Out of Nowhere

Nowhere #2

by Felicia Davin

Aidan Blackwood barely survived an unethical experiment by Quint Services. Researchers there robbed him of his ability to access the Nowhere, a void between worlds that allows him to teleport. Aidan plans to destroy the company and the man behind it, trillionaire Oswin Lewis Quint.

The problem? Aidan’s childhood best friend Caleb is the one who rescued him. Aidan’s spent years distancing himself from Caleb. It’s the only way to protect him from the dangers of Aidan’s life as a Nowhere runner—and the only way for Aidan to protect his fragile heart from unrequited love. Now Caleb is inextricably involved in Aidan’s most dangerous plan yet. Aidan’s already lost his power. He can’t lose the person he cares about the most.

Caleb lied his way into a secret Quint Services facility to rescue his best friend. He won’t be shut out of Aidan’s life now, even if it means risking his own life in Aidan’s wild scheme for revenge. As they pit themselves against a ruthless, corrupt trillionaire, Caleb worries that his unexplored feelings for Aidan might be love—and that he might not live long enough to find out.

Genres: Romance, Science Fiction, LGBT, M M Romance, Science Fiction Fantasy, Queer, Fantasy

286 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 2, 2019

About the author

When not writing and reading fiction, Felicia Davin (she/they) can be found teaching or translating French. She loves linguistics, singing, and baking. She is bisexual, but not ambidextrous.

Originally from Kentucky, she currently lives in Massachusetts with her partner and their cat.

Reviews

[Sully Smutty · Rating 4 out of 5]

RTC!

This is a really fun Scifi romance trilogy and you can tell the author had fun writing it. Highly recommend!

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun!

This series featires characters who are gay, bisexual, non-binary and questioning. It also features characters for as muslim and Jewish (though neither are very religious) and characters who are Indian, black, and white.

This particular book features friends to lovers and a charcter discovering their sexuality in their 20's which is one of my favorite tropes since that's what I did.

[Haden · Rating 4 out of 5]

never again have to choose between a+ fake dating and a+ fantasies about revenge on the filthy rich

[mercedes · Rating 5 out of 5]

when i say i TORE through this.... so funny and sexy and tightly plotted. heaps and loads of mutual pining and everyone's favourite -- fake dating!! this world and these characters and their feelings (especially their feelings) are all so, so rich. i especially loved the way miss davin peppered in vignettes from aiden & caleb's life growing up together. i wish i could read this for the first time all over again!!

[PaperMoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been almost 1.5 years since I read the first book and after embarking on this read ... I had to go back to re-read salient chapters of Edge of Nowhere to jog my memory banks of featured characters and to get bearings on the plot locale etc. Taking up the plot just weeks post the events of the first book, this book features Aidan and Caleb (and to some extent also Laila) who were secondary characters with strong personal motivations to take-down a powerful antagonist.

This sci-fi/paranormal world has 'runners' - disenfranchised mavericks, somewhat societal outcasts, with dubious reputational standing, whose genetic capacity affords them the ability to traverse space/distance via teleportation through a void (known as the Nowhere). Instead of keeping the dramatic action within the bounds of this world's dimensions as well as the Nowhere itself, I was surprised by the void giving pathways to 'alternate' realities/worlds - and therefore of 'copies' of characters running amok. This is not a new thing - other authors and TV shows have used this to great effect but I have to confess there were moments where I was as confused as the plot's characters as to who was 'real' or 'a copy' - the written POV's aren't always that clear.

Despite some 'niggles', I enjoyed the overall delivery and there was a satisfying HEA ending and a promise of another book in the series to come. 3 stars overall.

[Door Person · Rating 4 out of 5]

i loved the first book in this series, but i think i love this even more! the universe davin has built is so INTERESTING but also TERRIFYING, from a near-future-dystopia point of view, but she does the best thing you can do with dystopias: puts a found family into it. i loved the romance at the center of this book: childhood friends, fake dating, a soft one and a spiky one! it’s lovely and real and beautiful. but i also really truly loved the fleshing out of the details about other runners who we didn’t really see in the first book. seeing the union up close here, and the way runners were supporting each other despite the danger, was maybe my favourite aspect of this book.

