Before The Storm

Against All Odds #2

by Kels Barnholdt

For the first time since her mother’s death, Victoria has something she cares about. Nathan is smart, funny, and totally gorgeous. Oh, and he also happens to be her future stepbrother. It was a shaky at first, but Victoria finally has Nathan right where she wants him, and for the first time in a long time she feels alive. But just when the dust begins to settle, Victoria’s life takes a turn for the worse.

Victoria’s father finds out about Victoria and Nathan’s relationship and takes matters into his own hands. The consequences to his actions are devastating, tragic, and unimaginable. Can Victoria somehow put her life back together, and most importantly, is there any hope for her and Nathan? The twists and turns are just getting started in the much-anticipated sequel to Against All Odds, Before the Storm.

Genres: High School, New Adult, Young Adult, Contemporary, Forbidden Romance, Sports, Romance

103 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Kelsey Barnholdt is the younger sister of author Lauren Barnholdt. She was born in Syracuse New York and has loved to read ever since she was little. She had success with her first novella, What's Meant to Be, in 2011. She currently lives in CT where she spends a lot of time creating stories she hopes inspire people.

Reviews

[Dinjolina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fuck this ending and fuck this book.
Sorry, but I just…ugh.
And fuck this BRAND NEW utterly pointless cliffhanger, in the end of a freaking filler book - in which NOTHING happens!!!

[Jenny Levine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Again, WHAT THE FREAKIN' HELL?!

Is this really the sequel to Against All Odds, which I absolutely love?!

If it is, WHAT THE FVCK HAPPENED?

NOTHING

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENED IN THIS BOOK.

Nothing has been resolved. Not one thing.

This book is like 95% NATHAN-LESS , which I do not get the point because this book is supposed to be THEIR (Nathan and Victoria's) story. They did see each other AT THE END OF THE BOOK , LIKE WTF?! And when they saw each other, stupid Victoria didn't tell him what happened to her, and again, I was like WTF?!

What a disappointment this book turned out to be. *Le sigh*

Also, Kels Barnholdt,

Exactly how many books are you planning to write for this series? We're all confused here.

That is all!

1.5 STARS!!!

[Gisbelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a disappointment!! I still cannot believe that I just started my day reading this book. It was a bunch of bull! A whole lot of nonsense!

This book is a perfect example why some books are better of being standalone. Dragging a book, chopping it up and trying to turn it into series just doesn't work for this one. The first book was so good. Heck, I rated it 5 frigging stars! And this? I'm not sure what to say.

Nothing happened in this one. NOTHING. I hope the authors stop chopping up books. I'm not going to wait for months just to read a fraction of a book. We readers deserve a COMPLETE and MEANINGFUL book. I'm done!

_____
Author's Note
*** Nathan and Victoria's situation is nowhere near over. There are still many twists and turns to work out. Book Three coming soon!***
_____

Yeah right... *rolls eyes* I guess probably about 100 more to come.

[♠ Becka & Cerys ♠ | Spitfire Reviews · Rating 1 out of 5]

Im sorry, I hated it. I was hoping there were going to be answers to the questions from the last book - but no - not one single thing was resolved, AND WE DONT SEE NATHAN FOR 98% OF THE BOOK! WTF! Im pretty sure these books are meant to be romance, not drama. This book was 1million percent screwed...And a huge disappointment.

[reading junkie- not enough time]

WTF!!!!!!?????!!I will not rate this book!!!definitely,never,ever,in a right mind i will not rate this,this, ..whatever it is,it is not finished book!it feels like

[Anishaa · Rating 1 out of 5]

