Summary of book: Gracie Landing, a romance writer, is going through a difficult time with a recent breakup and writer’s block. To cheer herself up, she turns to alcohol and ends up emailing her high-school crush, Colin Yarmouth. To her surprise, Colin responds with a friendly and flirty message, sparking an unlikely friendship between the two. As they get to know each other, Gracie becomes inspired by Colin’s own experiences with heartbreak and with his encouragement incorporates his story into her work-in-progress. However, she has no idea that borrowing Colin’s story could have negative consequences on her life, career, and chances at finding love. How this impacts Gracie’s relationship with Colin and how her use of his story affects her writing and personal life is the crux of the story. Will she be able to navigate these challenges and find happiness, or will her actions lead to further complications?
General Review: For me, this book would have been better if there had been more of our couple and less of the secondary plots and characters. In the beginning I really didn’t like Gracie and I think that in trying to make her relatable Micciche made her a TMI mess. As the story progresses and you get less of that and more insight into her career development and Colin’s family life the better the story gets. I also wish there had been more focus on developing their relationship before they were lovers. As the story progresses you begin to root for them more and more and I really liked the third act resolution was not immediate.
Characters: Everyone is a hot mess. Gracie grows on you as the focus is less on her TMI screw ups and more on the character flaws. Colin is pitiable and pretty much from the start you want him to walk away from his friends and family. Which leads me to my biggest complaint about this book. I hated all the secondary characters. Not in the good way but in the “I wanted to skip over pages that included Dom and Colin’s Dad and the rest” kind of way.
Plot: I liked the plot of the story, struggling writer finds story with her childhood crush and it leads to romance and chaos. Literary plots are a favorite of mine, but I would have liked more of this and less flashbacks and softball.
Tropes and Triggers: Second chance (sort of), Divorce, cheating (not MCs), bullying, emetophobia warning
Quotes:
“He laughs. ‘You’re ridiculous.’
‘You love it,’ I say.
‘I just might,’ he says.”
“All I’m trying to say is that I really care about you, Gracie. I feel like I screwed up the chance to get to know you in high school, and I don’t want to screw it up now.”
“That’s the thing, Gracie.” He looks deep into my eyes. I’m hoping it never ends.”
Stars:
Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC review opportunity.
