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The McCain Saga #1

Ever After Drake

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It was my first day as a brand new high school teacher. But I got dumped that morning. Via text. And then one of my students hit on me. And the rest of the day was a complete mess. The beautifully single Mr. Drake McCain found me in my classroom, feeling sorry for myself. And not sixty seconds later he had me laughing and electricity racing through my blood.

My family is broken and complicated. I literally don’t know my biological father’s name. My mother is absent and my half-brother barely knows who she is. But Drake? He’s not complicated. He’s sweet and kind and insanely adorable, and comes from a wonderful family. He is everything I want.

The chemistry between us? It’s there in spades. I keep telling myself that I should be feeling really awful and depressed since I just got dumped a few days ago. But I keep getting this ridiculous smile on my face every time Drake is around and it’s kind of hard to keep telling myself that.

I’m Kaylee Ray. I believe in fairy tales and happily ever after’s, and maybe the search for Prince Charming is over.

Cue reality check.

246 pages, Unknown Binding

First published July 2, 2014

85 people are currently reading
933 people want to read

About the author

Keary Taylor

82 books2,104 followers
Keary Taylor is the USA TODAY bestselling author of over twenty novels. She grew up along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains where she started creating imaginary worlds and daring characters who always fell in love. She now splits her time between a tiny island in the Pacific Northwest and Utah, with her husband and their two children. She continues to have an overactive imagination that frequently keeps her up at night.

Please Note: Keary does not check Goodreads very often, so the best way to get in contact is directly through email: me@kearytaylor.com.

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5 stars
242 (27%)
4 stars
266 (29%)
3 stars
256 (28%)
2 stars
91 (10%)
1 star
36 (4%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
Profile Image for Kathy Jo.
774 reviews142 followers
June 23, 2015
Ummm.. I really don't know how to rate this book so I think I'll just leave it as it wasn't for me. I got about 25% in and lost count at how many times I rolled my eyes. Kaylee and Drake are supposed to be adults that TEACH high school but instead they are acting like they are teenagers IN high school... leaving teenagers in charge of the classroom while they sneak off in the middle of class to make out... really?! Things moved extremely too fast in my opinion and wasn't really believable to me. Did not finish.
Profile Image for Emily.
5,866 reviews546 followers
December 30, 2014
It was not the day Kaylee Ray envisioned with the first day of her new job as a high school teacher, but after a break up text and a student trying to hit on her it is apparent it is a disaster. When she meets Mr. Drake McCain another teacher things are looking up.

Drake is not sure if it is too soon for Kaylee but he is having a hard time being a gentleman about waiting, he wants to date her. Kaylee is quickly becoming his everything, but their road together wouldn't be met with a few complications along the way.

Sweet story, the chemistry between Drake and Kaylee is wonderful. I liked that Drake was a bit shy where Kaylee was concerned. Kaylee is a bit of sunshine, very fun read.
Profile Image for Jae.
693 reviews178 followers
February 1, 2015
This was so beautiful. Both sad beautiful and giddy beautiful. And it didn't even involve a single sex scene.

KT, you write such an awesome story. I had a great time, so thank you.

Profile Image for Tiffany.
724 reviews49 followers
August 4, 2015
In the beginning this book was over the top maple syrup sweet. To the point where I was going to ditch it, but then tragedy struck. Then struck again. But the tragic situations were not smothering.

This book was just OK for me. Not one of my favorites from Keary Taylor. If you don't mind insta love, corny romance, and Disney princess references you will love it!
Profile Image for Dragana.
1,899 reviews154 followers
April 17, 2015
I was on a vacation and decided to use that as an excuse to make a dent in my kindle freebies pile… I picked a romance novel because I wanted to relax.

