Never Will I Ever

"I’ll give you my all—every shameful, imperfect part of me—and I can only hope it’s worth a fraction of you.” In Never Will I Ever, Avery is expelled from college and as a way to find his way back he's forced to be a camp counselor for the summer. But when he's paired up with Kaleb, the guy who used to be his friend before a betrayal of trust, his intentions start to change. The more time they spend together, the more the tension rises until they're forced to confront their past and all the secrets they hold until that tension changes into something very different. "You silenced the deafening screams, taught me how to lock up the darkness and finally let in the light.” Avery is very unlikeable in Don't You Dare. But getting to know him and see his vulnerabilities and the ways in which he grows during this book makes you reevaluate your feelings towards him. Honestly, it didn't take me very long to start liking him. He's like a wounded bird and you can't help but care about him and want to help him find his way forward, which is exactly what Kaleb does. Kaleb has the kindest heart and though he tries to hold onto his hatred for Avery, he was just like me and started to care pretty quickly. "I’ll never ask you for perfection. All I want is to be the hand you reach for when things get difficult.” I also love how involved the campers are in this story, especially Eli and Kaleb's brothers. Eli's friendship with Avery was one of my favorite things about this book and I loved…

…and overcoming instilled shame instilled by those who are supposed to love us unconditionally are the main themes in this book. We met Avery and Kaleb in “book 1, “Don’t You Dare?” Avery comes across as a bigoted homophobe who targeted his fellow teammate Keene and his bestie Aspen. As a result he was expelled from the college where he was a pitcher on the baseball team. Kaleb is also a member of the same team and had been friends with Avery until he began his war against his fellow teammate. As a ploy to get back into school and graduate, Avery’s father comes up with a plan that forces Avery to work as a counselor at a summer camp run by the Dean’s brother. Add in a couple dozen 11 year old camp kids, one of which is the Dean’s son, Elijah, and the book highlights the growth of Avery as a mentor. Elijah is one of the best supporting characters in the book. As are Kaleb’s 11 year old twin brothers, Colton and Dayton. Unknown to Avery, Kaleb is also a counselor at the camp. Which makes this a friends to enemies to lovers book. There are plenty of humorous moments in the book, as well as chock full of the poignant moments where Avery struggles with his sexuality, always hearing the slurs his father has voiced, playing on a continuous loop in his mind. There is finally closure between Keene and Avery, where much has been forgiven. Aspen is, well…Aspen. He doesn’t forgive easily. The character growth Avery must endure before finding a HEA is painful, yet necessary for…

I have to be totally honest here! I was totally against reading Avery’s story!!!! After how everything ended with him the last I read, I was SO angry!!! OMG, I’m so glad that I trusted the most amazing Ce Ricci and read it against my despise of him because I TOTALLY fell head over heels in love with Avery and Kaleb! Thai story was INCREDIBLE! Better than incredible! A million stars!!! I swooned throughout the entire thing, cried multiple times and fell in love with these two over and over again! My heart broke and was put back together again! This was such a beautiful story. The most beautiful character development and holy moly, the most beautiful relationship development I have ever read! As always, blown away with everything Ce Ricci does! This story touched on hard topics, covered hard situations and truths and I just LOVED it!!!!

kaleb & avery are here! “𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴, 𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘺, 𝘪𝘵’𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘯𝘦.” “𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘵.” i have been dying to read avery and kaleb’s story, and let me tell you it did not disappoint!! ce ricci has a way of making the most irredeemable characters worthy of redemption. that redemption never comes easy, kaleb makes avery earn it, as he should. these two unexpectedly are forced to spend their summer together when they are both working at the same camp, much to kaleb’s dismay. it doesn’t take long for them to realize that even though they were once good friends and teammates, there’s a lot they don’t know about each other. what better time to rediscover each other than when they are stuck at camp together? their banter is top tier as the tread the line between love and hate! i loved avery’s character development throughout. getting to see what’s going on in his head and how he’s trying to change his perspective on things and actively working on being a better person is everything. i also loved seeing how his dynamic progressed with the campers, especially elijah with their bond, and how they changed him for the better. while avery is rediscovering himself and the person he wants to be, kaleb gets a front row seat to see how people really can change. i love that kaleb never shied away from telling avery how he felt about his…

We meet Avery in Don't You Dare and I HIGHLY recommend reading that before this to get the full understanding of his character. I really enjoyed the concept of the plot and the setting! For some reason, summer camp is one of my favorite settings for books. It's got the perfect blend of forced proximity and a little secret romance in nature. I enjoyed getting to know Kaleb more, since we got the briefest of interactions from him in DYD. He seems to be a very complex but chill character at the same time. He had some great cheeky moments and was definitely fun in the spicy scenes. Now, for the things I didn't quite enjoy.. If you're going to have a redemption book for someone like Avery, who did a despicable thing in the book he was introduced in, it needs to be a HUGE redemption. Unfortunately, I felt like we didn't get that at all. Not only did he only take responsibility while he was getting in trouble, but he continued to act like the blame was on the person who turned him in. I could not stand this and it was super hard to forgive his character when he had ZERO SHAME. He needed to grovel more, he needed a harsher punishment for what he put Keene and Aspen through. I also felt like Kaleb and everyone else took it WAY too easy on him. This is a summer camp and you're telling me the camp director was like, you know what, hell yeah; this seems like a great person to be around children and influence them here at camp. IN WHAT WORLD?! Absolutely not. Kaleb mentions this a…