I am absolutely delighted to share my review today for Choices Shape, Losses Break by Nia Lucas. I am so pleased that Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources sent me a message about this book as I had missed seeing the post for the Blog Tour about it. Having read Nia’s previous book Loved Punked I knew I would be in for a good read, I wasn’t disappointed.

Synopsis

Shunned and struggling at home and school, teenager Lorna Davies clatters into chaotic and charismatic Shay O’Driscoll and Leon Barrett at an illegal rave in 1995. As Lorna’s talent for dancing sees her unexpectedly employed in the strobe-lit heart of 90’s club culture, her world is turned on its head by her budding friendship with Shay and Leon. For the boys, their high-risk lives endanger all three of them in an association that blurs the lines between friendship and dependency.

As the risks escalate, Lorna’s best friend Hannah, her brother Dan, her bully-turned-protector Nico and her unexpected friend Rosa watch with concern as she is thrust ever closer to harm in an intoxicating new landscape. When life-threatening events risk separating them permanently, Lorna, Leon and Shay juggle love, loyalty, sacrifice and exploitation as their lives change beyond recognition. Will the losses they face break them all?

Purchase from –Amazon UK (this is an affiliate link) or Amazon US

My Review

Once again this author has written an absolutely amazing novel. I am still at a bit of a loss as I sit and try and put my thoughts into some sort of order. So before I really get into it I am going to try and categorise this book into what genre I would put it in and actually it falls into several. I was wondering if there was such a thing as urban contemporary fiction and when I had a sneaky peek over on Amazon I discovered there was! It is also a coming of age, older teen romance and also a damned fine read.

The story is that of Lorna Davies, she is bullied, she has chores at home that are never done right or to a good enough standard in her mother’s opinion, she doesn’t have the best reputation and even the teachers expect her to achieve nothing. She is one of those girls who wants to live in the shadows as much as she can trying not to be noticed. Some of the accusations are down to her actions but are not worthy of the taunting and bullying.

Things change when she goes along to a club and loses herself to the music and she is spotted and asked to join two other dancers to dance on the podium spots, this then leads to being paid to dance. Friends are made and things start to change in Lorna’s life.

The author has the ability to completely captivate me with this story. A girl who is bullied who then starts to find a freedom from the taunts, and jibes. There is a problem however, one is her age, she is not yet 16, and also her out dancing at raves and in nightclubs actually leads an even bigger rift between Lorna and her mum.

The author has woven a storey of family friends, expectations, sacrifice and love. There is quite a strong sexual thread through this story and there are times it does border on the explicit. Now, I am not one for this type of thing in my reading but the author has tackled this in such a varied way. I am not going to elaborate any more but just be aware.

The characters of Leon and Shay are brilliant, and there are times I really wanted to knock their heads together and as I understood their backstories more I realised that understood how they acted and reacted as they did. Lorna, well, initially it took me a while to warm to her but as the story progressed I found a character that had a hell of a lot more gumption to her than I originally thought. The three characters support each other in different ways. It has a whole range of emotions and the ending is just unbelievable.

This is a fabulously addictive read that I absolutely adored. It is a book that I would Absolutely Recommend.

About the Author

I am a UK-based author of Contemporary women’s fiction who is passionate about writing amazing, strong and relatable female characters who readers really invest in- I love to write stories about the best mate you wish you’d had! My Welsh heritage and my life as a practising Social Worker with teenagers and their families heavily influences my work as does my love of all things 90’s, especially Rave and Clubbing culture. My first novel, ‘Love Punked’ is rated 5* on Amazon and my second 5* rated Novel ‘Choices Shape, Losses Break’ is now available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited!

Social Media Links – My Facebook Page is Nia Lucas Books where my latest news and updates are posted and readers can also follow me at @BooksNia on Twitter or @nialucasbooks on Instagram.

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Many thanks for reading my post, a like or share would be amazing 🙂 xx