Review: Losing Kyler

Losing Kyler by Siobhan Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

She's done it again: Siobhan Davis has given us another wonderful read.

Siobhan Davis is best known for her sci-fi books – she writes one hell of a sci-fi story, and if you’ve yet to read any, I certainly suggest picking one up – but with The Kennedy Boys books, Siobhan Davis is demonstrating that she’s more than capable of writing a cracking contemporary read as well. I’ll be honest and say I prefer her sci-fi reads a bit more, but her contemporary reads are more than worth it if you’re a fan of the genre. The fact I’m reading them when I’m so picky about my contemporary reads is evidence enough of that. All in all, the woman writes a damn good story whatever she is putting on the paper.

She also knows how to pull you into her story and leave you wanting more.

Finding Kyler ended on a serious cliff-hanger. It’s something you come to accept with Siobhan Davis: if you plan to read one of her series, know every book will leave you with countless questions. The wait between Finding Kyler and Losing Kyler was hard, mainly because the final Saven book was thrown in the middle, leaving me all kinds of mixed up as I did waiting of so many different kinds. It was worth it, though. So very worth it.

Losing Kyler picks up where Finding Kyler ended. You know that great big bombshell that was dropped – well, we’re thrown straight into the aftermath. Sometimes when such bombshells are dropped at the end of books, authors will jump forward in time when they start the next book in a series – not Siobhan Davis. Siobhan Davis allows us to watch how everything plays out. She throws us into the emotion, giving us all the details we could want.

Not that the bombshell dropped at the end of the first book is the only drama we deal with throughout, oh no. The Kennedy Boys books are promising to be the best kind of soap opera. Each time you think nothing more can be added, another twist is thrown in. Honestly, I cannot remember the last time I enjoyed such soap opera dramatics. Everything that can add drama will add drama. Everything that can be twisted will be twisted. Everything wrench that can be thrown into the works will be thrown into the works. It really is like sitting down in the evening to watch the soaps on the television.

If I’m being completely honest, I enjoyed the side drama more than I enjoyed the central drama. The Faye and Kyler drama is a lot of fun, but I find myself enjoying the other Kennedy boys more. Due to this, I’m so glad Siobhan Davis has decided to give the other boys their stories. I cannot wait to jump into them, as they promise to be wonderful if the drama we see throughout this book is anything to go by. Now whilst I enjoyed the side drama more than the Faye and Kyler drama, I will admit to it being important to the overall story. Siobhan Davis does a wonderful job of bringing everything together, and I’m curious to find out the exact links between the events. Some things are fairly obvious, whereas others have me completely unsure as to what we can expect next.

Speaking of things being obvious and others being a massive mystery, I feel as though certain events throughout this book were overly obvious. More darkness was added to the community, and it seemed to come out of nowhere, yet it was clear who was involved with said darkness. I feel as though this was more so a case of me reading far too many crime novels, though. I tend to pick up on such things far too quickly, which can sometimes leave me getting ahead of twists and turns when a story is not a crime novel yet involves such aspects. Moreover, I’m accustomed to adult crime novels and the uncertainty added in this one is more in line with the young adult level of crime mystery. It works well with the storyline, but if you’re a crime aficionado the shock factor isn’t quite what it should be.

I also feel as though the romance development was rather expected in places. The way things played out towards the end of the book really grabbed me, even if I’d expected such a thing from the first book. I wasn’t sure how the specifics were going to play out, but I had a feeling such a twist would be thrown in. The way it played out, though, was well beyond what I could have imagined. Throughout the whole book lies and deception were central, but I didn’t expect such a thing to come out at the end. I was so caught up in all the things being thrown at us from one corner that I didn’t expect the other corner to fling in such whoopers. It was wonderful, certainly shifting things back to the drama-filled levels that I felt lulled somewhat in the middle of the story.

As expected, Siobhan Davis leaves us with yet another cliff-hanger. This one is nowhere near the size of the one at the end of Finding Kyler, but it’s certainly more than enough to leave you on the edge of your seat in anticipation of the next book. It’s not the same kind of anticipation that was experienced at the end of the first book, but it is certainly a classic Siobhan Davis hold. I’m really not sure where the next book will take us. There’s so many possibilities and I cannot wait to see what Siobhan Davis decides to do with the story. I’m super eager to see where she takes us.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable read. I’ll admit that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the first book – but it’s like every other Siobhan Davis book, in the sense that once it was open I found myself unable to put it down for any period of time.

As a final note, I would like to thank the author for allowing me to advance read this story.

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