A perfect book for the sweltering sticky season of summer.

I enjoyed the story but most of all the evocative language used to depict the yearning the main character had for Susannah and vice versa. The use of filth and spit and commonly gross things being the objects of wonder and tools for yearning was immaculate (Lucy being obsessed with Susannah eating and chewing and spitting, and Susannah lusting over Lucy’s dirty fingernail and revealing it in a love letter). It just showed a pure desire at all costs that the characters had for each other.

However I do think some parts got repetitive, in particular the self-explanations Lucy gives for her actions- saying that she is a coward, selfish etc when we can already infer this on our own or can remember her telling us this the first time she told us.
I also feel like the conflict of the story could have been resolved if Lucy had just studied for her exams and made plans for college, it would
We saw Lucy go from using Martin as her shield plan to just agreeing with everything her mum wanted her to do with him. And maybe I missed out on something, but Lucy didn’t seem like the extreme people pleasing type like that. Wouldn’t it have been a decent solution to say she would want to focus on college before doing anything with Martin? And then Susannah could meet her wherever her college campus would be and they could be open with their love there and when Lucy would go home for the holidays she would be able to keep up the illusion and secrecy (which was not so secret in the end).

We don’t even know whether Lucy herself would ever be interested in college, only that her family doesn’t it even consider it an option for her or don’t take that prospect seriously. I feel like outside of Susannah what did Lucy have going for her? I wanted to see more of that, especially when she moved to Dublin.

I also wanted to see her life with Susannah after she posted that final letter and Susannah opened the door. I wanted to see if they stayed in the manor in Crossmore and whether Lucy saw her family and her ex friend group. I wanted to see her heal and maybe make friends with those in Crossmore that understood her.

Idk I just wanted a bit more after that ending, and I feel like we spent too much time with Lucy denying herself.

But overall this was such an easy summer read, and I really enjoyed the descriptions and the yearning. I’ll be checking out anything else the author puts out.