Never Look Back ? Spoiler Free Book Review ? [CC]

Hi, everyone! It’s Natalie, and welcome back to 
my channel. Today I’m going to be reviewing Never  
Look Back by Lilliam Rivera as part of the book 
tour hosted by Colored Pages, so I would like  
to thank Colored Pages for providing me with a 
copy of this book. I also forgot to mention this  
earlier but down below in the description you will 
find links to where the schedule is posted, so you  
can see the other posts people are making as part 
of this book tour. And I will also have linked  
down there the social media of Colored Pages 
and of this author, so check that out if you’re  
interested. So, now I’m going to read the summary 
of this book for y’all because, once again,  
I have become illiterate, and I apparently have no 
skills at summarizing books. So, let me just read  
what is in the back of the cover to tell you what 
this book is about. Eury comes to the Bronx as a  
girl haunted. Haunted by losing everything 
in Hurricane Maria and by an evil spirit.  
She fully expects the tragedy that befell her 
and her family in Puerto Rico to catch up to  
her in New York, yet for a time she can almost 
set this fear

aside because there’s this boy.  
Pheus is a golden voiced, bachata singing charmer 
ready to spend the summer on the beach with his  
friends, serenading his on-again off-again flame. 
That changes when he meets Eury. All he wants is  
to put a smile on her face and fight off her 
demons, but some dangers are too powerful for  
even the strongest love. As the world threatens 
to tear them apart, Eury and Pheus must fight  
for each other and their lives. I rated this book 
4.5 stars. I loved it so so so so so much! Like…  
Like, I don’t know how I’m gonna be literate for 
this video because I just loved this book so much,  
and it’s so hard to put into words why I loved 
it so much. So, like. I’ll try my best! I think  
for sure one of my favorite things about this book 
was the main characters: Eury and Pheus were just  *chef’s kiss*
beautiful. Amazing! Stunning! Incredible! We love 
them! They… They were just amazing. And, honestly,  
one of the things that really really worked was 
that they had very distinct voices. There’s not  
a lot of books that I read that are written in 
first person that have dual perspective and do it  
well. But I found that this author did that really 
really well. You could always tell if you were in  
Eury’s mind or in Pheus’ mind. And it’s because 
they viewed the world so differently. The things  
they noticed were different. The things they 
cared about were different. So, it was impossible,  
basically, to get confused while you were 
in the perspective of one or the other. So,  
I thought that was brilliant. Because, genuinely, 
not many authors can pull this off. And I’m so so  
so impressed that this author was able to do that. 
Perfection! Amazing! We love to see it! There are  
no words. There are no words. But when it comes 
to the particulars of the characters, I have to  
say that Pheus was one of my favorites. He was 
just… I loved him. He was like the playboy, but  
he had like this soft side. And he was, like, so 
invested in helping Eury, and it was just like… *sighs*
I’m just gonna be like, “it’s just like. Like. 
like.” Because I am *laughs* illiterate. I don’t have words.  
He was just precious. I loved him… And I want to 
protect him. Okay? Eury was more of a challenge.  
I struggled to get into her character at 
first. Mostly because she was very into  
if people didn’t help her the way she wanted 
to be helped then she was like, “screw you. I  
don’t want you. I don’t trust you.” And whatnot. 
And I was like, “ma’am? ma’am? can we calm down? *laughs*  
can we calm down?” But, eventually, I did really 
end up liking her. I really enjoyed following her  
journey to…basically learning how to self-advocate 
for herself, how to face her demons, and be like,  
“I can’t avoid this, but I’m also not going to 
be so terrified that I don’t do anything.” So,  
yeah. A large part of the story is about Eury 
learning to take charge of her life and not be  
afraid of putting the effort that it takes to 
be in full control of your life. Something else  
that I thought was done super well in this novel 
was the representation of an abusive and toxic  
relationship. Eury has this spirit, Ato, who has 
followed her since she was a child. And Ato is  
basically textbook abuser. Like, you look at the 
characteristics of someone who abuses someone,  
and you will find everything there. Like, he 
checks off all the boxes. But I thought the  
way the author presented it was really well 
done. It didn’t feel like…she was trying too  
hard to make me believe that Ato was an abusive 
character. Like, it was just his behavior. Eury  
did have moments where she would like flat 
out say it or that she or she would think things  
like, “he just wants to possess me.” And stuff like 
that, but it never really felt like she was trying  
to hit me really over the head saying that Ato 
is abusive. Like, you could see it for yourself.  
Like, you would just observe his behavior and you 
were like, “yeah. this… this dude is not worth shit.  
*laughs* He’s not worth shit.” So, yeah. I just 
like the execution of that. And I liked  
how there was this intersection between Eury’s 
anxiety and Ato’s abuse. Like, the two of those  
were woven together really well, and they 
fed off of each other. And so it led to Eury  
being pretty messed up, so I… I just thought it was 
brilliant, honestly. I don’t even know how to put  
this to words. I just thought it was…really 
well done. Another big element of the story  
since Eury has this spirit, Ato, connected to 
her basically is El Inframundo. And, honestly,  
the scenes we got in El Inframundo were the best 
