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A review by romanticread
The Perfect Love by Bethany Monaco Smith
4.0
This is my first read by this author so I’m not sure how this represents her writing style. But I’m not 100% sure what to think of this one. I loved Chelsea and Trevor, individually and as a couple, and I loved the found family that they have created. There are a lot of them, so I was glad for the character guide at the front to somewhat keep up.
For a large group of college students, tho, they come with a large amount of trauma. This is where my hesitation comes in. I guess they could have bonded because of their issues but it seems like every one of them has something big they need to work through. And they know a lot about mental health, good communication, and support. I mean A LOT. Trevor is an amazingly perfect book boyfriend, tho he does have some trauma of his own to work thru, but the rest are amazingly perfect friends. Sure, a couple of them are studying counseling, some are actively in therapy, and they’ve been thru a ton collectively, but they are also only 20 years old. (Not that # of years lived necessarily means that you can’t have these kinds of lived experiences, but all of them?)
I saw another review say that it felt like an after school special and I can see that. There’s a lot of mental health terminology and advice, girl power and healing. I love that Chelsea is so into supporting women, lifting them up – **** the patriarchy, choose the bear kinda thing. But there’s so much going on here. I’m not sure if it is because there are so many of them, and they are so close, that it felt that way. And I admire both Trevor and Chelsea and how they address & overcome their issues. It was just a very full book.
Please know going in that this book deals with some really heavy subjects. It has some fantastic mental health representation and I love to see the normalization of that in books. The characters try so hard to be good people, good friends, to be supportive and love enthusiastically. They are wonderful characters and I so want to know their stories, to get to know them better.
It just feels like a lot when there are so many of them :)
**I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
For a large group of college students, tho, they come with a large amount of trauma. This is where my hesitation comes in. I guess they could have bonded because of their issues but it seems like every one of them has something big they need to work through. And they know a lot about mental health, good communication, and support. I mean A LOT. Trevor is an amazingly perfect book boyfriend, tho he does have some trauma of his own to work thru, but the rest are amazingly perfect friends. Sure, a couple of them are studying counseling, some are actively in therapy, and they’ve been thru a ton collectively, but they are also only 20 years old. (Not that # of years lived necessarily means that you can’t have these kinds of lived experiences, but all of them?)
I saw another review say that it felt like an after school special and I can see that. There’s a lot of mental health terminology and advice, girl power and healing. I love that Chelsea is so into supporting women, lifting them up – **** the patriarchy, choose the bear kinda thing. But there’s so much going on here. I’m not sure if it is because there are so many of them, and they are so close, that it felt that way. And I admire both Trevor and Chelsea and how they address & overcome their issues. It was just a very full book.
Please know going in that this book deals with some really heavy subjects. It has some fantastic mental health representation and I love to see the normalization of that in books. The characters try so hard to be good people, good friends, to be supportive and love enthusiastically. They are wonderful characters and I so want to know their stories, to get to know them better.
It just feels like a lot when there are so many of them :)
**I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**