Rating: ★★★★
Audience: NA Contemporary Romance
Length: 336 pages
Author: Kristin Dwyer
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: January 9th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Atlas James has lost her way.

In a last-ditch effort to pull her life together, she’s working on a community service program rehabbing trails in the Western Sierras. The only plus is that the days are so exhausting that Atlas might just be tired enough to forget that this was one of her dad’s favorite places in the world. Before cancer stole him from her life, that is.

Using real names is forbidden on the trail. So Atlas becomes Maps, and with her team—Books, Sugar, Junior, and King—she heads into the wilderness. As she sheds the lies she’s built up as walls to protect herself, she realizes that four strangers might know her better than anyone has before. And with the end of the trail racing to meet them, Maps is left counting down the days until she returns to her old life—without her new family, and without King, who’s become more than just a friend.

Thank you HarperTeen for the eARC.

A GOOD READ.

I really enjoyed this book. I do want to note this fits into the new adult category and not young adult. The characters are 18-20 and there are some vague open scenes.

Anyways

This was a messy journey in the best ways. Grief is nonlinear and gut punches you at the worst times and this showed a lot of that. I liked that Atlas had ups and downs and that in the end of the book she had found something new to hold on to and look forward to.

The romance grew on me but I do feel like it was missing something, like maybe a little more background King?? I don’t know, but I did like many of their quiet moments and the connection they were trying to forge. The found family was tangled and pushed and pulled all of the emotions. I loved the hiking and nature plot that allowed for the chance to just let go.

It was a really good book and one I’d recommend if you’re in the mood for something heavier.

Overall audience notes:

• NA Contemporary Romance
• Language: some strong
• Romance: 2 vague open door
• Violence: low
• Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of a Dad from cancer, grief/depression depiction, underage drinking

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