Nothing Left to Lose part 1 and 2 by Kirsty Moseley 
Genres: New Adult
Source: ARC
Also by this author: Worth Fighting For
Goodreads
Annabelle Spencer’s life is every girl’s dream. She has wonderful parents, great friends, and of course the perfect boyfriend, Jack Roberts. But her dream life turns into a nightmare when, on the night of her sixteenth birthday, Jack is murdered right in front of her, and she’s kidnapped by his murderer, Carter Thomas, and held for ten months.
Three years on and Anna is no longer the happy-go-lucky girl that everyone used to know and love; she’s now cold, hard and suffers from night terrors. It appears that, during her time with him, Carter broke not only her body but her spirit too.
Carter is currently serving time for the murder of Jack, a conviction that Anna helped secure. But his retrial is coming up because some key evidence appears to have been tampered with. Needing to ensure his daughter’s safety, Presidential Candidate, Senator Spencer tasks in Ashton Taylor, a newly qualified SWAT agent, to guard the broken girl and keep her safe until the end of the trial.
For three years Anna has refused to feel emotion or pain, but can Ashton help her rebuild her life and finally deal with the grief of losing her childhood sweetheart? Will he be the one to make her see that life is, in fact, worth living and that not all men will hurt her?
With Ashton at her side, Anna begins to feel more like her old self again. Together, they’re rebuilding her life and attempting to heal old wounds. The more time they spend together, the closer they become, but unfortunately, this only serves to complicate matters further. The undercover pretense of being boyfriend and girlfriend slowly ceases to be a game as both find themselves increasingly blurring the lines between the act and the reality.
With her father now President-Elect, Anna and Ashton are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain some semblance of privacy. With the world’s press obsessing over the future First Daughter, Ashton’s job of protecting her has just become a whole lot harder.
All the while the trial grows ever closer, looming over them both, taunting them, reminding them that it isn’t over yet. After all, Carter Thomas will stop at nothing to be reunited with his ‘Princess’.
Teenage love brutally torn apart, kidnapping, and potential new love collide in the Nothing Left to Lose series! If you love angsty new adult romance with pain, heartbreak, and drama, you will gobble these 2 books up like amazon gift card on new release day.
Annabelle witnesses her boyfriend’s murder and then is taken by the killer. After months of abuse, she is rescued and helps put the killer in jail. Now years later, the case has come up again (retrial) and Annabelle’s dad is running for President. So, enter Ashton, a hottie assigned to be her bodyguard!
I struggled at times with the plot issues (a SWAT guy watching a presidential candidate’s daughter? Thats not what SWAT does; the legal issues regarding the ‘retrial’ and such of Carter were not exactly right, etc. However, its a British author writing about the USA. I get it. I tried to let it go). But, I really liked the characters. Ashton is the perfect book boyfriend. Well, except for the fact he won’t man up and tell Annabelle how he feels!!! So angsty! Annabelle was really traumatized by what happened to her and her pain really comes across in the story. One thing that drew me to Moseley’s writing in previous stories was her ability to write really interesting young adult/new adult characters. She really pulls you in to the pain and emotions that teens and 20 somethings feel and it is engaging.
Annabelle’s trauma affected her behavior years later. I understood it, but after awhile I was like “Ok, we need some growth here!”. Again, I think thats because I’m getting old and have less patience for teenage/new adult behavior (I also teach high school kids, so again…no patience left sometimes!). However, Ashton is so swoony I was willing to deal with Anna until she experienced some character development! Ashton is really what won this book for me!
The second book in the duet worked a lot more for me. Ashton and Anna are more solid and the tension revolves around external forces, not the drama-llama internal ones. I appreciated this a lot more! You get the drama of Carter and his crazy ass and you get to see how Ashton and Anna navigate their new reality together. Ashton is still the best part of the story!
So, final thoughts? I had moments I loved and moments that made my eyes roll. I think this happens to me with nearly all new adult books I read any more! There is character growth over the course of the duet which is exactly what you want from a new adult story. If you like this genre and you like the emotional angst of a story, this duet is a great pick! Bonus-both books release on the same day so no waiting!
- Tears: no
- Trope: bodyguard
- Triggers: View Spoiler »
- Series/Standalone: duet
- Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
- HEA: View Spoiler »
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books like Bully by Penelope Douglass, Wait for You by J. Lynn, Fallen too Far by Abbi Glines…then you will probably like Nothing Left to lose!
Nothing Left to Lose
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