If I Don't Have You follows Kayla, a Black British woman who is an artist trying to make it in New York City. Ren is a sexy, film director who feels that he's sold himself out to make big blockbuster films as he struggles to recover from heartbreak and deception. The two meet as Kayla interviews Ren about his new film and the pair end up spending an unexpected evening together which alters their feelings and attitudes to love and life. However, things are not so straight forward as the novel pans out and both have deeper issues to deal with.

The structure of the book helped to build up a realistic relationship between the two as the chapters alternated between Ren and Kayla's perspective. There were also several time jumps which helped to draw out the romance over a reasonable time to make it more natural.

Admittedly I did struggle a little bit to begin with, to get into this one but I think that was partly my mood when I first picked it up. As the book progressed I became entirely absorbed in Ren and Kayla's narratives. Whilst I went into this expecting a fluffy romance it actually ended up offering much more than that. It looked at trust, openness, self-belief, creativity and personal journeys.

There were moments of sexiness that made the romance sizzle but I found myself most drawn to their email exchanges, their odd letters and the long distance communications between Ren and Kayla. This built and developed their relationship. There was some heat, but how they opened up in these moments made me especially emotional.

If I Don't Have You was a fantastic romance that I thoroughly enjoyed. I'd really recommend you give this one a go.