Review: “To Be Your Last” by Rae Kennedy

Book Title: To Be Your Last

Author: Rae Kennedy

Series: To Be Yours, Book 3

Rating: 5⭐

Release Date: June 26th, 2020

Synopsis: A standalone in the ‘To Be Yours’ series, this book is about Gracie Gallagher and Colin Wolfe. Gracie is lost. She’s gone from being the perfect A student to just fumbling under the pressure of life at college and she’s lost her spot in her summer program. But she can’t tell her parents, because they’re so proud of her and happy for her. The night before she’s meant to leave for the program, she meets Logan from the band performing at her sister’s wedding reception, and he flat out invites her to go on a road trip with the band for the rest of their tour. And thus begins our journey! Through the book, we follow Gracie and the band on their tour adventures, falling in love, making a Fuck-It list and crossing everything off of that to find herself.

Review: The book is told entirely in first person and only from Gracie’s point of view. We’re introduced to all the fabulous supporting characters through her feelings for them and I promise you, every single one of them is fantastic. Kyla, her best friend, is a riot and the kind of friend we should all be so lucky to have. Logan, Dean and Joey, from the band ‘Wicked Road’ are hilarious and wild in their own ways. And Colin, lead singer of Wicked Road, who Gracie locks eyes with at the wedding reception and is drawn to like a moth to a flame.

‘To Be Your Last’ has a whole bunch of plotlines and tropes that I both love and don’t. There’s the virginal heroine, the going on tour with a band you don’t know from Adam and the fake relationship one. So I was skeptical, going in, about how this book would make me feel. And by the 5 stars I’ve given this book, you can be sure that I loved every minute of it.

Rae Kennedy weaves a story so addictive that once you start, you cannot bring yourself to put the book down. Gracie is young and inexperienced in a lot of things, and while her voice can be sometimes cheesy and eye roll worthy, it fits with the kind of person that she is. And you fall in love with everything about Gracie too. If not all of us, some of us can definitely relate to her inner monologues and her feelings and the confusion in her head.

Gracie’s relationship with the band, and then eventually her relationship with Colin, is everything. She sets something off with Logan, who she doesn’t care for in that way, but between Dean, Joey and Logan she has a group of men who will do anything to protect her. And not just because she’s innocent and unknown to their world, but because they genuinely like her. Colin, on the other hand, with his brooding and his deep voice and his beautiful words and his sweet sweet music is the only one that Gracie wants. Even without hearing his voice in this book, you know that he wants her just as much. The gradual build of that relationship, the slow burn that burns so hot from start the finish was just explosive.

One of my favourite things about this book was Colin respecting that Gracie is a virgin and only going at a pace she’s comfortable with. Everything about the way he taught her to bring herself to orgasm to the kissing and touching and the seducing, it was all so beautiful. He never treats her virginity like it’s a joke, because he understands why it’s important to her. Colin doesn’t even jump at the chance to bang her because she put ‘lose my virginity’ on her Fuck-It list. Everything from the first time he shows her how to touch herself to their first time together is just insanely hot and beautiful.

The book starts with a reminder of how Gracie’s story about going on tour is a flashback, but you almost forget that till everything spirals out of control. And when you’re back in the present day, seeing Gracie having grown up two years after she left Wicked Road and Colin, it’s a whole other journey. How do you fall back in love with someone you never stopped loving in the first place? You don’t, you just let yourself fall and hope that they’ll catch you.

The lyrics and the poems and the love that Colin and Gracie share are truly magical. If I could find my own version of Colin singing these songs to me, that’d be great too.

I can’t wait for the next book, but more importantly, I hope we’re getting books for all the boys of Wicked Road. Because I would love to see how things turn out for Logan, Dean and Joey!

Thank you to Rake Publishing, NetGalley and Rae Kennedy for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!