5 ⭐️ ARC reader copy from bestie!! it’s so cool being friends with an amazing author 🙈
I was honestly apprehensive to read this book, because it’s a tear jerker and friends to lovers (and I don’t normally read those), but my close friend Chloe wrote it, so I knew it would be good. One chronic illness flare up weekend I picked this up, and binged the whole thing. It was depressing, and it made me cry more than anything ever has, and I loved it in a way I hadn’t loved something in a while. This is my exception for tear jerkers AND the friends to lovers trope, because by the end of the book I was convinced I loved both those things.
🌲 just vibes I don’t even like camping, but I liked whatever the hell this was. I felt like I went on a yearly camping trip and loved it when I read this book. It even made me want to go camping *shudders in disgust*. Nathan and charlottes flashbacks as they grew up were so cute and done so well!! and by the end of the book the vibes were so depressing that I was bawling for like six chapters straight.
⛺️ writing I don’t know when I wasn’t crying reading this book. Crying from something that just happened, crying from something that was about to happen… it takes skill to write a book where all I did was cry and for me to still enjoy it. Chloe’s writing is the best debut I’ve seen in a hot minute and I hope when I publish my debut one day it’s similar to hers!
🌧️ characters Nathan, my Nathan! Blondie, muscle-y, traumatized camping god?? Yes please. Nathan was so easy to love. But not as easy as Charlotte, it’s the sign that a book truly wrecked me when I love the fmc more than the mmc. Charlotte has cancer, which is in no way similar to chronic illness, but I felt seen somehow. The hopelessness and the anxiety felt like Chloe took the contents of my mind and penned them down.
🫧 plot this plot drove me up a wall. I knew what was going to happen since page 1, but by page 2 i didn’t want it to happen! This is to say, the ending was unendingly cruel and Chloe can be a little evil sometimes.
this book is part of my soul, and there’s not many books I say that for. And just know reading it, that the girl who wrote it is also part of my soul and if you knew her she would be part of yours to 🥰
This is a very impressive debut by someone so young. It is clear that the author paid a lot of care to writing and editing this story. The writing is very smooth, you are carried right along. The structure of the story with its many different flashbacks was sophisticated. A couple of things that set this story apart from other stories I've read by young people is that Jones injects so much specificity into the story: into the settings, the characters, and the dialogue. I think the story could be even better with a professional editor: sometimes it felt like there were inconsistencies in terms of plot and character behaviour. And with so many characters, sometimes it felt like certain characters just kind of disappeared, although I totally get that the focus is really about the two main characters.
I think that if Chloe Jones has the aspiration to keep writing books that she would be very successful indeed! I would definitely want to read what she writes next.
if I could I’d rate this masterpiece a six stars. it is one of these books that heal a part of your soul you didn’t know was broken. it made me laugh, cry, and feel all the emotions possible. I LOOOOOVED IT MORE THAN ANYTHING. it literally is my new comfort and favorite book 🩷🩷the topics tackled make the story more real and relatable. Yes, it did break my heart but it healed smt bigger. My only regret is not being able to read it for the first time again. if you haven’t read it yet, what are you waiting for?
This was one of the best books I ever read omg. Chloe ilysm your like my fav instagram account I'm so proud of you. Here before you become a famous author