What the hell?! I'm starting to get seriously annoyed with Ms. Barnholdt. This was not a book. This was an tenth of a book, maybe. Honestly this could have been the beginning of a decent sequel. But no she had to stop in a totally random place and tell us to wait for book 3. What the fuck? This book ended in what I think of as a middle of a chapter. This was definitely not long enough to be a book - it is definitely more of a novella. I pray to god that Ms. Barnholdt gives us a FULL length novel and ends this series. It almost feels like she is just trying to extend the story out to as many books as possible. This is disappointing because she could have had a great story here. What little of the story that was there was decent. When I came to the end I literally checked a few times because there was no way that was all. I don't understand how her editor and publisher allowed the story to end this way. Because that was NOT an ending. It wasn't even a proper cliffhanger. It just stopped. Honestly, I thought that something was wrong with my copy until I read some of the other reviews. Ok so yeah she ended the last book the way she did (which I still don't agree with), she could have at least properly written this book and finished the story. My impression of it is she wrote the book and then randomly picked a line at the beginning to split it into more than one book. I am very disappointed with this story. I beg of you Ms. Barnholdt to not mess this story up even more, for it could have been great, and properly finish it with the next book. I will be reading book 3 but only to hopefully get some closure with Nathan and Victoria. I will probably not be reading any other works, outside of this series, by this author for fear of this happening again.

[Mackenzie · Rating 1 out of 5]

WTF..seriously I don't even know how to react..ABSOLUTELY NOTHING..NOTHING WAS RESOLVED OR CLOSE TO BEING RESOLVED..literally a waste of a book. Victoria's life just gets worse and worse and everyone treats her like crap...even Nathan, and that annoyed me the most. If anyone, Nathan should have been the one to ask her what really went on and all but no he is just a dick to her. ALSO THE TWO DONT EVEN SEE EACH OTHER UNTILL THE VERY END OF THE BOOK!! The book is suppose to be about them, and yet we get 3%of the book with the two of them. In all, I hated this book not because it was poorly written..but because it wasn't written at all..no story, no plot, and most importantly no point. Only reason ill be reading the next book is to put myself out of this misery and make sure Nathan and Victoria get their HEA.

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can someone explain the point of this story to me? What got resolved? Nothing. It was pointless and worthless and we really didn't need this book. Are you trying to tell me that she wouldn't have told Nathan what had happened to her as soon as she set eyes on him? I didn't like it but I'll probably read the next one in the hope that its better.

[Amanda Faria · Rating 1 out of 5]

Who in their right mind wants to spend money on basically 2 chapters worth of reading and wait 6 months between each 2 chapters. I love the story this author has come up with but she is seriously skewering herself cause now I know that anything she right is going to be the biggest let down known to man!!! I got really into the first (section?) but was so disappointed with how it ended. I just held out hope that maybe it was just a prelude to the real story, but alas, I was so very wrong! I have a feeling that this is just a ploy buy the publishers to get more money and if that is the case then I urge the author to look for another publisher in the future!!

[Amelie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate the ending. It killed me more when I found out BOOK 3 is not out since 2013! :(

[Missy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read.
This is real interesting storyline and I really would like to see where it goes and how it ends.
You can really feel the pull that Tori and Nathan have and their connection.
In this book you find out really how much of an uncaring jerk her father is and really feel for her. She has been gone for 3 months and is now finding out how her BFF and Nathan coped with her disappearing without a word. The guilt she feels and worry about being taken away again effects her on a daily basis.....and leaves her anxious and upset. But she tries to move on with the help of an unknown aunt and a small scared dog. She is really trying to understand and reclaim her life but she is still so heartbroken about Nathan. She is upset that he is mad at her and wants nothing to do with her. She tries to move on as he has found another girlfriend and is happy. But she is left wondering what if??????
This really is an engaging story and fun to read but the shortness of it and the need to wait for the next installment are a little annoying.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the reviewers here griped that the two leads didnt exactly meet until the VERY END of this book. Well, that's also my beef...there's not enough screen time between the two. Shouldn't be the point of this whole series about the two of them getting TOGETHER? This book is nothing but Victoria's incessant pining for Nathan and the plethora of bad luck and bad treatment happening to her. I've never felt sorry as much as I've had for Tori, she's actually a decent person and by no means deserves to be treated like this.

Luckily for this author though I still care enough for her characters that I will still read book 3. I can't stand not knowing what happens next between Nathan and Victoria.

[Demitri · Rating 1 out of 5]

Excuse me but, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!!!!????? I hated it! I hated the ending! I hated that there was like 98% no Nathan! The book is about their relationship or it's suppose to be. Therefore it should be half about Nathan too! I fell in love with the first book in this series and was so excited to read this and now I'm just plain disappointed. I'll be honest tho, I kept on flipping back and forth on the pages to see if there was more and my device was just screwed up, but shocker! The book was over! Is that even enough chapters and stuff for this book? Without Nathan it seemed like nothing! What kind of cliff hanger was that anyway!?

