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.

Includes a teaser for RIVAL, the next unforgettable novel from Penelope Douglas….

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Falling Away- Coming January 6, 2014

Jaxon is the guy she’s supposed to avoid. K.C. is the girl he won’t let get away….

K. C. Carter has always followed the rules—until this year, when a mistake leaves her the talk of her college campus and her carefully arranged life comes crashing to a halt. Now she’s stuck in her small hometown for the summer to complete her court-ordered community service, and to make matters worse, trouble is living right next door.

Jaxon Trent is the worst kind of temptation and exactly what K.C. was supposed to stay away from in high school. But he never forgot her. She was the one girl who wouldn’t give him the time of day and the only one to ever say no. Fate has brought K.C. back into his life—except what he thought was a great twist of luck turns out to be too close for comfort. As they grow closer, he discovers that convincing K.C. to get out from her mother’s shadow is hard, but revealing the darkest parts of his soul is nearly impossible.…

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Robin’s Review

Once again, Penelope Douglas has written a powerful story for her Fall Away series. Rival is a new adult contemporary romance novel written from a dual point of view. It’s the explosive story about Madoc Caruthers and his stepsister, Fallon Pierce. Expect white heat in Rival, similar to the tone and intensity found in the first novel of the series, Bully.

Their family is completely dysfunctional. His father is married to her mother. Biologically speaking, the siblings are not related. Their parents are estranged, with neither parent living at the family home. After being forced to attend a Catholic boarding school for two years, Fallon decides to return home, where she finds Madoc and the housekeeper, Addie, are the only persons in residence. Hostility reigns between Madoc and Fallon. They clash repeatedly. Filled with rage, Fallon does not back down from Madoc. He goads her, she taunts him. It’s an interesting type of foreplay, but imagine what follows.

There is so much more to this novel than a sibling rivalry. The plot of Rival is absolutely compelling. While reading, I found myself continually shocked by the unexpected twists and turns layered into the story. Penelope Douglas uses flashbacks to fill in the blanks. Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen, I found that I was completely wrong. Once I reached a certain point in Rival, I found myself struggling with the believability factor, as it pertained to the ongoing hostility between Madoc and Fallon. However, this wasn’t something I continued to feel for the entire novel. Other than this one drawback, I can say that I found myself completely invested in Madoc, Fallon and their story. Rival has earned a solid 4-star rating.

Michel’s Review- 4.5 Stars

Rival by Penelope Douglas is book three in the Fall Away series. It can be read as a stand alone or in series order. The previous books are Bully and Until You. These books feature Jared and Tate and the characters from this series. This is where we meet Madoc, Jared’s best friend and cohort. Of the two, Madoc is the more laid back, fun loving, party kind of guy. He seems to let things roll off easily and nothing brings him down. With his family’s wealth, lack of parental guidance, and good looks it appears that Madoc has everything going for him. But behind this façade is a completely different young man. His family is dysfunctional, he is a product of a split home, and is left to his own devices most of the time. His father is a high profile attorney that has more interest in his career than he does his family. He remarried but never invested himself in his new family. His new wife was obviously only married to him for his prestigious standing and wealth. She also had a teenage daughter that she neglected as well.

These two teenagers were thrown together and forced to become a family. They were polar opposites. Fallon was a shy, quiet, and studious kind of girl. Madoc was a popular party kind of guy. Most of the time the two butted heads and took sibling rivalry to a new level. It would seem these two were destined to hate each other. But they both had something in common, they were both deeply hurt by their parents neglect and disregard. They found solace in each other that soon led to the forbidden attraction to one another. Once the parents discover the secret relationship between the two all hell breaks loose. What little family unity existed is now fractured beyond repair. Fallon is sent away to a Catholic boarding school. Madoc is left to his own devices. Their parents have more or less gone their own ways, living apart, and married in name only. There are deep resentments and malicious feelings for all that are involved.

Two years later Fallon returns to her former home with a vendetta of revenge. She wants to destroy Madoc and his father for the treatment she received in their home. Madoc hates Fallon after she deserted him and left him to deal with the ugliness their parents had made of their lives.

It’s an all out war. It’s a love hate relationship. It’s their way of dealing with the feelings neither one of them knows how to express. It is their foreplay.

What unravels and comes into play will have the readers glued to the pages. The story is unpredictable and very well plotted. Fallon and Madoc are Rival’s that make the battlefield look like a playground. When the peace treaty is finally reached the reader’s will be ecstatic.

Rival is sizzling hot! It is almost an erotic romance. The connection between Fallon and Mardoc is undeniable.

I loved how Penelope Douglas portrayed these two teenagers maturing into adulthood. They were very realistic to what young people are really like. She showed the many different types of families our modern day world knows. The secondary characters, the cast from the first two books, their families, and their community will definitely hit home. I am invested in this series and cannot wait for the next book, Falling Away to release in January, 2015.

This series is New Adult and is graphic. It will appeal to young adults as well as the mature audience. It is well written, has original plots, charismatic characters, and steamy romance.

I highly recommend Rival and The Fall Away series.

My seventeen year old daughter has read the Fall Away series. It has become her favorite. She has recommended this series to all her friends and they love it. When I asked them what made this series so special, they all replied that the characters seemed very real. They were like a lot of their friends and classmates. They loved that Penelope showed a truthful side of how teenagers really are in today’s world. Bully made a huge impact among their friends and fellow students. Bully is now on the recommended reading list in the Anti-Bullying campaign in their school.

The WVHS Girls have rated and voted the Fall Away Series & Rival their TOP PICK OF 2014.

About Penelope Douglas

Penelope Douglas is a writer living in Las Vegas. Born in Dubuque, Iowa, she is the oldest of five children. Penelope attended the University of Northern Iowa, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration, because her father told her to “just get the damn degree!” She then earned a Masters of Science in Education at Loyola University in New Orleans, because she HATED public administration. One night, she got tipsy and told the bouncer at the bar where she worked that his son was hot, and three years later she was married. To the son, not the bouncer. They have spawn, but just one. A daughter named Aydan. Penelope loves sweets, The Originals, and she shops at Target almost daily.

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