True North: Finding Us by Allie Juliette Mousseau, published and available to purchase.

Read: June 2014
Genre: New Adult/Romance/Contemporary/18+ Content
Source: Book Tour – this does not affect my opinion of the book.

Goodreads – Amazon UK – Amazon US

Synopsis: Nathaniel Morrisey thought he had a handle on his affections for the one woman he ever cared about, Julia North, who happened to be his boss’s daughter and best friend’s little sister. But Jules is about to blow that calm self-control he’s had a tight grip on all to hell.

The North brothers are wild, adrenaline-junky thrill-seekers who thrive on challenge, speed and danger. Their little sister, Jules, is a sweet, quiet, bookworm who’s been overprotected all her life by her hulking big brothers… but she is a North after all, so she has her own wild streak—a secret that none of them expected, especially not Nate!

There is a tour-wide giveaway for a $25 Amazon gift card plus lots of other goodies from some great authors – Rafflecopter Link. *Update – Giveaway is now closed!*

The Review

This is the second book in the True North series (this review will mention both books in the series) set in bull-riding, cowboy boot/hat wearing, farm-working territory! Be warned, these books are much steamier than I was expecting! While there are some seriously sexy and fun scenes, there are also more serious and sometimes disturbing issues dealt with in these books, which adds a depth to them that some NA/erotica doesn’t always have.

At times these were really fun and quick reads (around 200 pages each) that had some very steamy scenes, and were written in such a way that I really wanted the characters to get together! There were a few plot twists that I didn’t see coming that were really enjoyable (no spoilers!) and I think that both female protagonists were relatable characters, especially book-lover Jules.

While the books could be hawt, they also deal with some serious issues such as alcoholism and domestic violence (book two) and PTSD (book one) among other issues. I’m participating in Mental Health Awareness Month, which involves raising awareness of mental health issues by reading and reviewing books that cover MH on my blog. When I accepted these books for review I didn’t know that these issues would be so prevalent and important to the story-lines, and I think they were a very important aspect of the stories that was handled really well. In fact, the MH aspects of these books have probably stuck with me and made more of an impact overall than the romances.

Each chapter in both of the books starts with a song title and unfortunately, due to time constraints, I didn’t get a chance to listen to them as I was reading. I think when I have a bit more time I’d like to reread these and I’ll definitely make the effort to look up the songs as I’m sure they’ll add meaning to the story.

I read book one right before reading book two, and maybe because of that the similarities between the novels were really obvious to me, I felt at times that Nate and Jules’ relationship was a bit of an extension of Jake and Olivia’s, the relationship “quirks” read quite similarly. There were elements from each book I really liked, but overall I think book one was my favourite – book two had much more bull-riding/MMA fighting scenes that were really unfamiliar to me. The North boys are loveable rogues, typical bad-boys that will make bad-boy lovers swoon, and all it takes is that right girl to come along to change everything. While these are really quick and enjoyable reads for lovers of the genre, those who prefer their romance to be a little more realistic may not appreciate them, the boys can be a little flowery in their speech sometimes, which even made big-over-romantic-me stop and question them.

Rating and Overall

True North Book 1 – Finding Home – 2.5/5

True North Book 2 – Finding Us – 2.5/5

Both of these eBooks are currently available on Amazon for super cheap, and I think they are well worth their price-tag. They are great, short reads to spice up your Summer, and with some thought-provoking elements too. I’ll definitely be looking out for the next book in the series.