By Lauren Okie
Thank you to Netgalley, the author, publisher and producer of the audiobook for the opportunity to listen to and review this novel as an ARC.
I went back and forth on whether to read this book, but when offered as an advanced listening copy, I decided to give it a chance. It’s a duet narration, which means the voice actors do the point of view chapters, but also the dialogue for each character is spoken by the character. This is my preferred audiobook format. As far as the audiobook review goes, I enjoyed the voice actors and would even look for them in future productions. I liked that there was a third voice actor for the novel excerpts and the voice of Meredith, the older romance author for whom the two protagonists are ghost writing her novel. The novel jumps back and forth in time, and is interspersed with the text of the novel and I suppose it could have been confusing when listening, but I was never confused as far as time line or which novel was being narrated.
However. Is the novel good? First, as a caveat, contemporary romance is not my thing. I prefer my romance novels tied up with the paranormal or fantasy genre. Romance, on it’s own, just becomes too repetitive, too tropey, too predictable and, for me, needs to include something else for it to grab my attention. I even prefer dark romance over contemporary romance as the “dark” trope tends to go so overboard that it becomes surreal and skirts the fantastical. That’s not to say that I won’t ever enjoy a contemporary romance, but it does require a bit more to get me sucked in. And I struggled a bit with the beginning of this novel. Our protagonists grew up together, with the MMC, Tyler, as the best friend of Katie’s brother But one summer, Katie’s brother is away and Katie and Tyler grow closer as their love for writing pulls them together. They are 14 and 16, and it’s a summer of unrequited crush. And maybe not that summer, but at some point in their high school experience, the crush is reciprocated, but then there is a huge tragedy, which breaks Katie’s heart so that she never wants to see Tyler again The tragedy is revealed bit by bit through the novel, because by chance they are brought together again, they must work on this romance novel and, wouldn’t you know it, the romance novel is paralleling their second chance romance.
This is all Romance Plot 101. What sets this novel aside is that the tropes appear as a meta commentary. Since Tyler and Katie are working on writing a romance novel together, all the devices, and plots and planning and structure that goes into a romance novel are discussions that our protagonists have about the novel, which has some tropes that are creepily mirror the same tropes that Tyler and Katie are dealing with day to day – brother’s best friend. Grumpy/ Sunshine, Girl Next Door, Second Chance Romance, etc etc. They are even stuck together on a recluse’s estate in the Hamptons, with bad cell reception and no public transportation. They are forced to work out whatever it was that tore them apart 8 years ago.
There are some things that I really liked. The breakdown of romance as a genre was fascinating, and it’s use as a meta commentary to the story was unique and a bit more elevated than the usual romance story. Tyler is a recovering addict and Meredith, the older writer and mentor, is an alcoholic who is unable to stop drinking. Tyler’s program is authentically written and I suspect that the author is someone who is intimately familiar with the 12 steps, without having recovery seem like a gimmick or dismissed as just a matter of willpower. Tyler’s conversations with his sponsor and with Meredith are heartfelt and real, without being preachy or loud. I live with a recovering alcoholic who has spent 30 years in sobriety and this is a genuine portrayal of life in recovery Kudos for the author for not embellishing the experience for the sake of drama (at no point does Tyler question his sobriety. He does not drink and that is all there is to it.
The tragedy on which our protagonist’s lives have pivoted around is also well done. The reader is told from the beginning that it has to do with the untimely death of Katie’s brother. We know that her brother and Tyler were best friends . We know that her parents are devastated and having trouble moving forward. We know that something happened at the time of his death that drove Katie and Tyler apart. But we don’t know the details. And as the novel progresses, we get bits and pieces of the story, and it’s not quite what the reader expects. I know I was surprised that I didn’t see some of the details until they are revealed, with each reveal of the back story making the current story that much more tragic. I have to say I enjoyed that I misread some of the breadcrumbs that were foreshadowed about the tragedy. While I could see that Katie was overshadowed by the death of her brother, the story that comes out was not what I expected. This is the area where I have to be vague so as not to give away spoilers. But trust that the story is always more than what is written.
And that comes to the big issue I have with the ending. Again, no spoilers, but the book takes a turn that I’m not sure serves any purpose. The author is writing an emotional novel about second chances, about tragedy and family, about addiction and recovery and how for some, there will not be recovery. It’s about teenagers who grow up. It’s about the romance genre. Families that fall short. The writing is compelling – I stayed up until 4am listening to “just one more 30 min timer” somewhere in the 50 to 75% of the book. And, as I said, I don’t necessarily find Contemporary Romance to be that compelling, but I bought into their story.
And right at the end, it just takes a weird turn. Someone I discussed this book with suggested it was brought up as a romance writing device, to hold off the ending and then rush it through. I can see how that would work and I’ve read plenty a romance that the last 15 to 20% is just a “everything goes haywire, but also everything works out, even if it’s not quite what was expected”. The ending was hinted at throughout the book and I did have an inkling that things were not all as they seemed. But even with that foreknowledge the ending required some very heavy lifting and I’m not sure it succeeeded. I was left with a bad taste in my mouth, like all the good stuff was overshadowed by the final premise. And on top of that, it left me with a lot more unanswered questions.
While I don’t think this was a 5 star book, it was going to be close. Initially I was more accepting of the ending, but I ended up having to return to my initial rating and lower it, because the more I thought about it, the more disappointed I was. But, the book overall is still a good read and I would say above normal. I ended up giving it a 3.5 on Storygraph, and a 3 for NetGalley as I don’t feel it is as good as a 4 star read . However, for another reader they may find the emotional pay off overrides the ending or they may enjoy the ending. For myself, it was a disappointing ending to an otherwise great novel.