scenes in this whole book! They were haunting!  
They were chilling! They were full of atmosphere 
and this creeping sense of horror and dread.
Like, how? How– how else am I supposed to put this 
into words? It was just so well done. It was so  
well crafted! Those scenes really felt like the 
author put all her love and attention to them  
because they really really took the stakes really 
high up, and they delivered time and time and time  
again in just like in plot and atmosphere and 
character development. Yeah. I don’t know how  
else to put it. It was just brilliant. It was 
just brilliant. That’s like my key word for this  
book and for this review. It was brilliant, and I 
don’t have more words for it. But the main reason  
I rated this 4.5 stars instead of 5 stars was 
because of the romance between Eury and Pheus. I  
felt like we had some pretty good build up. Like, 
when we started the novel and they started to get  
to know each other, it was going well. I was 
like, “I like this. they’re taking their time.  
it’s going well. I like it.” But then… The getting 
together part was…unsatisfactory. At least to me  
it was. It felt too sudden. And suddenly they were 
like, “I love you so much! you’re everything to  
me!” And I’m like, “what is happening here? why– 
why are y’all acting like this?” So, it was that  
bizarre thing where the relationship, especially 
that getting together part, that middle part,  
was rocky for me. I was like, “I’m not super into 
that.” But I do have to say that by the end of the  
novel, I was invested in their relationship. I was 
interested in them being together, and I did think  
they were really really cute together. So, as a 
whole, I enjoyed their relationship. It just could  
have been tweaked a little bit more so that the 
progression of it felt more steady or followed  
a more “natural” course. Regardless, again, I was 
still into them. I still shipped them. I still  
think they were cute as hell. So, what does it 
matter? Now, as a Puerto Rican reviewer who has  
a lot of commonalities with Eury… I also left 
Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. I felt very…  
seen by Eury’s character. She didn’t have the 
same experiences as me. I wasn’t as horrifically  
displaced from Puerto Rico as she was, and 
my reactions to it weren’t quite the same,  
but I still felt like what she felt on the inside 
because of that event very much connected to my  
own experiences. And I could understand her 
longing to return to Puerto Rico because I have  
the similar experience where I left Puerto Rico, 
and I’ve been in Chicago almost three years now,  
and it’s just starting to feel like my home. Like, 
I still don’t entirely feel like this is my new  
home even though I’ve been here for three years. 
Puerto Rico still feels largely like my home,  
so it’s… It’s this thing where I could really 
relate to how she was feeling about that,  
how she was feeling like she was in this space, but 
it was not hers. Her space is back in the island.  
So, I don’t know. I thought it was just really 
really well done, and it really resonated with  
me. I could definitely feel how this…was written 
by a Puerto Rican author. I know that this author  
did not move to the United States because of 
Hurricane Maria, but still. I could feel… I  
could feel the care that she took into creating 
Eury’s character, and her relationship to the  
island, and the hurricane, and all of that stuff. 
So, yeah. It was very meaningful to me. And  
another thing that was really meaningful to me in 
this weirdest way possible… Let me see if I can  
find the quote again… So, yeah. Lilliam Rivera 
uses Spanish throughout this book, and she does  
it brilliantly. Like, I forgot to mention that 
before, but her use of Spanish is incredible.  
It’s so so well done. So well incorporated 
into the story it… It’s seamless. It’s  
literally seamless. I could not find a flaw in 
it. Great! We love it here! But what the quote  
I wanted to point out, which was strange to me 
but at the same time it was the the thing that  
reached my heart the most in the Spanish use, was 
that Pheus asks, “Chacho, tu no paras?”
And that just felt so…
So Caribbean. So…representative of…what I would 
hear my friends saying, what I would hear other  
people in the island saying, that it was just 
so… It reached right into my heart even though  
it was just such a short thing. It was just like 
that chacho. I was like, “oh my god.” Because  
I really hadn’t seen other books written in 
English use that dialect like that, and it was…  
See? I’m speechless. I can’t even speak about 
it because it was just so…impactful for me.  
It was like…the author saw me 
in such a simple…statement. And…  
Yeah. I don’t have words for it. I’m… I’m gonna 
stop because I already feel too emotional. And I’m  
like, “I haven’t cried once in this channel, and 
I’m not planning on starting now.” So, let’s end  
that there. Let’s– Let’s stop. So, yeah. That’s 
basically all my thoughts on this book… Well…  
the most coherent ones I could put together for 
this video. Definitely, definitely I recommend  
you pick up this book. I definitely think it’s 
worth reading. I’m personally so excited to hit  
the backlist of this author because I know she 
has a few novels that she released before this  
one. So, I’m like, “I’m ready. I’m ready to become 
a Lilliam Rivera stan! I’m ready.” *laughs* Anyway. So,  
that’s it for today’s video. Thank you all so much 
for watching. If you enjoyed this video, please  
don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe. If 
you would like to follow me on any of my social  
media, I will leave the links that down below in 
the description. But, for now, see you next time!

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