[Marzipop · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

Some bits were weird and didn't make sense but I'm enjoying the series and world too

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book free as an ARC reader for review.

This novel started out a little convoluted, confusing, and odd. However, once you actually get into the story it’s pretty good. It’s about survival, and honesty, and faith in each other. It’s about being true to yourself and about taking chances. It’s about possibilities.

[Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up. it just wasn't as good as the first book, and everyone seemed super weirdly accepting of the doubles thing? idk, maybe I just didn't pay enough attention in the first book, because while the possibility of alternate realities was brought up, it seemed very very hypothetical and more along the lines of entire alternate dimensions where *everything* would be completely weird and different, not "yeah there's a parallel universe with double-versions of pretty much everyone and oh btw your evil twin is wandering around now" and the MCs were just kind of like "cool" and kept it moving. zero amount of freak out from literally anyone whatsoever. Caleb questioning his sexuality was the maximum amount of freaking. the plot also seemed strangely unbelievable in comparison to the first book, maybe due to the lack of any real reaction? so that translated in a lack of investment?? idk but something was off in this book, plot-wise

the actual writing and relationship were both good though, so I'm definitely rounding up for that, and I also plan to continue the series!

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2021/0...

So this one was a little less awesome, because I wasn’t as into the characters, minor characters from the first book—the teleporter who's trying to start a union (cool) and his best friend since childhood (Jewish), who is maybe not as straight as they both thought. The plot here is also egregiously silly—they want to kidnap a guy from an alternate reality who is the double of the bad guy in /their/ reality, and make him confess to the bad guy's bad doings. And everyone just goes along with it!! Plotting is definitely the weak element here, but the end was pretty cute. I don’t think I’ll read the third one in this series; I was hoping it’d be about some of the local lesbians, but it’s about two of the stoic dude scientists I don’t care about. The author has a fantasy series I might check out instead. B.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great second book and added beautifully to the trilogy with its own story and also adding so much more for the next instalment. I love this authors writing, I was captivated from the beginning and read this through really quickly. Will definitely be a re-read for me. I don’t normally read space books but maybe this is my groove?! I loved it. The characters were a delight. The world building fascinating and engaging. I love how the author created a wonderful cast of diverse characters with varied sexualities, backgrounds and physicalities. It felt natural and so very normal for almost everyone to be a variant of queer and/or person of color and this was just so good! I immediately purchased book 3 and jumped straight in.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought for awhile that the author didn't start this with the clearest idea of the main characters. But at the first plot twist, I blinked twice, genuinely surprised. So.

It is not a fast read, it builds on the first book and there are a lot of complications, some of which Aiden causes. But I really, really enjoyed those last several chapters, and I will be reading book 3. Congrats, author, on making book 2 this strong. Notably, there are very few typos, a sign of a very good editor/copy editor. Bravo.

[Arcturus170 · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*
I like this sequel almost entirely for the characters. The plot is… a layer cake of ridiculous coincidences. It’s a fun ride, but doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. I’m split on whether I’d read again. I really like Caleb and Aiden and their fierce yet floundering devotion to each other. Also one of the only fake relationship tropes that I’ve genuinely liked. Again, it’s a ridiculous setup, but the fake vs real feelings are so confused and overlapping that the MCs are bewildered and it’s great. Props on that.

Fun read, but don’t pull too hard on the plot threads.

[Susan Scribner · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot of the series became too crazysauce for me Doppelgangers of every non-Runner in another reality? Really?, and I grew weary of the old "I must push him away because I'm not worthy of someone so hot and nice/I'm a wanted man and would put him in danger" dynamic. It's rare for me to not finish a trilogy once I start it, but I have a lot of books on my TBR list that will be read before I tackle this one's conclusion.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fake dating, a queer collective teaming up to take down an evil billionaire, and kissing your double... she’s got it all, baby.

(Yes I assume all runners are queer. No I will not be taking questions on this matter.)

