Every Move – book review

The sequel to Every Breath and Every Word comes Every Move – a the thrilling and addictive book, written by Ellie Marney.

After the dramatic events that unfolded in London, a road trip back to her old home in Five Mile sounds like a good plan to Rachel Watts and to her brother Mike. Fragments of her haunting past rearrange themselves in Rachel’s dreams, leaving her feeling like she won’t ever be able to escape the things she got tangled up in when she met Mycroft. Returning to some place familiar seems like the best thing to do to help Rachel overcome the memories that torment her day and night. But when Mike picks up his old friend – the wildly unreliable Harris Derwent – Rachel starts to feel like things are going downhill.

Back in Melbourne, Rachel’s ‘partner in crime’, James Mycroft, is dealing with issues of his own. When Harris comes back to Melbourne with Rachel and Mike, things get worse for Mycroft as everything about him seems to conflict with Harris. Then a string of murders suggest that the mysterious Mr Wild – Mycroft’s own personal Moriarty – is on their tail. When tragedy strikes, Rachel and Mycroft realise they’ll have to recruit Harris and take matters into their own hands…

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Since I read the first book in this series, Every Breath, I’d been addicted to the story of Mycroft and Rachel. Their lives were so captivating and following their journey has been thrilling and completely addictive. This series is definitely one of my favourite, especially because almost all of this series is set in Melbourne. Because of that, this series felt really close to home and made it even more enthralling. This whole series is amazing and unputdownable.

One thing that I love about this book is how well-written it is. I always felt like I was right there beside Rachel and Mycroft when I read this series. The descriptions are either beautiful or haunting or nauseating depending on the situation, but every word always seems perfectly placed, making the books flow perfectly. Every Move was paced really well. There wasn’t any moments in this book where I felt bored reading or wished something more was happening. There also weren’t any parts where too much was happening, causing me to feel over-burdened. One of the things I hate about books is not understanding what’s happening because we have too much information dumped on us at the one time. That’s definitely not the case with any of the books in this series. I immensely enjoyed reading all of them, especially Every Move. 

The characters in this series is definitely my favourite thing about these books. Since being introduced to Rachel and Mycroft, I fell in love with both of them. They were so well-developed and perfectly imperfect, as well as fun and interesting to be with. I’ve really loved getting to know them so well over the course of this series and I felt like we got to know these characters even more in this book. I had a few questions about their pasts in the first two books and all of my questions were answered in this book. I loved getting answers to everything I wanted to know and I liked seeing that we didn’t get all the answers all at once. Every Move gradually gave us the answers we wanted and needed without it ever seeming like we were just being forced-fed information in order to end this series without too many doors still open.

Mycroft would really have to be one of my favourite book boys. He’s witty and intelligent, has a mysterious side about him and can also be dark and brooding. You know those characters that aren’t perfect and have quite a few problems, but to you, they just seem so perfect? Mycroft is one of those characters. To me, he couldn’t have been better written in this series. Everything about him was developed and I loved learning about his history even more in this book. His imperfections only made him more desirable and alluring and because of them, I felt the need to grow closer to him. Though, that wasn’t hard at all. The description of his appearance and how we learn that he has an British accent, meaning I read all of his dialogue in that way, made him irresistible. The make out scenes between him and Rachel were perfect and made me wish I was Rachel, but realistically, I’d rather just be hiding somewhere near by with binoculars and cooing at their cuteness.

Rachel was also a beautifully woven character with her set of flaws and unique attributes. It’s rare for characters to not get on my nerves much, but Rachel was one that I liked being with all the time. And while I didn’t agree with all of her decisions all of the times, I understood her reasoning and respected her for not relying much on others and getting things done. She wasn’t a weak character in any way and I admired her determination and courage in countless situations. One thing that I also really liked seeing in her in this book was how she struggled to cope with certain things after what happened to her in the second book, Every Word. It was somewhat refreshing to see how what had happened to her affected her mentally and I liked seeing how she managed to overcome these problems. I feel like that too often in YA fiction, the characters have terrible things happen to them and do terrible things and don’t stop to process that or aren’t affected in any way. It’s unreasonable to assume that everyone is capable of moving on like a robot when realistically, almost everyone would be affected like Rachel was. It didn’t mean she was weak for reacting that way, it showed me that she was brave in admitting she had a problem and it was inspiring to see her work out her problems and find ways to solve them.

One character I really liked being introduced to in this book was Harris. In the beginning, I was really suspicious to who he was. I felt reluctant to trust him because of all the people Rachel and Mycroft had placed their trust in in the past and had those people betray them. I was worried Harris might have been one of those people, but I was very pleased to discover that he wasn’t. When I first met Harris, I thought he was going to be annoying and uncivilised and rude. It was amazing to see how the first impressions of him dictated how I would react to reading about him and how none of us should judge people before they know them. I loved getting to know Harris’s backstory and what had happened to him in the past that moulded him into the person he is today. I felt like even a lot of the minor characters were very well-developed, which seems had to do well in novels. None of the characters seemed simple or underdeveloped and I enjoyed spending time will all of them.

This series is definitely one I recommend to everyone, particularly those who like thrillers, action and romance all interwoven together. If I had to pick my favourite book of the series, it would have to be the second one – Every Word – though I loved all of them immensely. If you haven’t picked up this series yet, I definitely recommend it and if you haven’t had time to pick up the last book yet, I urge you to do so as soon as possible! This is such a great book to read and I absolutely devoured it, so I hope you all do to. I’d give Every Move by Ellie Marney a score of 9 out of 10. Expect laughs and the occasional tear for this roller-coaster of a book!

A huge thank you to Allen & Unwin Australia for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review!