Man. My face was incredibly wet after finishing this book. Why. Just why.

 

I originally started this book as an audiobook, which I do not recommend. The female audio was monotoned, very drab, and annoying. Switching over to reading it myself was the best thing I did, because I cannot imagine hearing the ending sections.

 

Going into this book I expected it to be sad. I did not expect what happened to happen however, so I was very unprepared and it hurt me.

 

I loved a lot of the book. I loved the dynamic between Josh and Kristen. I loved the friendships of the two of them with Sloan and Brandon. I loved the comedy. I loved how faithful Kristen stayed. All the key fluffy moments.

 

But! Yes, there is a but.

I hated how the book ended up turning around. Honestly just why? There was no real need for killing off Brandon. It’s like the author just wanted there to be more drama, so the accident was added in, and then the stroke was added in. It was too much. We had spent the book not only falling in love with Josh and Kristen, but with Sloan and Brandon as well. When the accident occurred it was scary, but we were quickly reassured that all would be okay. Except it was all a lie. It genuinely duped the book so much that I am debating on giving it 3 stars over 4.

 

I knew throughout the book that we would see Josh go on a mission and it would be someone we knew. I expected it to be Kristen the entire time, I never thought it would be Brandon.

 

Another issue I had with the book is Kristen ending up pregnant. I saw it coming because there was a lot of hints about it, and I am always looking for a pregnancy in a book, but I thought it was too much in here. The drama of Brandon was unneeded, and it was attempted to be balanced by giving a baby as a ‘happy’ ending but it was unrealistic. Yes, miracles can happen. I genuinely believe in miracles and I even enjoy them in books, but it was not something that was needed in this book. I might be feeling harsher on this book since I recently read the amazing book, All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover. That book was incredible and sadly realistic, but because of that realness it felt genuine and like a personal story instead of someone making something up. This book feels like someone making something up. The ending turns the characters from feeling real, to feeling like characters.

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Adding to the randomness, the issue of Kristen and her mom felt out of place and thrown in. It just felt like another aspect added to attempt to give more depth.

 

One thing the author did that was incredibly right, was the book full of options Josh made. I absolutely loved that. It gave hope to not only the two of them, but also to all the people reading the story that has the same issue. There are other options that are difficult and scary, but it is still something that can be aimed for.

 

I also think the author did a great job with the faithfulness of Kristen and Tyler. It is hard to ship people when one of them is in a relationship with another, and while their final breakup was hard it didn’t make me think badly of either of them.

 

 

I really enjoyed reading the first half of the book a lot. It was funny, light, fluffy, with a tinge of sadness. The second half was an entirely different story however, filled with randomness, drama, and despair. I have decided to rate the book a 3.55, so I will round it to a 4 on Goodreads.

 

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