A review by kayetaz
Crossing Arizona by Bree Wiley

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0

5 ⭐️
Spice: 🌶️🌶🌶/5
Format: ebook

”and then we had hannah, and she became our reason to breathe. everything she is, everything she’s becoming, i owe to my best friend. he… he raised her like a father. he is her father.”

okay, i swear i don’t remember finding delaware being this painful, because this story was actually brutal on my heart.

matty and xed are childhood best friends that have been each other’s ride or die since fourth grade. matty has been xed's safe space his entire life, with matty sneaking xed in every single night to escape his abusive aunt. i’m talking one-bed trope for literal decades. their closeness lasts up through college, where they start to see the lines of friendship beginning to blur. the only persistent issue in their lives is val—matty’s on again/off again girlfriend. and things take a real nosedive when val winds up pregnant.
”out of everything that’s happened between us, hannah is the best thing matty and i ever created together.”

prepare for tons of angst and mutual pining.

i think for a lot of the book i was kind of upset with matty, but i eventually did really start to understand his perspective. xed is just my sweet little sad boy and my chest constantly ached for him.
“i used to belong here. he used to make sure i belonged. now, i’m invisible. unwelcome.”

i loved the little family we got with matty, xed, and hannah. the way those boys loved that little girl just pulled on my heartstrings the whole time. we also got all of the amazing characters from book one back, up to even more shenanigans this time around. i loved seeing huck and tay again, and christian and salem, and even logan. but of course my favorite of all is uncle devon. bree, please give me his book soon. i need my ducati daddy so bad.

i really enjoyed the addiction and mental health representation in this book. bree’s stories are always very heavily focused on accountability and getting professional help. xed and matty worked super hard on themselves so they could finally reach their hard-fought hea, and it was beautiful.

i can’t wait to see what bree has in store for us next with this series, and also any future endeavors. she just never misses, i fear.

”’matty, our friendship, it’s… this state we’re in isn’t healthy.’
his head tilts to the side. ‘utah?’”

*i received a free, advanced copy of this book from the author and this is my voluntary, honest review.