I won an ARC of this book from the publisher through a GR giveaway which has in no way impacted my review.
BR with Rosaline!

I have a lot of mixed feelings towards this story. This a story that packs a really important message. It deals with a lot of difficult topics including grief, love, loss, depression and finding who you are and who you want to be. And because of that, this book is important. All of those mentioned topics are handled really well, in a way that is respectful to the characters and any readers who may have dealt with something similar.

The descriptions of pain and grief, of living with depression, and of figuring out who you are after dealing with something traumatic, are all incredibly spot on. The descriptions made me, and I believe they will make other readers, feel something. The writing was beautiful, and accurately described some of the emotions that people would feel if they were in a similar situation or in a similar place emotionally/mentally to these characters. While I’m on the topic of the descriptions I feel like I should mention that the writing is great across the board, the author doesn’t just nail emotional descriptions, he also creates beautiful imagery throughout the story that makes it so easy to visualize everything that is going on. The characters feel real, and I think I would be saying that even if it wasn’t for how easy it was to connect with them emotionally.

One thing that really surprised me about this story was the content of it. While dealing with so many difficult things and so much emotional representation, this book was also just super sweet and super funny. While I was reading the book, I first thought that the author bit off more than he could chew. I liked so many different aspects of this story individually and was struggling to understand how everything would fit together without feeling completely tacky. Thankfully at the end of the novel everything comes together really well, and it just becomes a relatively accurate representation of how sometimes life has a funny way of working out exactly how you need it too. And I just want to stress that this isn’t even done in a conventional/obvious way that frequently happens in books where everything all works out. It’s messy, and weird, and a little confusing but most importantly it just all feels so natural when it all falls into place. Part of me wants to say that the real life aspect of this book was distracting from what could have been a more detailed journey of the mental/emotional effects of dealing with the things dealt with in this book, but I think that was just my own personal preference, because I’m not sure that was the point of this story. BUT that being said some of the deep introspective parts of this book that resonated with me felt out of place due to the light tone of things going on despite what the MC was dealing with. It was just a weird balance of the two, it managed to feel accurate and inaccurate at the same time.

My only issue with the story was the love aspect of it. I really cannot go into details without spoiling anything, so despite my best attempts at a spoiler free review, I’ll have to put this section under a spoiler tag.

Let me sum up the situation for you real fast before I explain my issues with it. Tess meets Jonah at a party one night, he leaves the next day and they continue to communicate online. Tess finds out via FB that Jonah has passed away is completely heartbroken. Fast forward a few weeks and Tess gets a message from Jonah’s fb where she finds out that while he relationship started with the real Jonah, eventually his roommate Daniel took over and was having the conversations with Tess. He developed feelings for her while he was posing as Jonah and so he reaches out to her. Tess originally feels betrayed but then curiosity gets the best of her and she starts talking with Daniel so that she can learn more about Jonah and also more about the boy who she has been messaging. They meet up, they connect and I’m sure you can see where this is going.
I just dislike that it starts off with lies, and that if it weren’t for the death of Jonah, that the relationship between the two of them would likely never have happened. I personally feel that this relationship is tainted with betrayal and disrespect for Jonah. I think it’s a huge slap in the face to Tess because she ends up having to question who she was mourning since it turns out that the boy she had been talking too was still alive. I think that this could have been just as successful of a coping mechanism if they were just mutual friends of Jonah’s, who had met up to help with their grief. I think that the idea that Tess loses someone she loves just to find someone else she has strong feelings for so quickly is unrealistic and unnecessary, and while it provides opportunities for Tess to find closure I feel like there could have been better/more realistic options to explore.

Overall this is a pretty good story with a pretty good message. I think it’s worth it for anyone to read and form their own opinion on. There is a lot to like and respect here, and after reading this novel I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out to see if the author has any other stories planned.