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4.36 AVERAGE
4.36 AVERAGE
funny
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
fast-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:
Complicated
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Found the issues too hatd to read about
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
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
I think this is my favorite of the "trilogy"The tie backs to the other books with both Bri and Jacob and Alexis and Daniel is great. I completely forgot Amber was the name of Daniel's bio mom. And Neil getting is house burned down is very funny and the fact that he just accepted it was hilarious. I like the Abby Jimenez books because I feel like each book has just the extra layer, other romances would've ended like 20% earlier at the first happy "ending" but jimenez takes it a step further to deal with the problems the characters have from their pasts instead of the love interest just fixing each other problems. Also I like having both POVs its fun :)
slow-paced
Okay so this book started off super cute. The writing is easy, it flows so well, and I was immediately into both of the main characters and the whole setup.
But as I kept going, some stuff really started to bug me. By chapter 14, I was so frustrated with Emma and her whole situation with her mom. Like, girl, you know your mom has a history of being flighty and ruining everything, and now she’s dating your landlord/boss? Maddie was 100% right telling her she needed to stop it before it blew up in her face. If something happened between her mom and Neil, it could literally ruin her entire life. And Emma just kept being like, “maybe she’s better this time” or “it has nothing to do with us, at least I know where she is.” NO. This woman has already wrecked so much for you, and now she’s about to do it again. It was just annoying to watch Emma ignore reality.
And then there’s the “getting small” thing. I get that it’s her trauma response, but oh my god, it got so repetitive. Every other chapter it’s “I’m getting small.” At first I understood it, but by the tenth time I was rolling my eyes. It didn’t make me feel more for her, it just got on my nerves.
Honestly by the end, Emma just annoyed me as a main character. She refused to take people’s advice seriously, and yeah, she kind of took accountability in the end, but not enough for me. Maybe I’m being harsh, but I’ve read plenty of books where the heroine has trauma and issues and I wasn’t mad at them. With Emma, I was just mad at how she handled everything, it was so unhealthy for her and everyone else.
Now, Justin? I loved him. He was so sweet, so kind, and honestly he should’ve been the one having the mental breakdown, not Emma. Like yes, he had a good childhood, but he also took custody of three minors because his mom went to jail. That’s huge! And yet, we barely saw him actually deal with that. We were told about his situation, but the book didn’t give us his struggles, it was all Emma, all the time.
So yeah, the beginning was great, but by the end I was just frustrated. Emma dragged the story down for me, and Justin carried the whole book on his back.
Original rating: 3.5 stars
Original rating: 3.5 stars
Actually moving this down to 2.5 stars the more I think about it. I loved Justin, but Emma is almost 30 and still behaving this way? Abhorrent. She even says she went to therapy before, so shouldn’t her coping mechanisms already have been in place? And sure, people will say, “Oh, she didn’t know all the real stuff that happened.” Exactly—she didn’t know. So it couldn’t have been affecting her. She believed her grandparents were dead, so how could that cause her trauma? Her original trauma should have been dealt with already. The more I think about this “getting small” thing, the more it annoys me. Every single chapter she’s like “I’m getting small,” which is basically just her shutting everyone out. That’s fine for a five-year-old, a seven-year-old, maybe even a 19-year-old. But a grown adult? Don’t say “I’m getting small.” Say “I’m withdrawing.”
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes