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“BITTER SWEET LOVE STORY”
(#3 book read for the buzzword readathon & #1 for contemporary-a-thon weekend)
Around fifteen pages into this book I went to the end (always do that to know the exact amount of pages) where I found a quiz that you’re supposed to do after you read the story to see which guy in the story you’d be more attracted to or happy with. I did it in that moment and the result gave me this vibe that I was going to end up crying at the end of the story. I wasn’t wrong. I cried for like 10 minutes, took a break, pulled myself together to write this. When a book makes me cry hard, it’s probably a 5 star read. Not always, there are exceptions, I cried with “The light we lost” and gave it 4 stars because I found some segments to be quite cheesy. Not in this case. This love story is really hard-hitting especially for romantics like myself. I picked it up at my local bookstore for the readathon, and wasn’t expecting much since it is low in reviews and number of ratings.
This is a bitter sweet, but also tender love story. And it is about friendship. Love and friendship and how falling in love may jeopardize such friendship. Three best friends since age 9: two boys and a girl. When children they form this little circle against the world called “the tripod”. It works fine until adolescence kicks in and hormones start flying and the girl falls for one the guys. Robbie is handsome, charismatic, athletic, outgoing, the kind of guy girls wait in line to get. Ben is cute, but shy, he has a hard time to put himself out there, so he bottles up his feelings. Ben is less likely to get the girl. By now, you may have guessed who I got in the quiz I mentioned, right? Maddy, the girl, is clever, beautiful, she’s charming without even knowing it. Ben is the one who falls for her right from the start, and the book is told only by Maddy and Ben’s point of views, not by Robbie’s. By now you may have guessed why I cried a lot at the end of the book. Don’t get me wrong, it has a happy ending, an appropriate one, but bitter sweet. I enjoyed the ride of reading their love story, it reminded me of “My best friend’s wedding” with opposite genre roles, and more emotional. I loved it. It was a nice surprise even though I ended up crying. Crying is cathartic, it makes me feel more humane.
For anyone who loves bitter sweet love stories which will probably make you cry (if you’re a crybaby), check this one out.