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caleb didn’t want anything to do with that. His double wreaking havoc on a stranger’s reputation wasn’t his problem. The whole fucking multiverse was falling apart, and more importantly, so was he. [loc. 2434]

Sequel to Edge of Nowhere, which I enjoyed enough to immediately buy the rest of the trilogy: Out of Nowhere avoids middle-volume syndrome by picking up the story with different characters and with a different mode. This is more romance-with-SFnal-elements than SF-with-romantic elements, and it's also a tale of the multiverse, complete with exact doubles, different histories, and an ambitious heist.

Caleb took a job at QSF17 (a secret research lab hidden in a captured asteroid) to rescue his childhood best friend Aidan, who's a runner -- someone able to teleport and to take things with them -- and who was abducted by representatives of Quint Services. The rescue was accomplished (see Edge of Nowhere), but Aidan is no longer able to teleport. While Aidan recovers (and broods about being in unrequited love with his straight childhood best friend) Caleb encounters his own double, realises that the multiverse is a thing, and comes up with a scheme to make Quint pay by having his double confess to Quint's crimes.

What could possibly go wrong?

Actually, most of the things that I thought might go wrong didn't: instead Davin presents a delightful, and surprisingly successful, heist, complete with a celebrity spiritualist (last seen taking delivery of a vomitous dog), a new serum, and a life-saving drug. Also identity porn, activism, fake dating, and a trillionaire getting his just deserts. There are some dark moments (and quite a few points where I wanted to yell 'just talk to him!') but the finale was very satisfactory.

[Ashley (Red-Haired Ash Reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Series: Nowhere #2
Rating: 3 stars - I liked it

This book picks up right after the previous one ends. Aiden Blackwood has survived being experimented on by Quint Services but is now determined to bring down Oswin Quint for his actions. Aiden is the leader of the Runners Union and I enjoyed getting to learn more about him, the union, and why he does what he does. Aiden was an interesting character. I enjoyed seeing him open up some and learn to let himself be loved.

Caleb was a sweet man who risked his life to rescue Aiden. Caleb and Aiden have been friends since they were children and Caleb continues to look out for Aiden as an adult. He is the one person Aiden knows he can trust. Aiden has had a crush on Caleb for years, but it wasn’t until after Caleb rescued Aiden that he realized he felt more than friendship. I enjoyed seeing Caleb explore his sexuality and accept the fact he is bisexual. Also, I really enjoyed that this started as a fake relationship because it's one of my favorite tropes and I wasn’t expecting it. It was great seeing these two fight their feelings while trying to play a fake couple.

The plot to bring Quint down wasn’t what I expected. They end up getting help from other realms and it was a very interesting concept. I was a bit disappointed that most of this story focused on Earth and taking down Quint. I was expecting more about the Nowhere and the rift that was created. Overall, I enjoyed this one and look forward to seeing what happens next in Nowhere.

Trigger Warnings: references to imprisonment and torture

You can also find my reviews at Red-Haired Ash Reads.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free E-version in exchange for an honest review. I will preface my review with an admission that science /speculative fiction is more my interest than romance. I also have not read the first book in the series.
All that said, this is a better romance than science fiction book. I had much less trouble believing the relationship elements of the story than I did the science fiction elements. Caleb’s surprise kiss, Aidan’s longings, the confusion, the interest, they move the romance along as smoothly as these things usually go. Davin writes romance well.
The sci-fi story surrounding the romance has holes that my disbelief falls through. The smart house pieces had plot holes that kept me from suspending disbelief. A lot of the story hangs together but I wasn’t able to ignore the various gaps I kept wondering about. If I hadn’t kept stubbing my toes on the plot-holes, the review might have been 4 stars (or better).
Overall, I liked a lot of the book at a concept level. I liked that the book could stand alone. I liked that contact with the parallel reality had a positive influence on the “current”/book space reality.
If you’re more of a romance reader and sci-fi is more like wallpaper for you, you will likely enjoy this book even more than I did.
I appreciated the opportunity to read this genre. I rarely run into well crafted romance in the sci-fi field.

[Kiran R · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am more of a romance reader than a sci-fi one, but I was positively charmed by this book. Although it can be read as a standalone I would recommend reading the first in the series, as it makes the branching scientific concepts easier to follow. And because it's great.

