Your honour, I love them.

This book was an emotional roller coaster. I loved Emma's empathy and how it changes others around her throughout the story, but also how she had to learn how to keep that while also keeping her peace.

There were a lot of familial issues touched on here. An incarcerated parent, a sibling turned guardian, parental neglect, a child parenting their parent, and that's not even the full list?? As such, there's a lot of reflection on who these characters are, who they can be, and how they can be together when so many factors are pulling them apart.

The mental health discussions, the humour, the strong friendships, and the heartwarming romance all came together to create a beautiful book. The way this connected back to Part of Your World was so surprising, and I barely caught it since it's been so long since I read the previous companions. Just for the Summer was fantastically interwoven into the series and the world's coming together was so perfect. I'm so happy to see how far Abby Jimenez has come with her writing and can't wait to see what she thinks up next!

TW: abandonment, parental neglect, incarcerated parent, alcohol consumption, mental illness, child abuse, emotional abuse, vomit, depression, PTSD; mentions suicide, death of a parent, car accident