“So you never fell in love?”
“No,” he said firmly.
“Why?”
“Because none of them were you.”
I bought this book on a whim and had fairly high expectations after seeing Colleen Hoover’s review, but let me just say that this book delivers on all accounts. I can really see lovers of Hoover’s work enjoying this. It explores some very deep topics such as death, drug and alcohol addiction, physical abuse, single parenthood, unemployment, and what it’s like to have almost no money. You’re probably thinking, that sounds like a lot of heavy topics for one book, but Carlino just made it work. It only ever felt authentic to me.
“We can’t always control our circumstance, who our parents are, where we live, or how much money we make, but in those rare moments when we can shape our fate, when we do have the power to make our own happiness, we can’t be too scared to do it.”
I loved the whole concept behind this book and how there were two stories occurring at the same time: the actual life of the main character and the book she is reading that’s based on her childhood experiences. I enjoyed both aspects of the novel and thought the plot flowed really well, and the concept was executed perfectly.
“I guess it’s like reading a good book. The kind where you don’t want to skip pages to see what happens at the end. Each moment is a story in itself.”
Now, to my favourite part, the romance! This wrecked me just like Hoover’s It Ends with Us did. I found myself on the edge of my seat through all the hard passages. I couldn’t bring myself to read certain pages because I was too scared to know what happened next. I found myself getting so mad when things weren’t going the way I wanted. But to me, all of this is what made the romance so believable.
“I thought loving someone meant letting go, but by the time I learned that loving someone means fighting for them too, it was too late.”
Emiline’s indecision was completely realistic, no matter how much it frustrated me. I also absolutely adored Jase as a character. His cockiness, his selflessness, his charisma; it all made him such a pleasure to read.
“It’s impossible to really hate someone if you don’t love them at least a little.”
Lastly, this book was very well-written and quotable as hell. It tackled so many hard issues head on, whilst still containing such believable characters, and a beautiful romance. The only slight problem I have with this book was the epilogue. Without spoiling anything, I felt it would have been more true to the characters and the tone of the book if that had been left out. It’s not enough of a problem to affect the rating though as it’s books like this that make me so grateful to the author for creating them. I highly recommend this book and will definitely be reading the rest of Carlino’s work.
the adelaide librarian. 