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A review by alilbitofmonica
It All Comes Back to You by Melissa Wiesner
3.75
This is a slow burn, friends to lovers romance. It starts as a small age gap friendship between a high schooler and a college student, but fret not, because the friendship they have is SO wholesome and the romance does not begin until they are both adults.
This story, while the romance is still central, is really a kind of self-discovery journey for our FMC, Anna. I think her personal journey was the main theme and the friendship-turned-romance elevated the story in a beautiful way.
Anna had a very difficult life as a child and teen, but when she is partnered with hotshot college senior Gabe in her early to college class (as a high school sophomore because she’s a genius!), she finds a deep friendship and discovers a family unit that is truly one of the best fictional families ever.
This book then journeys through Anna’s life, with a few time jumps over the years to show her life changes, her maturity and her overall growth - as well as the development of her relationship with Gabe through it all.
So I say this focuses more on the life journey because so much of this story is about Anna’s search for her mother, and all of the many emotions that go into having an absent parent and feelings of inadequacy in, well, almost all areas of life.
At times, I grew a little tired of Anna’s constant self-sabotage. I know it was all rooted in a deep trauma that she avoided processing fully. But it did feel a little repetitive when the relationship with Gabe spun in circles for a good portion of the book.
There are also so many deep, dark, and traumatizing topics mentioned in here. There are discussions of domestic abuse, women’s rights, prenatal care/pregnancy (non-FMC) and child birth. As well as child abuse and neglect, drug addiction, and abandonment.
Note: At the time of reading this ARC copy, there was no epilogue included, so I do not know anything about the epilogue that I believe was added later.
Thank you to Forever and Melissa Wiesner for the advanced copy of this title (for a rerelease I believe?). My review is completely voluntary, completely my own, and always completely honest.
This story, while the romance is still central, is really a kind of self-discovery journey for our FMC, Anna. I think her personal journey was the main theme and the friendship-turned-romance elevated the story in a beautiful way.
Anna had a very difficult life as a child and teen, but when she is partnered with hotshot college senior Gabe in her early to college class (as a high school sophomore because she’s a genius!), she finds a deep friendship and discovers a family unit that is truly one of the best fictional families ever.
This book then journeys through Anna’s life, with a few time jumps over the years to show her life changes, her maturity and her overall growth - as well as the development of her relationship with Gabe through it all.
So I say this focuses more on the life journey because so much of this story is about Anna’s search for her mother, and all of the many emotions that go into having an absent parent and feelings of inadequacy in, well, almost all areas of life.
At times, I grew a little tired of Anna’s constant self-sabotage. I know it was all rooted in a deep trauma that she avoided processing fully. But it did feel a little repetitive when the relationship with Gabe spun in circles for a good portion of the book.
There are also so many deep, dark, and traumatizing topics mentioned in here. There are discussions of domestic abuse, women’s rights, prenatal care/pregnancy (non-FMC) and child birth. As well as child abuse and neglect, drug addiction, and abandonment.
Note: At the time of reading this ARC copy, there was no epilogue included, so I do not know anything about the epilogue that I believe was added later.
Thank you to Forever and Melissa Wiesner for the advanced copy of this title (for a rerelease I believe?). My review is completely voluntary, completely my own, and always completely honest.