young adult romance – Past Midnight Book Reviews & More

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: White Mountain (Black River, #2)

Author: Ruby Jean Cottle

Pages: 368

Format: audiobook

Listening Hours: 12 hrs 15 min (approx.)

Narrator (s): Geraldine Hakewill

Publisher: Dreamscape Media

Publication Date: 10/13/26

Categories: Young Adult, Mystery, Paranormal, Vampires, Romance, Series

Disclaimer: **I received this book free on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Dreamscape Media for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

In the second book in Ruby Jean Cottle’s dark and romantic Black River duology, a group of teens must face new supernatural threats while guarding the secrets that could tear them apart.

It’s been months since the Silver sisters’ life changed forever. Dusty should be focused on her new relationship, but how can she, when her visions of the future show her little sister in trouble? Something is waking beneath the mountain, and it’s getting harder to ignore.

When an old foe returns with an army of vampire fledglings and a dangerous new agenda, the Silver sisters and their friends are forced to confront him once again. And after a body turns up in the woods, an unrelenting detective begins digging into the town’s string of unsolved deaths, threatening to expose everything they’ve all hidden.

As new romances bloom and loyalties are tested, the group is forced to face impossible questions about themselves and their relationships.

Whatever is hiding in the mountain isn’t finished with them. And the worst may still be yet to come.

Content Warning: complicated sibling relationship, blood drinking

+ I thought the narrator did a pretty good job with bringing this story to life.

+ This is book two and the conclusion of the Black River Duology and I thought book one ended very abruptly. Things pick up right after the ending of book one. Opi (Ophelia), Dusty’s younger sister, is trying to deal with being a vampire. She and Dusty butt heads on a lot of things, but they work things out eventually. Dusty has a premonition that Opi is in danger so Eli, her best friend, takes on the job of keeping an eye on Opi.

+ My favorite part of this story had to be the romance storyline. Dusty is solid with Will, they are happy together. But I was really invested in Opi’s love life. She’s someone who is growing and learning to accept what she has changed into and I liked her growth and the romance that came with it.

~ As much as I love the young adult romance relationships in this story, I wanted a resolution about JD and the story moves a bit too slowly for me on that. Dusty and her friends are trying to keep on the down low but a detective is in town asking questions. To top it off Dusty has the premonitions about Opi and they are all trying to figure out what happened to JD. Nothing comes to light about JD until the very end. I feel like most of the story was about Dusty, Opi and Eli adjusting to being vampires and doing teenage things – like going to a party, formal and falling in love. I don’t mind those things but I did want the JD storyline to be stronger.

Final Thoughts:

I think I enjoyed this reading experience as an audiobook more than I enjoyed book one as an ebook, so I’m glad I got the alc for this book. I did think this was more romance focused, which I really enjoyed, but I did want to know more about JD and I feel like we didn’t get too much of that. Things again moved slowly in this story but I the romance kept me invested. There is an explanation about JD and the dead bodies at the end but I felt the explanation was rushed. Overall though I think this is a solid ending to the duology.

Read if you like:

young adult romance
vampires
small town mystery

Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Other Books I’ve Read From This Author:

Black River by. Ruby Jean Cottle | ARC Review – 3 stars

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: Trust Fall

Author: Lynn Painter

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 416

Publication Date: 9/29/26

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Categories: Young Adult, Fall Romance, Enemies to Lovers

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from Entangled: Mayhem Books on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Better Than the Movies, Lynn Painter, comes a rags-to-riches rom-com about a small-town girl whose family inherits a fortune and moves to New York City, where she meets a big-city boy hiding an explosive secret.

Julia is just a small-town girl from Nebraska who loves her peaceful life. But when her elderly next-door neighbor—who just happens to be a secret multi-millionaire—leaves everything to Julia and her family after his passing, Julia is swept away to live in a historic brownstone in New York City and attend an elite private school for the super-rich.

It should be a dream come true. Wrong. Julia doesn’t fit in at her new school; worse, she’s failing. Enter Damion, the mysterious and handsome tutor who will get Julia back on track. Except Damion has a secret. He is the great-nephew of the man who left everything to Julia’s family. Damion doesn’t buy for a second that the person who was like a father to him would leave his home to strangers. And he’s determined to prove it.

To uncover the truth, Damion schemes to earn Julia’s trust. Not an easy task with Julia unsure about this rich boy with a rebellious personality. But the more time Damion spends with Julia, the more his plan begins to backfire. Because he is falling for the enemy—and the enemy is falling for him.

As Damion and Julia figure out where they belong, can they see past their differences and act on their feelings, or will the trust Damion has worked so hard to gain fall apart?

Content Warning: grief, bullying

+ A Lynn Painter YA rom-com, fall romance? I had to read this one, plus that cover is screaming pumpkin spice everything.

+ Julia’s family has come into wealth by a mysterious donor. To get the house they have to move into and live there for a time. Going from Nebraska to NYC is a book move and culture shock for Julia. I hated all the bullying she got from the private school she started to attend but I also love how she adapted to life outside of school and fell in love with the city. Damion is a rich boy, it is his grand-uncle who gave away his fortune and he is pissed about it because he thought he would get the house that was his refuge. So this starts off as an enemies to lovers romance.

+~ The romance is cute because of the bickering, and enemies to lovers but Damion was mean at first. I thought he was such a jerk but that’s what made me love when he had to grovel. And it was some good groveling too, so I love how everything played out between them.

+~ I thought this was a quick read and I enjoyed it. I love that both Julia and Damion were tied to his great-uncle in different ways, but it didn’t mean one didn’t love him more or less than the other person. It just took Damion a moment to realize that his great-uncle loving other people doesn’t mean he didn’t care about Damion. One of my issues with the story was with Julia’s family. Her brother is a twin and goes to the same school, so why wasn’t he doing more to protect her there. Same with her parents, they just didn’t seem very involved in what was happening in Julia’s life which maybe is realistic, but sucks because she was having a hard time fitting in. I was expecting her brother to step up a little more to her bullies. He really stepped up to Damion when he hurt Julia but really he could have done more earlier.

Final Thoughts:

Overall this one is a cute YA rom-com that definitely gave me fall vibes. I’m a sucker for a rom-com set in New York City and this one didn’t disappoint.

Read if you like: