that got lost in translation. This, however, is mostly down to the translator perhaps being more literal with idioms and the like instead of finding a better way to explain something in English. Saying that, I normally would get frustrated at small things such as this but this book was so captivating that I barely paid it much attention other than to think: 'oh, that's weird... maybe it means this instead?'

I wish I could have articulated my thoughts better and have provided a better review - a review this book deserves, but quite frankly I am still recovering from the shock of falling so deep in love with these characters and perhaps when I am blessed with Trust Again and Feel Again in English I will come back and review the series as a whole and provide much clearer thoughts!

You can buy a physical copy (in German) from The Book Depository.