This was one of my favorite reads this year. I adored this book. This was the first actual "page-turner" that I've read in awhile - I physically could not stop reading it. It has a happy ending, but damn, it is an emotional rollercoaster to get there. This book reminded me a bit of "Friends We Meet on Vacation" by Emily Henry combined with pretty much any Colleen Hoover book (in the best way).
This book does not have thousands of reviews (yet), but if there was one book that I've read this year that I'd encourage others to read, it's this one. Note - it does have a lot of triggers, as the FMC does not have a pretty life.
As someone who is not really a fan of Colleen Hoover, I was pretty skeptical of this book, and I was not sure if I would like it. I picked it up just to read a few pages to see if I could get into it, and after reading JUST THE PROLOGUE, I was completely sucked in. I started the book and did not put it down again until the book was finished.
Plot *some spoilers below*
The prologue is set in present day with Gabe picking up Anna from the airport after not seeing her for a few years. In chapter 1, the story begins with how the main characters, Anna and Gabe, met each other 15 years before. Anna was a 16-year-old genius high school student who was allowed to take some college level classes. Gabe was a college senior (also extremely smart). Both characters were disappointed when they got paired to work together all year on an economics project for their class. Gabe thought he got stuck with a kid and assumed he would have to do all the work. Anna assumed she got stuck with a frat-boy who wouldn't help her/would be too busy partying, and she needed to get a good grade on this project in order to get a full scholarship.
After meeting for the project for the first time, Gabe realizes there is more to Anna than he first realized, and he comes to think of her like a little sister. Anna realizes that Gabe is actually one of the smartest kids in the class, and Gabe becomes Anna's first and only friend ever. They talk about his career goals, her college goals, and they get into extensive conversations about economics. Meanwhile, Anna is completely broke and living in squalor, but she is desperately trying to hide her home-life secrets from Gabe.
While working on their project together, Anna begins to spend every Sunday at Gabe's family's house (with his loving parents and 3 loving siblings). Without spoiling too much, Anna has a really tragic home life which she does not tell anyone about (until Gabe finds out on his own after driving her home). Once Gabe realizes the reality of Anna's home life, he is so worried about her, and despite promising Anna that he won't tell anyone, he tells his parents. Anna didn't want Gabe to tell anyone because she is almost 18 and she doesn't want to be put in foster care when she's this close to getting a full ride to the local college/being able to use her college credits to a real college degree. Fortunately, when Gabe tells his parents what's happening to Anna, rather than report her to the police/CPS, they take her in as her guardians. Unfortunately, Anna is so mad at Gabe for breaking her trust that she refuses to get close to him again. She has some other reasons for wanting to stay where she was and not move in with Gabe's family, but I won't spoil.
Years go by in the book, and Gabe goes to grad school while Anna goes to college. They go a few years without seeing each other between each "Part" of the book, but we do get snippets of interactions between the 2 and with the family, as well as new relationships over the years. Eventually, Anna is in medical school and Gabe is an economics professor, and Gabe sees Anna in a romantic way for the first time ever (rather than just as his kid best friend). However, they both have secrets from the last 10-15 years of their friendship that keep them apart, as well as one big secret that Anna has never told anyone about something that happened in her childhood.
My Thoughts
This book just actually broke me. Yes, there were times where I was frustrated with Anna because, as the reader, I knew that all Gabe was trying to do was help her (multiple times throughout their lives). However, I also think that I would have felt the same way about a lot of things if I was in her shoes. She spends her life clinging on to this idea of her mother, and it was painful watching her work through all of the issues there.
I think this book had really great closure. I would have appreciated a little bit more of an epilogue of Anna + Gabe later in life, but it wasn't totally necessary for this story. I wish we could all have a Gabe in our lives though. Even before they became romantic (much later in the book), he was the one true family and one true friend that Anna ever had, and it made their relationship so much better. I loved Gabe's family so much, just in general, but also for what they did for Anna/how they acted like she was already part of the family. The scenes with Gabe's grandmother, Dorothy, just absolutely killed me (legit ugly crying). I loved the whole storyline with the family heirloom going to Anna, as well as Gabe's dad helping Anna apply to medical school.
And despite being sometimes frustrated with Anna, I think it's important to remember that she starts the story as a young teenager and she has so much childhood trauma to work through. I also liked her a good amount of the time too (particularly for all she did for Dorothy)!
I really loved this book. I cried so much, but most of it was because of heartwarming things. I'm so so glad that I read this book.
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It has a really happy ending, I swear, but I am fully sobbing right now. I need a minute to collect myself before writing a more comprehensive review. I inhaled this book like a high-powered vacuum - it was so freaking good. Read it, please.