Review: No Feelings Involved

No Feelings Involved by Siobhan Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Siobhan Davis has done it again: another wonderful read I devoured in a single sitting.

By this point, it should be no surprise to hear I’ve devoured the latest Siobhan Davis release, considering how I do so with each new release. In fact, the only Siobhan Davis release I have yet to devour is The Warrior Princess, something I plan to amend despite my mixed feelings toward the Alinthia series. Each time there is news of a new Siobhan Davis release, the book goes on my to-read list quicker than you can find out the title of the book. With No Feelings Involved, we had my usual reaction to a Siobhan Davis book.

We had my excitement, we had my need to read, we had my devouring of the book, and now we have my impatience as I await the next Siobhan Davis release.

I’m going to be completely honest, however, and say I was a wee bit worried before going into this one. No Feelings Involved tells the story of a character we were introduced to in When Forever Changes, and a part of me was a bit annoyed with the way we were given details but no answers in When Forever Changes. It felt like a bit of a cheat, a way to ensure we’d pick up No Feelings Involved, and it took a little bit away from the emotion of When Forever Changes. I’m in the minority with this, but it bugged me. Nevertheless, I was intrigued by No Feelings Involved.

As a quick aside, I would like to point out you do not need to have read When Forever Changes to understand and enjoy No Feelings Involved. Although we see the characters across both books, they’re complete standalone stories. Either way you approach the books, you’ll be left with intrigue about the other. As I read When Forever Changes first, I had the intrigue of what would play out in No Feelings Involved. If you read No Feelings Involved first you’ll have a few spoilers for When Forever Changes, but you’ll still be intrigued to find out more.

Despite being intrigued about No Feelings Involved, my worry was twofold. In addition to it feeling like a bit of a copout, a way to ensure there would be readers of No Feelings Involved, I was a bit worried about the storyline. I’m over the whole virginity loss storyline, it no longer interests me. It’s giving me crazy expectations for the future, and I know they’re as false as false can be. I can deal with characters being virgins, but when the loss of a person’s virginity is made to be such a big deal I find myself rolling my eyes. They rolled a bit harder with this one when I found out our female lead wanted to lose it before she went to college. My mind was doing the sarcastic ‘love, I finished my undergraduate degree, my masters, and now am doing my PhD with it still intact – don’t worry, you can still have the college experience without needing to ride a guy’. In other words, my jaded view of the way society views sex and the loss of virginity had me a bit unsure of this one.

I know Siobhan Davis has a way of winning me over, however, and I was ready for such to be the case with this one. With the first chapter I was unsure – if Ryan had come up to me with those lines, I would have laughed in his face and said no (even if I was as determined as Summer to lose it) – but once the story got going I was sucked right in. It became the usual Siobhan Davis experience, by which I mean I was addicted.

I fell in love with both our characters and had so much fun with their story. Despite working things out in advance, although I was not shocked by the details that came forward and some of the events that played out, I was hooked. No Feelings Involved did not have the heavy emotional impact or overwhelming angst of other Siobhan Davis reads, but it had all the addiction I expect from the author. I powered through the story, completing it quicker than my usual Siobhan Davis reading speed, and was more than content with the story.

The only thing I wanted more of was the humour people left me believing I would receive. I did smile at some of the comments Billy made, but I did not find this to be the rom-com a few other people seemed to thing it was. I could have just misunderstood what people were on about, but this wasn’t a book filled with humour in the way a part of me had anticipated. I just wanted to point that out, in case anyone else reads comments about this one that creates the notion this is a rom-com kind of read. There are plenty of emotions, plenty of positive emotions, but not belly-laughs.

I confess, No Feelings Involved is not my favourite Siobhan Davis read, but it was more than worth reading. It hooks you throughout, you’re sucked into the pages, and you’ll gladly consume the book in no time at all.

All in all, Siobhan Davis did her usual thing and hooked me.

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