Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced eARC. 

Overall, I liked the messages and themes from this book. I resonated with Aurora’s character deeply having lost my own mom unexpectedly and feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the grief of it all. Aurora’s journey to rediscovering her identity and trying to understand how to navigate loss while in the midst of grief was very real and raw. Couple those complex feelings with her also dealing with the loss of her dad and you have a story that I believe sticks with a reader, especially one who finds themself without the only family they know. 

I liked the idea of Aurora being reconnected with a sense of family as she navigates to Sicily to meet her mother’s family that she didn’t know existed. Unfortunately, I think there were several instances where the writing just fell short and I found myself just wanting to get to the end of the book. 

This is a good read, but felt rushed in some places and too drawn out in others.

I liked this way better than Part of Your World. Something about an incredibly anxious teddy bear just pulls my heartstrings. Brianna believing she was broken and unloveable was something I think some of us women who have had bad luck with men have thought at least once, so her trauma was very real. I think I loved the letter writing the most. Such an antiquated and intimate way of communicating, especially when someone takes the time to actually write them by hand rather than type it out. I loved this story even in the parts where they were both being ridiculous with one another and honestly with themselves. 

I was going to give this a 2.5 rating because it was dragging and felt like the story was never going to end. Bumping it up to a 3 ⭐️ rating though because the last 20% of the book had me very engaged. I hate having to wait for book 4 to learn what happens next, but such is life. 

This was an emotional read, but Canon and Neevah are one of Kennedy’s best couples. I only wish I could have at least read what happened in regard to the movie since it was such a central piece to the story. 

Oh, this book captured my heart and attention from the beginning and kept them until the end. This reminding me of how I felt reading Carley Fortune, so automatically, this has become a favorite. 

I loved Jo’s character. I’m so happy to have read about a FMC who has everything going on for her, empathetic to her core despite having a difficult relationship with her estranged mom. This book is another example of how having emotionally immature parents affect the adult relationships of their child(ren). 

I also loved Mal. What’s not to love. A handsome romance writer with a heart of gold who loves the FMC unconditionally?! Yes, please! His banter with Jo was top tier and I even loved his relationship with his friends, Kieran and Kelechi. 

Now to Ezra and Renata. I immediately pictured Renata from Big Little Lies, aka Laura Dern, but with an accent. I do appreciate the relationship both mother and son had with Jo, but also understood the complexity of their relationship because of Ezra’s attempted suicide and what came across as a bit of a savior complex after understanding Jo’s traumatic past. It’s really tough to call because I do think they both loved her, but in their own way because of their own difficult relationship with Paul/husband/father, they didn’t go about expressing it in the best of ways, but showed it through their money and access to a more luxurious life for Jo. 

I want more of this book and these characters. I feel like there is more story there and while they had a happy ending, it did feel rather abrupt. 

I still highly recommend this book! 

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced eARC. 

I wanted to like this, but it was just meh to me. I didn’t really like either one of the characters. The plot wasn’t that interesting either, but overall, it was just an okay read.