The first chapter contains the best moment of 'oh no, he's hot' I've ever read and the amount of times I shouted at certain characters was embarrassing. I won't spoil too much, but some of my favourite tropes like 'mistaken identity' and 'accidental confession' make a feature and it's always fun to see how those resolve. Caleb and Adrian's relationship is full of love, and it's nice to see how they keep surprising each other. I'm not sure if nerd jock vs prickly runner is necessarily a theme in the series, but it's certainly a dynamic I'm enjoying.

The narrative itself is well balanced between the growing relationship, the plot against Quint and the exploration of the life of runners as a whole. I'm excited to see what shenanigans the Nowhere gets into in the third book. And if poor Dr Lange ever gets a break.

Just to note, although I did receive an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review, I purchased the first book with my own money and am excited to do so for the third.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've rated this middle of the trilogy 3 stars, but like the other two books, it's a 3.5. I rounded down because it's not quite as strong as the first--Kit is just such a great character--and it doesn't have the satisfaction of ending like Nowhere Else. But this is just such a solid space opera.

I do love me a friends-to-lovers, bi-awakening, fake-dating story, and the romance between Aidan and Caleb is terrific. I also enjoyed getting to know Fake Caleb and Fake Oz, even though the multiverse was about as hand-wavey as it could be. (After the pretty solid world-building in book one--and we need more space hockeyball--that was definitely a disappointment.) Laila's return was welcome, and the series in general did a great job with pivotal female characters in MM romance. Caleb's ringing defense of Aidan was also great... but did Aidan really deserve it? The guy was kind of a goody-two-shoes dick, honestly.

Of course, some of this is middle book syndrome, and if the execution didn't live up to the tropes, this is still a solid series and (at least for me) and unexpected pleasure. If you've come to Davin through their more highbrow French Letters, give this a try.

[NoNo JoJo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Preface: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The blurb I received on the review site didn't make it entirely clear that this was a sequel, so it took me a little while to get used to the cast and figure out what had happened in the previous installment, but once I did, it was interesting enough. I will definitely say that there is little to no real "story" here - the "plot" exists solely to further the romance, and everything else is just window dressing. The circumstances behind the fake dating stuff make no sense, the whole concept of a multiverse is barely dwelt upon, and the romance itself is pretty quick to get off the ground - Caleb goes from questioning his sexuality to, well, bottoming reaaaally quick, like maybe 2-3 days all told.

That being said, the characters are nice enough, there's lots of representation, there's nothing icky about the romance (aside from the fact that he wakes up to his sexuality via smooching his double, which...why?), and things tie up neatly. Just don't expect any real thought or reasoning behind the fluff.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
First, I should start by saying I did not read the first book in this series. Although this book can be read as a stand alone, I felt like some of the character connections would have been deeper if I had read the first book. Even with that, I did enjoy this book. It had a fun story line, spicy romance, and twists and turns I did not expect. At times it moved a bit too slowly for me and I lost interest and put it down, but it always picked back up. I am on the fence about reading the first book, and any more that may come, but probably will eventually.

[John-Torleif Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven’t read the first book in this series, so it was a bit disorienting at first, but I did not find it to be so bad that I wanted to give up on it (as happens fairly often). Aiden and Caleb were such a cute couple. I liked how they worked together to take Quint down while still trying to figure out what they meant to each other. It was also cool to see how passionate Caleb also was for Runners’ Union and their rights.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.

[H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Queer science fiction romance. Not as strong as the first or third books in this series mostly because we’re told about Caleb and Aidan’s relationship development more than shown it. The science fiction aspects, which should have been some of the more interesting parts of the book, are almost overly understated. Despite genuine set up for conflict and angst, this book skips right through.

[Mela · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me some time to get into it, because I didn't read the first one, but that's on me. I really enjoyed the world and the romance. Sometimes it's just the perfect book to read in there trying times. Definitely going to check out the first one as well.

[Ina Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars
Enjoyable, but not my favorite of the series. That being said, I gobbled this down in the space of a day and stayed up late on a work night to finish it, so clearly the plot and the characters grabbed me enough that I felt compelled to keep reading.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it! I’m happy there’s going to be a third one.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

These fellas made some of the most foolish choices ever and it was totally in character

[Joel Timmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continue. Of book. 1. Awesomeness. Story. Line.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