My rating: 1 and a half. That's the highest I'll go for this ugh! The ending aggravated me so much!

[Sarah Vale · Rating 1 out of 5]

SOME OF THE STORY IMPLAUSABLE

It was bad enough that the second book was firstly so short and secondly mainly a recap of the first. The story was also annoying and implausible, they weren't brother and sister, but they lock her away. Which I'm sure in real life they wouldn't get away with. but it would be good just to have the third book, a good book, 400 pages just to finish it and have some closer. Please don't extend to 4 books cause firstly it's taking u nearly 2 years to give us the third, if there's a 4th when would we get that.... 2020. and secondly u will lose ur readers if we don't get it finished in the third, we don't like been taken for mugs as consumers

[Maddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warning expressive rant:

ARGHHHHHHHHHH I FUCKING LOVE THESE BOOKS BUT REALLY 180 PAGES IN TWO FUCKING BOOKS???!!! THATS NOT EVEN ONE FUCKING BOOK LET ALONE TWO AND THE CLIFFHANGERS HAVE ME RIPPING MY HAIR OUT AND CURSING THE WORLD FOR THE HELL THAT ITS PUT ME IN!! (OBVIOUSLY TODAY HASENT BEEN A VERY GOOD DAY FOR ME: EXPLANATION FOR OVER EXAGERATING A TEESNY BIT!)

BUT COME ON!! THAT IS NOT FAIR!!!! :(

I AM NOW GOING TO SIT IN A CORNER AND CRY... sigh...

I gave it 5 stars because only a good book can make you feel like this when it finishes! :D

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short as others mention. For me the length and direction of the storyline where not a problem, for me it is the length between book releases. These books are written much like Kelly favor or Lucy Covingtons weekly/ monthly short story series. Which are fine but with short bouts of time in between. My opinion this series would have been better suited for this type of release and promo!

[Lindee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still planning on reading the rest of the series, but this whole book could have been condensed into 5 chapters. I don't mind Cliffhangers but this ending didn't make any sense and was really dragging.
I hope the next book picks up more and I would be interested to see if her best friend from the institute comes back into the picture...

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the series but seriously nothing was resolved and its not worth the money you pay for it. This writer needs to lock herself in a room and not rest until she can write full books instead of giving us little teasers that she calls books. It's a real shame but now it's just becoming annoying. She could do so much with this story line but she's blowing it.

[Angelus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow this author is really fond of giving cliffhangers. I hope the next one will be the last although Im not quite sure if they are planning on releasing it sometime this year. Hey,some help here ya know!

[Lyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

WTH?!? Really? I mean really? This is the second book? It doesn't read like it. This is just like a FILLER book. It doesn't even have Nathan on it just the ending.... Total disappointment. :(

And how many book is it going to take?

[axola · Rating 1 out of 5]

At first I rated this book as 2 stars. However after nearly a year waiting for the 3rd book, I had to downgrade it. Actually, waiting for a 3rd book may lead someone to a misunderstanding. The "2nd book" is just a bunch of chapters that take you nowhere. What a joke!

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't mind the story too much. I was expecting very little based on reviews.

I seriously *hate* Victoria's Dad and Missy. And the power they have.

Aunt Jenna and Victoria's BFF are awesome.

Want more.

[Naiara · Rating 1 out of 5]

No me ha gustado nada el giro que ha tomado la trama, me ha parecido totalmente absurdo, ha sido crear drama por crearlo, solo para alargar la historia. Me he saltado la primera parte y solo he leído lo que me interesaba.

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nooooo don't end it like that!! :( boo... not nearly long enough for my liking.

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Does anyone know just how many books there will be in the Against All Odds series?

[K.G. White · Rating 4 out of 5]

why are these books so damn short!!! I want to know more, I want more forward movement so I can figure out what the deal is with her aunt and her father being such a jackhole. oh well next book

[NaKayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what i was expecting.

[Deniz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5Stars
Ugh another cliffy!

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted more.

[Jeannette · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm going to have to agree with everyone else...this was not a book, it was a novella and not even a good one. It didn't advance the plot or anything.