LIKES:
* Optimism. Even though some bad things happen In the second part of the book, positive stuff from the first half of the book is what will remain in your memory. Kaylee Ray, our heroine, is like a Disney princess. She is a happy-go-lucky girl dreaming about the one-true-love. Romance happens. Everything goes perfectly. It was relaxing read. I think I would have loved Ever After Drake more if there was no drama at all.
"It’s easy to view the world as an evil place when you watch the news. There’s shootings, and violence and death and people just generally doing evil things. It’s easy to forget that there are still good people out there."
* Personal growth. Kaylee Ray starts thinking about something else besides getting married and asks: “Who am I outside of the girl that just wants to find her true love?” Her fumbling small steps on the road to self-discovery are forgotten as soon as Kaylee Ray’s love problems are solved. But she did pose this important question.

DISLIKES:
* Clumsiness. It used to be cute, now it’s only a boring cliche. I’m sick and tired of heroines who can’t make it out of their front door without tripping or stumbling down the stairs.
* Heroine talks how she is plain all the time. This cliche is boring in real life too, because usually people who complain most about ‘being plain’ are not plain at all. And I had the same impression about Kaylee Ray.
* Complete lack of ambition. Kaylee Ray’s goal in life is to work until she finds a husband and then quit, stay home and take care of the kids. I just can’t understand this.
* Teachers making out in closets. Ok this maybe really happens in schools, but imagining something like that really creeped me out. Kinda like thinking about your parents ‘doing it’ lol
* Make way for a drama queen. As soon as something goes wrong – it’s drama time. Kaylee Ray does not eat or even gets out of bed – sometimes for days.
* Insta-love. Romance between main hero and heroine happens so fast that they should get a speeding ticket. Or in my case – a lowered rating.
"Life is depressing and boring if you can’t open up your heart and fall fast and hard. If you can’t love furiously, what’s the point of living? You might as well slowly freeze to death."

IN THE END…
Ever After Drake managed to relax me with glowing and positive view on romance, especially in the first part. If there were less cliches and drama and more personal growth I would have recommended this book to some of my contemporary romance lovin’ friends. But… Read my likes and dislikes and decide for yourself if you are going to give it a try.

This text is also posted on my blog Bookworm Dreams in a little bit more styled edition.
Profile Image for Asia.
663 reviews26 followers
January 5, 2016
I don't know how many stars I should give this book. Let's say it's between 4-4.5 stars.

Even though, it seemed a little bit unrealistic and everything happened a little bit to fast, I loved this book. I laughed and cried while reading it. To be honest, it wasn't something new, a girl meets a boy, they fall in love and then something really bad happens and they have to get their shit together. Nothing new, but there was something in this. Especially, the surprise he had for her at the ending, it was magical and beautiful. So for sure, I'm going to continue with this series.
Profile Image for BlebeTanja.
440 reviews58 followers
December 27, 2015
what the heck did I just read? Well, I skimmed the second half, I just couldn't make myself read on. The writing wasn't good, there were grammatical and other mistakes, everything was rushed and the characters weren't well developed. And the main twist - what?? Everything was so one-dimensional, in my opinion.
Profile Image for Kristen.
1,711 reviews47 followers
Read
October 14, 2018
Didn't consider this one clean, got about 29% in and stopped. The make out sessions were really PG-13 and then some. There was no build up, just started making out 3 days after they met, and 3 days after she had just stopped another relationship. Wished it had been cleaner bc I like the characters a lot.
Profile Image for Diane Ehlers.
Author 5 books39 followers
August 14, 2014

Was originally posted on Paranormal Sisters: http://paranormalsisters.blogspot.com...

I couldn't help myself, it was .99 cents at the time, and I just had to have more of the McCain's! So jumping right back into this world the beginning was cute, charming, and romantically sweet! Though I couldn't connect with Kaylee right away. How she could fall in and out of love so easily and moving onto the next guy without a problem blew my mind, especially when later on in the book she said she hasn't been in many serious relationships. Yet, in the beginning, that's not how her personality portrayed her. So, sometimes I was confused about Kaylee.

And as I was reaching the halfway point of the book I was wondering when we were going to get to the deeper, emotional stuff of the story. Mrs. Taylor has a saying for this series something like "It's hard to love a McCain" yet it seemed pretty easy for Kaylee. It was so perfect, cheery, and exactly the kind of fairy tale Kaylee wanted that I didn't know where this book was going. It seemed too easy and maybe that was the point.

Once I started to question this, we finally got slapped in the face, punched in the stomach, and having the rug beneath our feet get ripped right from under us. First Drake's ex comes into the picture and she's got a bomb to drop on him. When Kaylee finds out what it is she makes the desicion to step away. She didn't want to break up a family that could be and she knows how it feels not to know her own father. Her mother at a young age had a one night stand and ended up with a bun in her oven.

So when Kaylee steps away, her best friend tells her to take this time to find herself, instead of always looking for Prince Charming. That's when she gets the idea to look for her father. This leads her to another side of the story and show's her that maybe if things worked out differently she could have had the family she always wanted. But things happen for a reason and she's just happy to learn the truth.

As she was finding herself, her mother was trying to become more in her life again. And when hope blooms something gets in the way and the emotional roller coaster begins. And oh my god, Mrs. Taylor kept writing heart breaking things that pulled at my heart strings and my jaw kept dropping every word I read. This is when I started to bond with Kaylee because you can't help but feel sympathy towards her. Life finally screwed her and Drake over and all at once too. But I'm glad that they had each other when they really needed someone.

Overall this was an amazing read and Mrs. Taylor sure knows how to rip the rug right from under our feet! If you like New Adult Contemporary Romances with depth and heartache but with a fairy tale ending then this book is for you! And that ending, oh my god, Kaylee finally got her Prince Charming and was it ever full of the charms! This'll put a smile on your face with it's heart felt, family crazy but loving story. Oh the McCain boys! Everytime Lake came into the scene a goofy smile came to my face and Kale was ever the adorableness! Sage is still the kick ass female she is and I did miss reading behind her eyes but I'm glad we get a taste of every McCain sibling. I can't wait for Depths of Lake to come out next month! It's definitely a must buy for me!
Profile Image for Lenore Kosinski.
2,389 reviews64 followers
dnf
July 6, 2019
https://celebrityreaders.com/2019/07/...

DNF @ chapter 10 (2 hours in): This one just wasn’t for me, for a few different reasons. It was seriously overly sweet in my opinion, or at least up until this point…like toothache sweet. There wasn’t a lot of conflict, which apparently I need something to keep me tuning in. And it wasn’t just the plot, Kaylee was over the top sweet as well. But not always in a good way… I actually listened (and DNFd) this one before rereading What I Didn’t Say, and I already noticed subtle shaming in this one too. At one point Kaylee is going to meet Drake’s parents for the first time and she worries about what to wear, because she doesn’t want to look like a prude, but she doesn’t want to look like a slut either. Because, you know, what you wear has any bearing on your sexual proclivities. *sigh* Like I said, I don’t have much tolerance for that stuff…this wasn’t like in your face, but I can’t help but notice even tiny bits, you know?

As for Kaylee and Drake? Insta-love to the nines. Which, can be fun…I’m not totally against it. But I just didn’t know where the story was going. There seemed to be finally setting up some conflict with Kaylee’s Mom, but in those moments Kaylee started sounding like a teenager, and I realized this story just wasn’t for me.

Compounding all this is that the narrator had a high super sweet voice…which actually fits Kaylee very well, but for some reason wasn’t working for me. Which is ironic, since I have a higher voice myself. *rolls eyes*

So yeah. This was just not a Lenore book, and I figured I should cut my losses if it wasn’t going to be a match.
Profile Image for Samantha (WLABB).
4,252 reviews277 followers
March 20, 2016
I sort of started these McCain books out of order. I had downloaded Sage's story (Moments of Julian) for free. I thought I loved the McCain family after that book (and I quote my own review - "Can they adopt me?"), but I love them even more after reading all the family interactions in Ever After Drake. Knowing the family and their dynamic really gives you insight into how their children turned out to be the people they are. Drake is no disappointment. He is handsome, tender, sweet and loving and unfortunately, saddled with a need to fulfill his obligations (it's both a blessing and a curse).

