Thoughtful by S. C. Stephens

Hey everyone,

My last few days have been consumed by Thoughtful. I loved the original Thoughtless trilogy and devoured them one after another; to this day it is one of my favourite trilogies. Therefore when I found out that S. C. Stephens was writing Kellan’s POV I was both ecstatic and nervous. Ecstatic because this was Kellan! But nervous  because whenever I’ve read a companion book before I’ve been disappointed.

The book:

In Thoughtless, Kiera told her story. Now it's time for Kellan Kyle to share his side in Thoughtful . . .

The only place Kellan has ever felt at home is on stage. Gripping his guitar in a darkened bar, he can forget his painful past. These days his life revolves around his music and his band mates, and that's the way he likes it. And then one woman changes everything . . .

Kiera is the kind of girl Kellan has no business wanting - she's smart, sweet, and dating his best friend. Certain he could never be worthy of her love, he hides his growing attraction . . . until Kiera's own tormented heart hints that his feelings might not be one-sided. Now, no matter the consequences, Kellan is sure of one thing: he won't let Kiera go without a fight.

My thoughts:

I loved this book! I loved it more than Thoughtless and that is probably because I found Kellan a more likeable character. Reading the story from Kellan’s POV was like wearing an old jumper that had been distorted in the wash. 


It looks similar, feels similar but is just different enough to make it feel new. S.C. Stephens did a fantastic job of staying true to the events that happened in Thoughtless without making Thoughtful a mere clone. We are introduced to Kellan’s world; we learn more about the D-Bags, his friendship with Denny, his childhood and of course his feelings for Keira.

‘She was as unobtainable to me now as my dead parents, her love just as unreachable. But this time, I deserved it. I was a bastard, in every sense of the word. She was better off without me’.

Kellan made this book for me, where as in Thoughtless it was the story and the passion between Kellan and Keira that made me love it. Here it was all Kellan with his self-doubts, his selflessness and his unwavering love for Keira. Here we understand why he acted as he did, even if to Keira he appeared to not care. Don’t get me wrong this book has all the passion and angst that made the original series so addictive but without the does-she-doesn’t indecision of Keira’s feelings.

‘It was a nightmare and a fantasy all rolled up in one’.

I love this quote because to me it perfectly sums up Kellan’s and Keira’s relationship. They love each other, desire each other and need each other so intensely that it almost destroys them and Denny. Yet for Kellan it isn’t whether he loves Keira that torments him but instead whether he is worthy of her love. Whether someone, is capable of loving him. Right up until the last few chapters he is convinced that she will choose Denny, because Denny is the good guy, the right guy, the ‘perfect’ guy.

‘The three of us were going to be some odd, fucked-up family. I had no idea how this could possibly end well’.

I can actually see myself re-reading Thoughtful more than Thoughtless purely because I loved Kellan’s POV so much more. I loved the connection he had with the D-bags, and the scenes between the four of them where great to read. I particularly liked the character of Evan who we got to know so much better in this book.

Now whether it would work as a stand-alone I can’t say with 100% certainty, because I didn’t read it as such but I think it would. This is a full length novel at over 500 pages and it doesn’t read like parts of Keira’s and Kellan’s story were missing.

My rating:

Happy reading everyone and see you next time!

Thoughtful is available from Amazon, Waterstones, Sainsbury’s, WHSmith and Audible