It’s summer in Tofino, BC. This means chilling, hanging out with friends and meeting hot boys.
Not so for Maya Finnigan, who’s stuck in summer school with extra classes in order to make it to college. Looks like another summer of studying and boring “fun” - and hanging out with her loyal German Shepherd, Bear. Or will it be?
Kolt Waters meets the “hot” criteria with his intense blue eyes and Brit accent, plus he’s the boy-next-door. But his smug attitude and never-ending jabs get on Maya’s nerves.
When Bear goes missing, surprisingly it’s Kolt who jumps to the rescue. But is their budding romance a happily ever after or a wreck in disguise? And what’s the story with their parents, and the secrets they hide?
Dig in for a summer of fun, mystery and first loves...as unconditional as they come.
Alexa Whitewolf is a fiction writer, newspaper columnist of daily issues and author of the critically acclaimed Moonlight Rogues shifter series.
Alexa has been a lifelong writer and first began creating other worlds and characters at the ripe age of 12. Growing up in the Transylvania region surrounded by epic mountains and a never ending stream of legends and stories was bound to create an overactive imagination. This shines through Ms. Whitewolf’s writing by creating worlds filled with unique folklore, life wisdom and plenty of furry creatures.
An avid traveler, Alexa writes under a penname and spends her days between an office job and writing, in Canada’s capital when she’s not flying somewhere with lush landscapes and plenty of hiking trails.
Her series focus on strong heroines, kind yet sexy men, fights of good and evil and the never-ending learning curve of humanity’s strong – and weak – points. Romanian folklore is intertwined with her writing, more notably in her shifter romance series, the Moonlight Rogues. Her other series draw on world mythology, such as the Avalon myth and Arthurian legend (the Avalon Chronicles) and Ancient Egypt (The Sage’s Legacy).
You can follow her blog at www.alexawhitewolf.com/blog or on social media. Her column in Observatorul also tackles various issues, including health, technology, and a writer’s life.
Unconditional Love is a cute YA romance novella set in Canada about a sixteen-year-old girl called Meya and her adorable German shepherd dog, Bear. Maya is doing extra classes in school during summer break to help her get into the college she wants to go to when she meets the new boy in town; Kolt Waters. At first, she can't stand him, but after he shows his love for dogs and helps her when Bear goes missing, the two find a spark between them. When it turns out their parents know each other, will it complicate things and ruin the start of something between them...? This was just so cute. I loved that there was a POV from Bear at each chapter, and he was just the most adorable dog ever!
I’m not usually one for short stories, but as I’ve enjoyed other Alexa Whitewolf stories, I decided to give this one a read. Unconditional Love is vastly different to Blood Ties, Love Binds (adult romantic suspense) and the Moonlight Rogues books (adult paranormal romance), yet I’m always eager to see authors writing across different genres. Thus, I happily jumped into Unconditional Love with the knowledge it was a young adult contemporary short story.
Although Unconditional Love wasn’t quite a full four-star rating for me, this is mostly due to my views towards short stories. I always find myself wanting more, wishing we had more detail and more information, yet as I had a lot of fun with Unconditional Love I decided to round my rating up. It’s one of those short stories where I was content with what I was given, therefore earning it a four-star rating.
You see, Unconditional Love was a super cute read. One of those insanely adorable reads where the saccharine nature of the story permeates the soul. It put a stupid smile on my face, had me powering through, and even the bitter sweet ending touched me in a way that left me content.
Without a doubt, there is more to Unconditional Love than you see on the surface.
My cheeks sure hurt from smiling. I was feeling a nice light read before I get into some heavier series and man, this is definitely the perfect book for that. I found myself sitting on my couch reading it until the very last page. I couldn't stop.
I loved the characters, especially Bear. I am a sucker for anything with a dog in it. This book even took it up a step because you had little snippets throughout the chapters from Bear's POV. I LOVED that about this book.
The family dynamic is one to bring tears to your eyes with the love and the blossoming relationship is definitely one to make you smile. Kolt made me laugh on several occasions and I found myself being drawn to him through the whole pages. Where was my Kolt when I was that age!? I also loved Maya. She had such a strong head on her shoulders and knew what she wanted. I loved watching her stay determined and not give up on anything, including a situation that was nail bitting to say the least.
If you are looking for a sweet romance with animals and family love, you need to get this book and sit down to read it immediately. Its a quick read that will leave you with tears in your eyes and a smile on your face.
This is a short, very cute story and was really sweet. I loved Bear and we get a short portion from his POV and i really loved that about the book. Maya was a determined and head strong girl that I really liked and Kolt was a funny boy next door. Usually when I read novellas I feel that something was missing and keep on wishing there was more to the book.In unconditional love I just felt really satisfied when I finished the book.I can't find a way to describe it other than cute.
I have to say going into this I was expecting a cute little love story and while we do get that there were some aspects that we got that I wasn't expecting. The first thing I wasn't expecting was the POV of a dog. While I thought it was cute, I could have done without the POV of the dog because those chapters came off very childlike and I just didn't care for them. Like I said we do get a romance, but the book is mostly about the unconditional love between a human and her dog and again I thought it was cute, but it wasn't what I was expecting/wanting so I was left a little disappointed.
3 1/2 stars Unconditional Love is a standalone novella set in the small surfer town of Tofino in British Columbia, Canada (a beautiful place I might add). Maya Finnigan is living out her summer by going to summer school and chilling with her dog, Bear. Kolt Waters is new to town, handsome and also attending summer school. Maya doesn't like Kolt but when her dog Bear goes missing, a friendship quickly develops into something more but with added complications of their parents having a past. The story is told through both Maya and Bear's POV. Seeing the relationship through Bear's eyes was a cute take on what is otherwise a standard clichéd romance.
This is the perfect easy to digest romance for when you want to read something in one sitting. Just some minor grammatical and spelling errors through the book. This novella is available for free online through book retailers and I received my copy through Voracious Readers Only.
This was a pretty good novella. It was a cute little story about teens who are experiencing the teenage love bug. It also had a cute side story about the girl’s dog. Overall, it was a fun and easy read.
I love how the characters engage with the dog "bear" also the mind and actions of bear to those around him... Sad at the end. But people who own dogs for a short while know its life, dogs break our hearts eventually by leaving us.
A good short little book, Quite sweet, especially loved reading about the dogs point of view 🐾 I didn't expect the ending tho (no bad details but it did sadden me a bit) lol
It's an okay book. Its a really quick read without a lot of detail. I feel that if more time had been spent on it then it could definitely be a 5 star.