Then there is Kaylee. She is so cute and bubbly and optimistic. She dreams of her prince and her ever after. This is a woman who had never had anything handed to her. She was raised by a teenage, single mother who didn't even know her father's name. They struggled, but she always looked for the best in the situation and the people she encountered. Kaylee is dealt a lot of rough hands in this story, and my heart ached for her, but she kept trying to persevere and how do not love a girl like that? This book had the drama ala a LifeTime movie, but it never came across as trite. I know it didn't, because those were real tears in my eyes.

Oh, Keary Taylor, you almost make me believe in true love. Very sweet, cute, adorable romance. I loved every second of it.
Profile Image for Nic.
130 reviews
April 28, 2015
I wish I could give this book a 0 stars rating.
Make way for the drama queen, because that's what it was. Drama all the way, add a rushed story with under-developed characters who have the whole insta-love going on (so much so that it makes you throw up in your mouth... A lot), and numerous grammar and spelling errors, and you basically have a literary ground zero on your hands.
I'm beyond glad this was an Amazon freebie cuz otherwise I'd be kicking my own ass for spending money on this one. I skipped through about 95% of the book, and I still found so many grammar and spelling errors, it made my head spin. There's some food for thought for ya. First and last of her books.
Profile Image for Aimee .
3,072 reviews298 followers
June 7, 2015
Picked this one up free, I think, on Amazon. Had some time in between reviews so I read this one. It is technically free from sex but there are some steamy make out scenes. I liked the book and I was 100% in with the characters. There was swearing though, including one F bomb. That was the biggest drawback for me. So, clean as far as sex goes, not so clean as far as language goes.
Profile Image for Andrea Heltsley.
Author 15 books325 followers
September 9, 2017
I loved this fun, sweet, and sexy romance! The characters were intriguing and the plot kept me engaged. I loved how some of the twists turned out. Yes, there are some sad parts, but only for a bit. It's a good little HEA for an adult contemporary romance. Five glittery stars.
7 reviews
June 4, 2021
It's understandable that this book and the three that follow it, aren't everyone's cup of tea. I read this book for the first time back in 2016. Seventeen year old me, thought it was the most romantic thing to ever be written. The "perfect guy" every girl dreams about. Everything that happens in this book are the "Awww... I want someone that does that for me!" type stuff. Cue reality.

I grow up and read it again. I absolutely despise anything that can be considered "cheesy" in a irl relationship. It's been done before. It's boring. BUT Y'ALL! I still LOVE THIS BOOK.

Would I buy this now if I saw it in the bookstore? No. No I would not. They why read it again? The truth... I'm broke and ran out of new books to read. So I stared rereading, and was not disappointed. Yes! This book is all the cheese in the world. Yes! It will make you roll your eyes. Yes! Some of you will dislike the the living hell out of it. But sometimes you need a little cheese in your life.🤷🏻‍♀️😊
Profile Image for Sara.
1,039 reviews18 followers
June 23, 2017
I love Drake. He's sweet and loving and creative, yet he's not perfect and has his problems that he tries to deal with the best he can. And Kaylee is cute. More confident then she comes off. They are so in love.
Profile Image for Leigh Sonnekus.
538 reviews
February 26, 2020
Sweet

A sweet read but felt more like a young adult read than a new adult romance or contemporary one. Minimal heat - it is a clean romance - but lots of angst. Just a bit too young for me
Profile Image for Danielle  Beguiled Bookworm .
125 reviews1 follower
August 18, 2020
This read is for those who truly enjoy "will they or won't they" reads. Get captivated by the humor and serious family triggers. Warning, this book does contain emotional upheaval, but what good romance does not.
Profile Image for Nikki.
1,600 reviews4 followers
May 9, 2017
Not for me I'm afraid.
Profile Image for Gina.
678 reviews
September 27, 2019
A sweet love at first sight story, but with a rough go for both Kaylee and Drake. Love always prevails.
15 reviews
September 1, 2014
I was very very much tempted to give it full 5 stars, but there are a few reasons I gave it 4. At the beginning of book I felt that it will be a book which I'll rate a 3 maybe as the beginning few chapters, though very enjoyable, were like fast forward version of a very cute story, which later I realized was exactly the plot of story. And that's why I completely adored it and couldn't keep it down even at 2.30 am at night!

