This is the review for the second book in the Rush duology by Penelope Ward and Vi Keeland. It will not contain any major spoilers for Rebel Heart, but will have spoilers for Rebel Heir, the first book in the duet.

I gave this book 2 out of 5 stars. I was extremely disappointed in the second book. While I enjoyed the first, the second one was a letdown. (Reasons below, but I wanted to put the rating here for anyone who hasn’t read Rebel Heir. So if you haven’t read Rebel Heir, do not read anymore or you will be spoiled!)

Rush and Gia’s summer has been nothing but chaos so far. Summer in the Hamptons is never as simple as you expect it to be, especially when you sleep with your boss. If that wasn’t bad enough, Gia had to go and fall in love too. Now she has come face to face with his family and if she thought the summer was already crazy, nothing compares to what waits ahead. Will Rush and Gia be able to say goodbye at the end of the summer or will their whirlwind romance even make it that long? 

I don’t have much to say about this book. I was extremely disappointed and quite honestly bored with it. Just like the first book in this duet, I listened to it via audiobook. It was six hours long, but I felt like nothing happened. Now that isn’t to say that nothing did because there was a lot of action and numerous events, but the relationship between Rush and Gia just felt very back and forth. I got extremely frustrated by it.

While I understand it was necessary for their relationship to evolve the way it did for the events of the book to play out, but I was just annoyed with the entire situation. I felt like Gia became a very weak character. She did not stand up for herself or her baby. She tried to be “independent” but allowed herself to be jerked around by Rush.

I think that Keeland and Ward could have made this duology into a full-length, stand-alone novel. With both books being less than 300 pages, they could have easily cut some of the “fluff” from each novel and written a much more satisfying novel. As a reader, I felt like the only reason there were two novels was because of the cliffhanger the first novel provided.

I felt like there were a lot of scenes that were completely pointless. They did not move the plot forward or provide character development. The only thing they did was show the passage of time, which could have easily been done with one or two lines within another scene.

One of the things I did like about this novel was that I learned more about Rush. We learned about his past and his relationship with his brother and father. It was very interesting, but the emotional struggle that he faced seemed to drag on forever.

I did not have very many good things to say about this novel, BUT I did like getting the resolution to the situation. I am a reader who gets extremely invested in the lives of the characters she reads about, which is probably why I was so disappointed in this novel.

I love Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward’s novels. I have read several novels they wrote both individually and together. However, this was not their best work. I suggest picking up one of their other novels if you are in the mood because I do love both of their writing.

I also want to note that I noticed most of the rating for this book are much higher. It has an average of 4.1 stars on Goodreads. While I do not apologize for my opinions on this novel, I do think that everyone can draw their own conclusions. Obviously, some people love this conclusion to Rush and Gia’s story.

Like I stated above I gave this novel 2 out of 5 stars. The disappointment I felt while reading this story mainly steamed from the boredom I felt as I watch the relationship sit in limbo for most of the novel.

⭐⭐