ABOUT THE BOOK

In this coming of age story, Meara Quinn is about to find out there are worse things than moving to a tiny oceanside town before her senior year. Like discovering there’s a secret being kept from her and knowing it’s a life-changer.

After experiencing vivid visions of her absentee father, Meara decides she deserves answers. With the help of her new friend Evan, a guy she happens to be falling for, she embarks on a journey in the hopes of unlocking family history and finding her true self. But when she meets a handsome stranger at a local club who knows far more about her than he should, her world is again shaken. In him, Meara may have uncovered the key to the very secret that will reveal not only who she is… but what she is.

The Never Forgotten series starts as a light paranormal romance with an Irish/Scottish folklore twist and grows into an underwater urban fantasy where love, loyalty and friendship face the ultimate test. If you like mermaids, sirens, and other water fae you may not have met before, this series is for you.

With over 300 five-star ratings on Goodreads, the Never Forgotten series is a Best Book Award-finalist young adult paranormal romance series that will appeal to fans of House of Royale by Jaymin Eve, Sirangel by Lucia Ashta, and Born of Water by A.L. Knorr.

MY REVIEW

My ears pounded with the tidal beat, and I began to hear voices speaking in the rhythm—jump in, go now, come to us, we’re waiting. Was I losing my mind? Panicked, I looked at David. He watched me carefully. “You hear them.” He nodded to the sea. “Yes,” I said. Then, “Who are they?” “They are us. We are them. You will meet them in time, but it’s best that you try to ignore them for now.” He reached for my hand. “They will grow more persistent.”

It is Meara’s senior year in high school in Wisconsin and she is looking forward to traveling to Europe with her best friend Kim after graduation, but her mother is very sick and moves them to the small town of Peggy’s Cove, Canada, to stay with the grandparents Meara has never met.

While living in Canada is different, the ocean strangely makes Meara feel at home. Her dreams of her father, David, become reality and she finds it strange that he has never aged and skirts around her questions about why he abandoned her and her mother seventeen years ago. Can she handle the truth and live with the most difficult decision of her life?

Told in Meara’s voice, the topics are momentous and Meara’s loving relationship with her mother is very realistic and heartbreaking. The hardships and difficult decisions Meara make are a lot for a young woman of her age to endure, but she tackles them with maturity and grace.  In addition, the relationships with her grandparents, her father, her best friend, Kim, and Evan, her boyfriend, are such an important part of her life experience and Ms. Risser pens it with depth and finesse. 

I highly recommend this young adult paranormal romance which tackles the serious topics of abandonment and cancer as well as single parenting. I look forward to reading the series.

Thank you to Ms. Risser for giving me the opportunity to read this book with no expectation of a positive review.

EXCERPT

The sun was hot on my back, but it felt good. I always soaked it up in the summer, knowing that I would be wishing for some of its warmth in the dead of winter.

Icy cold dripped on my shoulder and made me jump. I looked up to the source and saw Evan holding out a water bottle. “Sorry for startling you,” he said. “I thought you might be thirsty.”

“Thanks.” I opened the cap and downed half the bottle. I didn’t realize how thirsty I had gotten. “Did you get the paint?”

Evan held up one gallon of paint and two brushes in response. “Is the sanding done?”

“Almost.” I pointed to the last board. “I just have that one to finish.”

“Okay.” Evan set the paint supplies down near the boards I’d already sanded. “I’ll get started then, and you can join me when you’re done.”

I finished sanding as fast as I could, and then went over by Evan. He smiled and handed me a paintbrush. “You’ve painted before, right?”

“A little.” Mom and I had painted the kitchen in our old house. I didn’t tell him about the mess we made in the process. We were covered in paint, but laughing when we were done.

“Why’d you come here today?” Evan asked.

I shrugged and dipped my brush in the paint.

 “Just a little,” Evan cautioned as he watched me.

“I just wanted to hang with my grandfather a bit, I guess.”

“Is it hard?”

“What?”

“Getting to know them?”

“No… yes… I don’t know. It’s weird. I don’t understand why we never visited them or why they didn’t come see us.”

“Yeah. That’s a little strange, although I can guess why they didn’t come see you.”

I looked at Evan and waited for his answer. His eyes took in the boats surrounding us before he gestured with his paintbrush. “This takes year round dedication. Your grandfather can’t leave.”

“Sounds hard,” I said. Evan returned his brush to the paint bucket. In his haste, droplets of paint flew, and one landed on my nose. Evan started laughing before brushing it off with the sleeve of his shirt.

“Sorry about that.” He grinned at me, but it soon faltered. Once again, I was locked in his gaze. We leaned toward each other. He brushed a strand of hair back from my face and tucked it behind my ear. “Meara?”

“Yes?”

“Do you want to go to dinner?”

“Tonight?”

“Yeah.”

“With you?” I asked, realizing that was an incredibly stupid thing to ask.

Evan grinned again. “Yeah. That would be the general idea.”

“Okay.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kelly Risser knew at a young age what she wanted to be when she grew up. Unfortunately, Fairytale Princess was not a lucrative career. Leaving the castle and wand behind, she entered the world of creative business writing where she worked in advertising, marketing, and training at various companies.

She’s often found lamenting, “It’s hard to write when there’s so many good books to read!” So, when she’s not immersed in the middle of someone else’s fantasy world, she’s busy creating one of her own. This world is introduced in her first novel, Never Forgotten.

Kelly lives in Wisconsin with her husband and two children. They share their home with Clyde the Whoodle and a school of fish.

Follow Kelly on her website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Bookbub, Amazon, and Goodreads.