Keary taylor is one of my few most favorite authors because they really reflects what is and could be. Right from "what I didn't say" to this one its a emotional roller coaster ride where even though you know where the story is headed but you can't help being mindlessly curious about the road reaching its destination.

Ever After Drake is exactly that. And the main reason it touched me is because the characters are so authentic that it feels like they actually exist. They are not larger than life or "kings" and "queens" or "perfection" and "sacrifice" (my personal words) like in many other stories. And they are not dumb to go buying problems because they are too egoistic to talk... I could actually relate to them and confidently say that I would react the same way they do in a particular situation.

So i'll say, well done keary taylor.. It was completely satisfying book, a dream come true for readers like me who loves lots of emotions like love, emotional torture, passion, care, awesomeness all wrapped in such a beautiful package. Crazily looking forward to read lake's story. Dont take too long for that pleaseeeeeeeee! :-P
Profile Image for Candice.
85 reviews5 followers
August 29, 2015
Oh, where do I even begin?!

Kaylee Ray is a beautiful, young, brand new teacher. She's clumsy, but there's something about her personality that just makes me smile. She's nervous her first day, which doesn't start very well when she receives a break-up text from her boyfriend! She manages to get through her first two periods of teaching high school history, when she meets the only other history teacher during her third period break, Drake McCain.

Drake is a good looking, young teacher with a personality that just leaves you wanting more. He's sweet and charming and did I mention good looking?

There's instant chemistry between Kaylee and Drake. They have an instant fondness for one another. Their relationship is easy and progresses naturally. They seem like a perfect fit for each other, until a recent relationship resurfaces and tears them apart. Then tragedy strikes and all of the happy, bubbly moments are gone. Still, Kaylee and Drake are able to pull each other out of the darkness that engulfs them and are able to find their way back to each other.

This book had me smiling, laughing, crying, and finally smiling again. Some of it was hard for me to read through bc it hit close to home. I think Kaylee was very relateable and I absolutely adored her. I'm a sucker for fairy tales and although this isn't a traditional fairy tale I loved all the fairy tale references. If you're looking for something that will make you smile, laugh out loud, cry a little, but have a happy ending....you should definitely read this book!
Profile Image for Priscilla.
146 reviews3 followers
March 30, 2016
As a teacher I love teacher romance books that don't involve students. I was so excited about this book because of it.

Pros:
I was a really sweet read about falling in love and overcoming problems. I loved that she realized that it is life and not a fairy tale and that she needed to find out who she is. I love how they are so sweet and the students are even invested in their relationship. I love insta-love stories and as much as people complain it does happen in real life plus it was believable. I fell in love with my hubby in a week so I agree that if could happened.

Cons:
These are the reason for the rating. First, I don't know if this writer is has ever been a teacher. First off there are cameras and it will be noticed when teachers are sneaking out of class to make out. I get pissed when someone interrupts my classroom including my hubby when he just wants lunch with me. Another is that all she talked about is that teaching is just a job until she gets married and she will quit to be home. I take my job as a teacher serious and I get upset when people have that view.

The book was enjoyable but the teaching part needs to be more professional.
Profile Image for Sara.
407 reviews
March 25, 2015
Kaylee Ray's first day as a highschool teacher was not what she expected. She gets dumped in the morning via text message and one of her students hits on her. But when she meets fellow teacher Drake McCain, things begins to look up.

Drake is not sure if it is too soon for Kaylee, he is having a hard time being a gentleman and is patiently waiting, but he wants to date her. A feeling that Kaylee quickly accepts.

However, like every other love story tragedy strikes, in more ways then one, leaving both Kaylee and Drake to make choices that will effect their 'happily ever after'.

While the story was very fun to read, I found the characters acting like teenagers instead of the 20-something people they are. It felt like the book was more aimed for teenagers then young adults. The story was interesting enough, and makes me wonder what the other siblings are like.

A free e-book from the google play store.
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