3/5 ⭐
2/5 🌶️

I had a bit of a hard time with this one, but ultimately enjoyed the read. I had no clue it wasn't a standalone and as I got down to the last few chapters I couldn't figure out how it was going to become a happily ever after, but then it said to be continued. I was also a little confused because I thought more was going to happen, the entire plot was in the summary... No surprises or extras, just all out there.

The beginning was difficult because I kept getting upset that Axel seemed to refuse the advice of Leah's medical professional team... He seemed to think he knew exactly how to get someone to get over their grief and depression and didn't care what anyone else thought about it, which rubbed me the wrong way. And of course it worked, because it's a book, but all I could think about was the ways it could have gone wrong...

Now, all that being said, I loved the last 20-30% as Leah and Axel became involved. I not only loved their romantic relationship, but loved watching Leah spread her wings a bit and find peace again. It was really beautiful.

I'll likely be picking up book two, just to see how this ends. I really love the characters and hope to see them get those hard fought HEAs.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a ARC of this book.
This book took a long time for me to start getting somewhere, and then it just didn’t happen for me. I am not really a fan of age gap romance, and neither of the main characters could really hold my attention. I don’t think I will be picking up the sequel to this book.

I was interested in reading All That We Never Were by Alice Kellen because Ali Hazelwood mentioned that she really enjoyed this. Overall, I enjoyed it but I didn't love it. I don't think the romance worked for me for some reason. I can't pinpoint exactly what it was that didn't work but I think this would work for a lot of other people.

Thank you Net Galley for giving me an ARC!

4.25 stars!

I hadn't read a brother's best friend plotted book in a while and I'm glad I got this one! I wasn't totally sure if I'd like it because I'm very much a picky mood reader, but I was honestly surprised that I LOVED it. The MMC was so kind and always cared for the FMC (she did NOT always deserve it honestly), but I just... my heart! I need more!!

I will say what really excited me was the small-town trope, it is one of my favorites... but I was hooked by every other trope this book threw at me and I am not mad about it at all. This author is so talented and I can't wait to read more by them. So good. So SO good.

I think this was very well written! Overall, I don't think this romance is necessarily fully up my alley, as I'm not a huge fan of age gap romance. But I will speak to what I did love! Each character is very well developed and very endearing. You truly want the best for them, but especially Leah. I feel like this story handled grief gently but accurately. It was heartwarming and exciting to get to cheer for Leah as you see her beginning to reconcile with her grief and begin gaining pieces of herself back. She was so easy to root for.

Captivating and moving but left me confused. I wanted to know what was going to happen with the characters from the beginning. Getting to the end and seeing to be continued was disappointing. The writing kept my interest and I was invested in the characters.

Two families trying to move forward following a tragic accident lays the ground work for this forbidden romance novel. There is a musical element to this book, while also including surfing and painting. I felt like the focus could have been set more on one of these specifically to provide more depth to the book in general. I thought it was a pretty good book if you’re looking for a slow burn, but I kept waiting for things to really pick up. I wanted to feel more emotionally invested, especially given the heavy content of sudden, tragic loss, but I kept feeling like a little something was missing. The ending clearly leads into the next book, so perhaps the sequel will provide the pieces I felt missing from this one.

I would like the thank NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced electronic copy of this book. I was paid for this review, nor was it a requirement, but I do appreciate the opportunity.

Loved this so so much! Thank you NetGalley for the ARC ad for allowing me to be among the first readers

Wow! Looks like this book will have a sequel since it ends … to be continued … I did not see that coming. I did enjoy this story even though it had a lot of sexy, love scenes in it. Like, ALOT!!! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release. It was actually a quick read and I really enjoyed all the characters.

This book was not at all what I expected it to be. This book was amazing and so well written. The story was absolutely beautiful, I loved being able to watch Leah grow as the story went on. I also loved how the ending was not what you expected it to be while reading. I started reading and could not stop until the book was finished a few hours later. I’m going to buy a physical copy to have. Would read again and recommend to anyone. May be my favorite book of the year

Thanks for the opportunity to review this book. I was very excited because it sounds like a lot of books I’ve read. This book was a bit unsettling to me. The age difference was a bit weird and I thought the flow of the book was odd. I did have a bit of a hard time finishing this book.

I'm trying very hard to finish this book. I just hit the 50% mark and I am bored to tears. I don't want to DNF it because this is an ARC, so I feel like I need to give it an honest review, but wow am I struggling to get through.

I just finished. I missed the part where Axel got his degree in psychology. (said very sarcastically) He's trying very hard to fix Leah in all the wrong ways, it seems. It's very painful to read. He held her down while he played the song that was on when her parents died??? Are you kidding me? What. An. Asshole. The 2 stars are for the "unhappy" ending and my compassion for Leah. Needless to say, I won't be reading the sequel to this one.

I was flying through this book and finished in 2 days! This was my first time reading a book by this author and safe to say I was quite impressed. The writing style is really simple and interesting and it sucks you in. Overall recommended!! <3

This book really threw me for a loop. When I first started, I thought it was a romance book that I wasn't even sure I liked because it gave off Manic Pixie Dream Girl. But in reality this book delved into grief and beautifully showed how we can view people through rose colored glasses, ignoring all of the flaws that may exist. I think there was some room for growth on the mental health healing exploration. But overall I really enjoyed it. I did not enjoy the cliffhanger, to be continued aspect. I think it would have been a beautiful story as is. However I would also definitely read the follow up story so.

Thanks to netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As always, Alice manages to make us feel emotional with her book 🥺

Leah loses her parents in a car accident and her older brother Oliver need to take care of her, but he gets a job offer in another city, so Oliver decides to leave her with Axel, who is his best friend. Both will have to live together and something will develop between them.

