A review by reads_esther
All My Love by Morgan Elizabeth

challenging emotional tense medium-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

 

I wish I could say that this story has all my love. It has half of it though? 

This story is messy – so messy. And I waffled back and forth while reading it if they should be back together. Because they nearly destroyed each other once. There are certain second chances that maybe shouldn’t be given that opportunity. And for about 85% of the book, I believed that Stella and Riggins shouldn’t be together. 

Morgan said that this book is “Noah Kahan inspired”. With direct nods to specific lyrics, and others that are overall thematic, there are extremely direct parallels to Kahan’s discography. I think that personally, based on Noah and his fiancée’s story, this felt almost too close? At times I could only picture Noah as Riggins and when the story is so heavily inspired by him, it felt almost like objectification and that was extremely uncomfortable. 

All My Love is a moving story of grief, depression, addiction, toxic relationships, cyclical substance abuse issues and the overwhelming hope and love found in the midst of it all.

There was a continuity error that bugged me, unless Riggins’ mother had two middle names. Stella uses Marie as a pen name, and it’s said that that was Riggins’ mom’s middle name, but then in one of the voicemails, she says that they named Gracie after her middle name…honestly it’s so minor but it bugged me!!!!!