I loved this. I thought it was a great sequel to Slammed. I enjoyed seeing Will and Layken overcome their struggles, and grow throughout their relationship. I highly recommend reading this, but make sure to have tissues.

My thanks to the Publishers for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review. This is the second in the Slammed series, the first one being Slammed.

In Point of Retreat the story of the relationship between Layken and Will continues. Having had a rocky time in Slammed, I wasn't expecting that the relationship would be an entirely smooth one between them as true love never does run smoothly, does it?

I enjoyed this story and found it an easy read, that could be picked up and put down easily without losing track of what was happening to the characters.

The Slammed series is aimed at the YA reader and is well wotth setting your eyes upon if you get the chance to read them.

Didn’t like it. It was boring and the writing juvenile definitely not a book I would read again. I think I’ll pass on this author from now on

Amazing!! Were to even begin, this series is just amazing! Colleen can write such vividly real, relate able stories. I am transported to Will and Lake's life, and I am so happy to be apart of it. Just Brilliant Mrs. Hoover!
Love being back in Will and Lake's world they go through so much in this book, and it all seems to make them stronger and solidify their need and love for each other. I love this great connection they share. They have some tough circumstances to deal with, and more trusting/faith issues to work on in this one. Have tissues handy Mrs. Hoover knows how to pull every possible emotion out of me....and I loved every minute of it.

Returning to these characters felt wonderful. It was great to see more from Will's point of view in this novel! The stand out parts were the whole neighborhood aspect! I want to live there, the side characters made everything feel so real. Carries the same heart and raw emotion as Slammed. A well done sequel!

Love is not like the fairy tales led us to believe – it is not just a matter of falling in love and then having a happily ever after. The reality of love is that it is tested and challenged after the initial excitement wears off. This is what happens in the book, "Point of Retreat" by Colleen Hoover. The book explores the challenges that a couple faces after they have been together for a while and the love is no longer new. The characters must learn to communicate and work through their differences in order to make the relationship work.



This book is an excellent example of how love is not always easy but is always worth fighting for. If you are looking for a book that will make you laugh, cry, and think, then this is the book for you.

You can never go wrong with a Collen Hoover book. She knows how to write a beautiful and emotional story. Everytime.

On my mission to finally read the old books in my Netgalley account, I completed both Slammed and its sequel, Point of Retreat, back to back. To no one's surprise, in Point of Retreat, the angst continued for our young lovers, Will and Lake, who seemingly could NEVER catch a break. In the previous book, it was Lake who drove me crazy with her immaturity and drama. In this book, it was like Will had a personality transplant and it was his turn to make all kinds of bone-headed moves. Once again, entertaining in a "train wreck, can't look away" kind of way, but not a book I would have finished if I hadn't committed to reading/reviewing it. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Even though I was not overly enamored of the first book in this series, Slammed, when I finished it I started Point of Retreat right away. I was interested enough in the lives of the characters at that point to want to see how things played out.

Warning: there are spoilers for Slammed in the review ahead.

Point of Retreat begins about a year after the bulk of Slammed ends, and a few days after the epilogue at the end of that book. Lake Cohen’s mother has been dead about four months, and Lake and her boyfriend Will are living across the street from each other, each raising their younger brother. Lake has started college and Will is pursuing a graduate degree in education.

Early on, the novel has a strangely episodic feel, dealing with the couple’s bout of food poisoning and their struggles to discipline their brothers, who are getting in trouble in school. Neither of these subplots seem to have much relevance to anything else in the book. The major relationship-related plot point of the first third of the book is Will and Lake’s decision to finally have sex. The way sex is handled in PoR felt a bit strange to me (this was true of Slammed, as well). Lake and Will make out and express a desire to be together, but the love scenes feel oddly G rated; there’s no real heat expressed. Though they’ve been together for over a year, they haven’t slept together; that in itself stretched my credulity. They are healthy, normal 22-and-18-year-olds, and neither seem to have religious or moral objections to pre-marital sex. The ostensible reason for waiting was in part a request from Lake’s dying mother to Will that he hold off for a year, which I found kind of creepy. Like, you’re going to be dead soon; stop trying to run your daughter’s sex life from beyond the grave. You don’t even get the feeling they’ve done much other than kiss in that time, which, again, didn’t ring true to me, given the circumstances.

I don’t mean to belabor the sex issue, but I guess it bugged me because I couldn’t figure out if it was written that way to make the book okay for younger audiences (it is a YA book, after all) or if it was a case of following the old and annoying romance novel device of putting off sex for as long as possible to increase the tension. Indeed, there are contrived interruptions at several points that prevent the couple from doing the deed. I just found it tiresome; I wasn’t jonesing for some Will/Lake sex, but I did want to see the relationship move forward. (By the end of the book I wondered if there wasn’t some old-fashioned morality at play here as well, but I can’t really talk about that without spoiling the ending of the book.)

