Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Audience: YA Contemporary + Romance
Length: 304 pages
Author: Ashley Schumacher
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: February 16th, 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads
BOOK SUMMARY:
Sparks fly between two teens as they grapple with grief, love, and the future.
Eighteen-year-old Amelia Griffin is obsessed with the famous Orman Chronicles, written by the young and reclusive prodigy N. E. Endsley. They’re the books that brought her and her best friend Jenna together after Amelia’s father left and her family imploded. So when Amelia and Jenna get the opportunity to attend a book festival with Endsley in attendance, Amelia is ecstatic. It’s the perfect way to start off their last summer before college.
In a heartbeat, everything goes horribly wrong. When Jenna gets a chance to meet the author and Amelia doesn’t, the two have a blowout fight like they’ve never experienced. And before Amelia has a chance to mend things, Jenna is killed in a freak car accident. Grief-stricken, and without her best friend to guide her, Amelia questions everything she had planned for the future.
When a mysterious, rare edition of the Orman Chronicles arrives, Amelia is convinced that it somehow came from Jenna. Tracking the book to an obscure but enchanting bookstore in Michigan, Amelia is shocked to find herself face-to-face with the enigmatic and handsome N. E. Endsley himself, the reason for Amelia’s and Jenna’s fight and perhaps the clue to what Jenna wanted to tell her all along.
THIS WAS BEAUTIFUL.
I’m talkin’ made me tear up multiple times. Wanting to hug this book and give every ounce of love to these characters. Intensely poignant, yet hopeful and kind. Wow this is a read that I will be recommending to everyone!
The writing is what made me really love it. It was enchanting. Somehow taking the worst parts of someone’s life and combining them with the hopeful new beginnings of young love and starting over. The discussion of the healing powers of books/reading made me remember all too well how true that statement is for me.
I loved seeing Amelia grow through her trials and finding her footing in a new [to her] world. There’s many explorations of grief, loss, depression and more. I appreciated how these topics were discussed and how I was still able to love these characters and the story and not feel dragged down by the weight. Sometimes these types of reads can be too much for me, but this hit perfectly in many aspects.
This whole cast was top notch. Every character brought something to the story. Every character helped Amelia learn more about herself and her place in life. The romance was insta, but he way Schumacher portrayed it was everything I needed to enjoy such a quick intimate relationship. It was two people brought together through grief and the bond between them was tightly woven.
Read this book. I loved it all.
Overall audience notes:
- Young adult contemporary + romance
- Language: very little
- Romance: kisses
- Trigger/Content Warnings: depictions of grief and depression after loss, losing a best friend, losing siblings, parental neglect, anxiety and panic attacks, drowning, car accident
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