Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Kyland is a novel set in a desolate town in the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky. The world Tenleigh (our heroine) and Kyland (our hero) live in the bleakness of poverty and hardship with the only escape being a full-ride scholarship to college that is only given to one student. The odds and their upbringings are against them. Tenleigh with her heart on her sleeve, and Kyland who will do whatever it takes to escape. What will happen and what sacrifices will be made when their worlds intertwine?

With this being an older romance, I had a different set of lenses on while reading! I've read a couple of Mia Sheridan's more popular novels, Archer's Voice & Most of All You. So, I knew going into Kyland - I was signing myself up for an emotional love story. Boy, it was emotional. It's the type of romance where your chest feels tight and as a reader you're like "what.. will they ever catch a break?" But despite the heart breaking moments, Mia weaves in many tender moments that I loved: the library notes, watching the sunset, bob cats & princesses, the lavender field and Christmas Day. It's what truly made the book special and I think Mia did a great job at displaying the innocence and naivety of young love.

There were a few things I wished were a bit different. Being mainly a romance, the plot line was predictable so I knew the formula and where the story was heading which I didn't mind. However, I wanted to see a bit more character development and I think that would have helped if the adolescent/teenage years were cut back a bit. There's a time jump, and I wished we got a bit more on both characters during that time which would have improved the pacing especially towards the end. In addition, there were a handful of grammatical errors/odd sentence structure that was a bit distracting.

With that being said, I read this book in less than 12 hours. It's a very quick read and if you're looking for something emotional, pick this up!

"Sometimes my life felt so small. And I had to wonder why those of us who were given small lives still had to feel pain so big. It hardly seemed fair.”

The way Kyland and Tenleigh story is brought together in this book is beautifully captivating. I love how strong female character is portrayed as well. Read in just a few hours because the way Mia writes every book is so easy and captivating that you can't manage to put the book down once you start.

Tenleigh and Kyland are two teens that live very difficult lives. They live in a town that never quite recovered from tragedy, where they struggled to stay warm and have enough food. Their stories mesh together throughout this book in a captivating way.

There’s always something special about books that allow characters to rise up from tragedy. Mia Sheridan does a great job of putting you into their shoes to enjoy the entire story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. These opinions are 100% my own.

Kyland
Mia Sheridan

Genre: Romance
Rating: 5/5 ⭐️
Recommended: Yes!

Amazing. From start to finish this book took me on so many emotional rollercoasters and it was amazing. I think after Most of All You, this is my second favorite Mia Sheridan book. I love how strong the female main character was in this.

Read if you like…
* Small Town
* Hurt/Comfort
* Insta-Love
* Plot Twists
* ANGST

This is fairly typical Mia Sheridan. Definitely over the top soap opera, but I have a soft spot for a hard luck story, so I was satisfied!

Lovely coming-of-age story with genuinely kindhearted characters. There’s just this little more I expected and found missing, something that would have glued it more together or made it less predictable. Of course, the love story was, as always with Mia Sheridan, beautiful, yet with all that grime and soot, it felt—to me anyway—a little “too good to be true.”

Beautiful. Heartbreaking. Tender. Hopeful. Inspirational. Romantic.
This story has made me fall so in love with love.

Mia Sheridan has done it yet again and further cemented her place on my favourite authors list.

I was ready to gatekeep my love for this book forever but I guess I'll let my secret out. I read this in 8 hours. That’s all, that’s the review.

Just kidding. I don’t typically race to read romances that have high schoolers as main characters but this book checks so many other boxes that I didn’t care. There are two timelines (we see the characters around age 18 and then 4 years later) and it’s dual POV which always keeps things interesting. The setting is in the hills of Appalachia and the story presents themes of poverty, classism, drugs, and mental health.

Also don’t let the awful cover with a male model on the front scare you away (I prefer the alternative cover for sure) and the book is being rereleased in May 2023. I swear it’s amazing writing, the storyline twisted and I ran through it so fast. Could not put it down.

I adore Mia Sheridan, I love her writing and how she just grabs you and keeps you involved in this book until the end. The character’s in this book and the story of how they became is soo wonderful, chef’s kiss! I cannot wait to read more of Mia Sheridan’s books.

Seeing this book on my shelf made my day!! Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this ARC.