Reviews

This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan

livinginikedworlds's review

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

kennedy's writing is so engaging it was hard to put id down. really liked how diferrent it felt from others stories and how differently structured families were shown with such care and understanding, their love for one another and theis families was the star of his book

amfollett's review against another edition

funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

denveryazzy's review against another edition

emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

I will start off by saying I loved the representation so much throughout this book. Romance is wildly white women and anything else edgewise has a hard time making it in. With that though I did find myself having a hard time Soledad. It often felt like she was using Judah and with him being a black man and her often portrayed as the spicy Latina…well yes you could see the tired stereotypes. Had the author explored the themes she either knowingly or unknowingly presented with that this book would have had a higher rating for me. 

allisonbuzard's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Loved the main characters, love the portrayal of friendship and sisterhood, love the bell hooks references. Such a sweet read.

cheyenney's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

in my review for book 1 I said edward sucks but never did I imagine it would be as bad as it actually was in this book 😭 overall this was an engaging read!! this book was definitely heavy on the drama in the first part, and I liked reading about sol's strength and the way her loved ones supported her throughout her healing. I also liked that sol out in the effort to meet judah's kids where they were at instead of making them conform to neurotypical standards. on that note, I felt like the author could've delved more into judah's own journey with identifying as autistic, even if he didn't want to seek an official diagnosis, but I also understand that this wasn't a super main point of the story.

SPOILERS
I didn't love how sol's journey to loving herself just never really felt like she was actually content with herself?? I'm not saying miss girl had to be completely alone or anything but it just felt like the whole time she was still pining for judah. I also felt like the whole subplot of judah learning to find happiness for himself could've been such a good setup for soledad to learn more of the little things about judah. since he got to learn all about her from her social media content, their relationship felt a little unbalanced to me. lastly and arguably the most important to me, I think there was sooo much opportunity for sol to talk to her kids about the value of labor in the home and what it looks like to love, respect, and prioritize yourself, but none of that happened in the book 😭 she didn't even talk to them about being in a relationship with judah which I feel like is always an important conversation to help kids w navigating transitions. she literally waited until they approached her about it when that should definitely be the adults responsibility 😩 but gripes aside the book was still p good and I like how well judah pays attention to her as a person!!

becsbookishvibes's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

brittneygrace's review against another edition

4.0

This is beautifully written and developed. I enjoyed her first book too. The complexity of relationships is extremely well done. 

staceyisbooked's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

jessiwygand's review against another edition

emotional funny sad

4.0

tjminus's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

As someone who loved Before I Let Go, the first book in this standalone series, I was really excited to read this book once I knew it was coming out. I still enjoyed this book and reading about Soledad's story. I do feel at times, it felt a little instalove-esque and almost leaned on this idea that if a man borderline stalks you it is romantic which is expected in romance novels, but I don't know if I loved it here. 

This book also started this idea that Soledad was going to be on this self love journey, but I don't know it if was really fleshed out. I wish we got a longer timeline, like Soledad being single longer than just under a year and seen her ease her way back into dating rather than just jumping with Judah. Given her more time to really be on her own, but that is just me.

Overall, I still compelled to read because of Ryan's writing and her characterization work and I am excited to read Hendrix's story when it comes out!

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Death of parent, Cursing, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol