“you're not a tether to home. home is a tether to you”

*4.5

it took me 3 hours to fall completely in love with this book

feeling especially lonely but whatever yk

with and without you follows siena, who's been dating patrick for 3 years -- they're the ultimate high school sweethearts. however, siena feels like their relationship is keeping her from finding herself, and she's about to break up with patrick when he tells her that he's moving 1000 miles away for senior year. suddenly, the two of them are in a long-distance relationship. at first, siena stays with patrick thinking they'll fade out in a few months, but over a series of visits throughout the year, she begins to fall in love with patrick all over again.

y'all. this is a whole second chance romance without the initial breakup. the whole process of them learning each other again, experiencing that "new" feeling, and falling for each other all over again is so just... refreshing. and mature of them. they're the couple that has been together for so long that you think they'll get married and their relationship is perfectly mature and perfect -- while their relationship was definitely not perfect at the beginning of the novel, it was so great seeing them both mature as time went on. COMMUNICATION YALL.

they both grow a lot as individuals over the course of the novel: siena settles into being her own person and accepts not having all the pieces set out right here and now; patrick more readily introduces change into his life and appreciates the ways their relationship has shifted over time. the two of them, by the end, communicate so freely and it was really, really nice to see.

also, they're just so adorable and pure and UGH i was blushing y'all. they have such a sweet relationship together and ugh MY LOVES.

i must say that part of the reason why this book hit so hard for me was because i (surprise) have had a relationship kind of similar to them. not necessarily in situation, but i find that I'm super similar to siena. i thrive in that comfortability, but i also want to narrow down my purpose. okay, well, maybe the relationship was partially similar in situation. the whole falling back in love with someone part (without actually breaking up) rly got me alsjdflasjdlkj. recovering that "new" feeling and getting those butterflies again just rly hits. i just.. communication. yeah. communication.

i think my only critique was that the mini-conflicts within the relationship seemed a bit repetitive -- the book took place over a few different time periods/visits, and some of the visits kind of felt the same lol

but this book is actually so good

thank you to netgalley and penguin young readers for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!