The Geekery Book Review

Four Years Later by Monica Murphy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If anything sums up my feelings about Owen, it's this quote from Monica Murphy in the acknowledgments of Four Years Later:

"I never planned in Owen having his own book. He was just Fable's brother, a secondary character Fable needed to ground her and give her something to love before she met Drew. He was a total pain in her ass that she had to deal with, but she loved him so fiercely. So did I. Then he grew into this...thing. He became this man-boy who punched Drew in the face, who loved his sister just as fiercely as she loved him and had all this guilt to deal with because of his mom. He DEMANDED a story. So here it is. And dare I say I love Owen just as much as I love Drew? Yes. I do. I hope you do to."

Well, Ms. Monica Murphy, you hit the nail on the head. I LOVE Owen more so now than I ever did before. In fact, I think I love him just a teeny-tiny bit more than I do Drew!!

Poor little Owen. At the beginning of the book his attitude made my heart hurt for him. After looking up to Drew for so long, he tries becoming his carbon copy, with somewhat disastrous results. He's always had Drew or Fable to pick him up when life gets difficult, and with them living out of town and his mother butting into his life again, he's smoking too much pot and partying way too hard as a form of escaping from reality. He has to learn how to pick HIMSELF up and deal with his problems head on. Fable's not going to swoop in a make it alright, or let him run from it. It's time for him to grow up. Like it or not.

I adore Chelsea!! She feels like she's always been a nobody. A straight A, straight laced, virginal, predictable nobody. All she wants is to be "someone's somebody" and to know what it "feels like to be cherished". (Those two parts just made all the feels pour out of my heart!!) The example her mother has set for her with men, including her own father, had Chelsea, at one time, deciding she was a lesbian. Her mother pretty much choses her philandering, corrupt father over her, resulting in her becoming a mature adult long before she should have.

I think what I love the most about Owen and Chelsea's relationship is that they don't swoop in and solve each others problems, and that they are not perfect, but are a perfect fit for each other. Their both a little insecure, in different ways, but it makes the story so, SO sweet! And how scenes can be written that are equal parts heat and sweet innocence, I'll never know. It's totally brilliant. Usually you can tell when a series has a book added that wasn't in the initial concept, but with Four Year Later, it's just the cherry on top of an amazing series. Four Years Later just cements this series as a guaranteed classic that generations to come will be reading.

A few things I really loved:

MORE POEMS!!!! HOT poems!!

I loved the little inspirational quotes at the beginning of each chapter. They round out everything perfectly.

We get to see more into Drew, Fable, and baby Autumn's lives. (Because God knows, we will NEVER get enough of that!!)

The ending. The end of one of my favorite series. As bittersweet as it was, it ended perfectly. I need tissues, but they were for happy tears!!

The best part of the book?? I want to quote it, but that might be considered a spoiler, so about 97% through the book there's a paragraph about Owen and Fable's luck that should be read slowly. Savored. Remember where you were when you read it. It would have been a crime if this series had ended without it. It definitely is the chapter my mind goes to when I think if Four Years Later.

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