A review by andie
You, With a View by Jessica Joyce

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

Stories that deal with grief always get me in a different way, and I felt like the way this one handled the grief Noelle felt about her grandma was done nicely. The story itself felt like Letters to Juliet, which is one of my favorite movies. If you've watched it, you can see some similarities. The road trip and the letters were my favorite part of the book.

I was so invested in this story up until half of the it, but then things started to fall flat for me. I didn't get it at first, because some of the excitement of the first half was still with me and I wanted to see where it would end – specially since the infamous third act conflict doesn't happen until so much later in the book – so it was only when I finished and actually took some time to think about it that I realized some of the problems that I had with this.

As much as I like a good rivals to lovers romance, the fact that this entire romance is based on a rivalry that used to happen 10 years prior is so? Sure, feelings can resurface if the person was really a crucial part of your daily life back then, but to keep acting like both of you haven't changed and just fall back into the habit of bickering is amusing at first but it gets tiring at some point. 

Noelle and Theo's relationship during the trip they took was built on sexual tension and not so much in emotional feelings, and as much as the author tries to justify it during the book, it didn't sell it for me. We saw a lot of sex scenes and not so much of them emotionally connecting or any real convos between these two, besides the bickering and teasing. There's even a moment where Noelle tries to justify it to the reader saying that their connection is both physical as it is emotional, but is it really? Because we got like, two heart to heart conversations between these characters and that was it? 

I won't talk about the third act conflict because that annoyed me so badly. But let's just say that if you want to do a third act conflict, why not just make it happen earlier in the story instead of establishing the relationship and make us watch them being happy for more than a 100 pages when we know something bad is coming? 

One more thing before I wrap up this review: why doesn't Noelle have any strong friendships (or more female friendships)? Sure, she has her brother and his girlfriend, but not showing enough of their friendship in this book was definitely a choice. 

Maybe I'm being way too critical of this story, but even though it's enjoyable for the most part and I really liked some of the quotes, I still feel like some of the narrative choices could've been better.