From the moment Will’s ex-girlfriend is mentioned in PoR, and given a name (she was mentioned but not named in Slammed), I knew she was going to be a plot point/obstacle to Will and Lake’s happiness. As expected, the girl (her name is Vaughn) pops up in Will’s elective class on Death and Dying and attaches herself to him like a suckerfish.

While Slammed was narrated by Lake, PoR is told in Will’s voice, in the form of journal entries, though I kept forgetting that conceit until the date headings popped up; the prose didn’t read like journal entries. Will’s voice is rather flat, as befitting the general lack of personality he shows in the two books.

The main problem I had with Point of Retreat was that it felt disjointed and completely unnecessary as a sequel. The ending of Slammed resolved the characters’ issues just fine, and all that Point of Retreat does is create stupid conflict based on the characters acting dumb and/or obnoxious, which once again only points out (as it did in the first book) the shaky maturity of their supposedly deathless love. Further, there are yet more plot developments later in the book that highlight how very soap-operaish these two books are – most of the conflict (heck, most of the plot) is driven by cardboard villains, fatal illness or horrible accidents.

I just realized that this review is about 60% the length of my regular reviews, and I think that reflects the fact that I just don’t have that much to say about Point of Retreat. My grade is a C-.

Love this book! One of the first I read by Hoover and have not stopped since. Hoover has a way with words that grabs you into the story and you never forget.

A review was published on Goodreads and amazon, however for the purposes of feedback and title support in netgalley I enjoyed this book.

I recently caved and read Colleen Hoover’s book, Slammed. I was hugely impressed with it and I was really looking forward to checking out the sequel, Point of Retreat. While I did enjoy the book, I was actually quite disappointed with it.

Will and Layken’s story was actually pretty wrapped up in Slammed but I was still interested in reading more about them so I decided to give Point of Retreat a shot. After loving Slammed, I had really high expectations for the sequel. Sadly, the book just couldn’t live up to them. Everything went downhill right from the start. The story was dull, the characters didn’t have any development, and everything was way too predictable. I think the only thing I liked about Point of Retreat was the addition of Kiersten, a very quirky young girl who becomes friends with Calder and Kel. She was hilarious! She fit in great with their group and I really did love her. However, from there on out, things weren’t so great with Point of Retreat.

First off, I wanted to slap both Will and Layken. Will starts taking some college classes and his ex-girlfriend, Vaughn, is in the class with him. Does he tell this to Layken? Of course not. So when she finds out, (like she inevitably will) she flips out. Rather than give Will time to explain, she completely blocks him out and sets into motion the whole rest of the book. Will and Layken handled things like teenagers. If they expect to be parents to their younger brothers, they need to grow up and handle things like adults! I mean, really, how hard is it to take a little time and just talk things out? And I will admit, Will handled things a lot better than Layken. Layken acted like a whiny little brat. It really got on my nerves and I lost a lot of respect for her after her temper tantrums.

Then there were Eddie and Gavin. While I actually didn’t have a problem with them throughout the book, it was their storyline that got to me. I won’t give anything away but let’s just say that it’s rather predictable and overdone. I did still love Eddie and Gavin’s relationship and their relationships with Will and Layken though. Eddie is just as hilarious as ever and when you put her and Kiersten together, it’s a total riot.

Like I said earlier, the story was rather predictable. I won’t give anything away but I will say this: I wasn’t even sure I wanted to read the second half of the book! It was really cheesy and rather than finding things romantic, I just wanted to roll my eyes and laugh.

Overall, Point of Retreat just wasn’t for me. I should have stopped with Slammed and just enjoyed how much I loved that book. However, tons of people have enjoyed this one so if you think you’ll like it, definitely check it out.

I loved the first book and was excited about this sequel. I began reading this book and for some reason it didn’t keep my interest. I put it down hoping to read it at some other point since sometimes reading a book at a different time may be better, but I never picked it up again.

Sequels don't always live up to the magic of the first book, but this one did! I'm not sure if I liked reading from Lake's point of view or Will's better. I can't wait to read the third one and see what these two are up to in that.

I cannot begin to express how much I loved this book! It is one of the best I've read of its genre, and I enjoyed every moment. It was great to get more Layken and Will. They are wonderful characters and I loved seeing how their story progressed.

Hello,
My apologies for not reviewing this book. It expired before I had a chance to read it, and I no longer have access to it. I do hope to read it sometime in the near future though.

My apologies again!