A review by lunahale
Headstrong Like Us by Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

this book gets one star for luna and donnelly. even individually, i loved them so much in this, and we got to see A LOT of donnelly—especially in his relationship with farrow (which i LOVE). and even though they didn’t have that much interaction with each other (at least less than i wanted them to get, there was actually a fair amount of discussion about them considering they’re background characters), and they literally projected the words “one time thing” into the sky on a billboard, i still loved them. if they get done dirty, i will literally never read another kbr book—i mean it. they are my favs and i will riot.

this book gets another star for sulli and akara. they probably had the most page time in this book compared to all the other books combined--and i know that this was because kbr are trying to prep us for the poly, but i’ll take it.
sulli literally broke up with her boyfriend bc she found out he told akara to “stop flirting with her.” it’s a literal gold mind of moments—especially when sulli said, out loud, “My boyfriend told Akara to stop flirting with me” and banks took a shot saying “i’m team kitsulli.” so maybe i thrived a little this go around.


one more star for loren hale. i know a lot of people are upset about his arc in this story, but honestly, i thought it was the best part of the book.
lo IS an alcoholic. that doesn’t change with time. and people are upset bc kbr is “ruining his development” but i disagree. i don’t know if it’s because my father is an alcoholic, but it was so utterly human to read about lo’s struggles in this. to me, it made him a real person and not just a character in a book. and just because someone is sober for a really long time, doesn’t mean they won’t relapse. i think a lot of the people that are complaining about him—complaining about kbr making him—buying that bottle of whiskey just don’t personally know an alcoholic and want nothing about lo to change. lo is still a great person. he’s still an amazing dad. he still loves lily. he’s STILL an alcoholic. so this might be an unpopular opinion, but i loved loren hale in this book.


the last star is for
ripley because he was the cutest baby, and i really liked the whole story line surrounding him—even if it made me sad.
and i guess this star can also go to farrow and moffy because i actually enjoyed reading about them and this is probs my fav book with them in it. (even though i also gave llu and alu four stars. i know. i make no sense.) i felt like they actually had a relationship in this and it wasn’t all just sex. i mean, they got married in this so i would hope this would be the case, but i had to wait til now to feel like i finally got what i’d been waiting for with them. a perfect wedding book, in my opinion.
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