It didn't take me long to finish the book because the story is quite engaging and the characters make you want to keep reading to get to know them better. Leah is someone who had everything and from one second to the next she has nothing anymore. In Axel's case, I really liked how he helped Leah get back to her old self, although I didn't manage to love him as much as I thought I would. And in Oliver's case, he went out of his way to make sure Leah doesn't lack anything, so I always agreed with the decisions he made and I think he's the best brother anyone could have.

Overall, the book is easy to read because it hooks from the beginning and doesn't have a very difficult plot or a lot of drama.

Unfortunately won't get to this one, reviews aren't stellar and after reading further about it I don't think its for me. Appreciate the chance to read in advance though.

I don’t think I can do age gap romances. And this one really bothered me for some reason.

Oliver asks Axel to keep an eye on Leah while he works in a different city. Leah and Oliver lost their parents in a car accident, and she’s been suffering from PTSD from being in the car with them when it happened.

Leah had held a torch for Axel for as long as she can remember. He is her older brother Oliver’s best friend. Axel tries to get Leah to come out of her shell.

I don’t know why, but this book just gave me the ick. I was really happy when they didn’t end up together. Leah hasn’t experienced anything in life and wanted to halt her life for Axel who was (let’s face it) kind of a dick. He really pushed her in ways that felt slightly controlling. I was glad they broke up but it seems like there’s a sequel coming and I bet they get back together.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks for the opportunity to review this book! My review will appear on episode 20 of my podcast as well as on the accompanying website/blog beginning August 7th.

Review:

I have really mixed emotions about this book. The synopsis really made me think I would like it a lot. I’m a huge CoHo fan and it sounded like the plot of one of her books. On one hand, it kind of was, but on the other hand, it was kind of creepy and weird to me.

I was very sympathetic with Leah Jones - our main character. She was recently riding with her parents when they were involved in an accident. Both her parents died and Leah now has PTSD. Once a fun-loving and artistic young woman who enjoyed life, she now suffers from PTSD and keeps mostly to herself.

After the accident, Leah’s older brother Oliver stepped up and took on the responsibility of being her caretaker. He took on a job and has really blossomed in his career. So much that his company wants to transfer him across country to Sydney for a year to work there. The problem is, 19-year-old Leah is completing her senior year (she had to do it over because of the amount of school she missed after the accident) and he can’t pick her up and move her.

This is where Axel Nguyen comes in. Axel is Oliver’s best friend and owns his own home. Axel agrees to let Leah stay with him for 3 weeks out of every month (Oliver comes home for a week once per month). Leah has always been like a sister to Axel, and though it means he’ll need to chill out on his party boy ways and be more present for Leah, it’s something he feels like he needs to do.

Leah has a secret, though. She’s secretly had a crush on Axel for years, and as Axel pushes her to get out and live again, she finds it more and more difficult to hide her feelings for him.

The rest of the book is about Leah finding herself again, and the development of the relationship between Axel and Leah. I think my biggest problem with this setup was the age difference. Axel was 10 years older than Leah. He was also a bit of a party boy, a womanizer, and the relationship that developed between him and Leah felt kind of creepy. I get that technically Leah was at a consenting age, but it still felt weird that he was having sex with someone he’d thought of as a little sister for so long.

I also felt that Axel was really demanding of Leah as far as forcing her to go out and do things. I felt like his approach could have been less forceful and more sympathetic. At times, it came across as almost mean, which made it difficult to believe that Leah would have fallen for him. I get that she had had a crush on him for years, but I feel like that would have grated on my nerves and made me want to be with him even less.

I was bothered by the way Axel would always call Leah by name in almost every sentence he spoke to her.. “Are you hungry, Leah?” “Do you know what I’m saying, Leah?” A lot of the scenes were with just the two of them. I feel like she would have known who he was speaking to without calling her by name. She had PTSD, not amnesia. I wonder, though, if that way of speaking is common in the author's native country which may have influenced this.

While sympathetic to our main character, none of the other characters really grabbed me, and as you can probably tell, I didn’t get Leah’s attraction to Axel. In the end, this book didn’t really grab me. I know this is the first in a series, and while this one ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, I don’t know that I’m invested enough to continue with the series.

I went into this book blind and honestly I was surprised at how much I liked it. At first I was unsure about the characters and whether or not I liked them but honestly they grew on me especially Leah.

Leah and her mom and dad were in a car accident and both parents passed away while she miraculously survived. Her older brother Oliver takes her in and changes everything in his life to take care of her. He gets a job transfer where he has go be away for 3 weeks at a time so he asks his best friend Axel to let her live with him while he is away.

Axel thinks he has his life figured out but once Leah enters he comes to realize he doesn't quite know it all. Leah has survivors guilt, anxiety, and depression, has tried therapy but still can't break through to become herself again. Enter Axel - her brothers best friend that she has always been in love with. He treats her like a sister but within the flashbacks you realize he knows she has always loved him and when he finally gives in she breaks through to her old self and he learns that he can change his habits and patterns. At first I wasn't sure about the 10 year age gap. Honestly don't mind age gaps but she is 19 and he is 29, but it turns our Leah is more mature in their "relationship" than Axel. In the end I loved how Axel reconnected with his brother over what happens with Oliver, but Oliver pissed me off with how controlling he was, yes Leah needs to live her life and find out who she is past her first love, but because of him he made Axel out to be someone he really wasn't to her. Definitely will be reading the second one!

Tropes: Brothers Best Friend, Age Gap, Friends to Lovers, Forced Proximity

TW: Mention of Parent Death, Anxiety, Smoking, Alcohol, Negative Thoughts, Grief, PTSD

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing me with an E-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

Axel and Leah have known each other for their whole life. Axel is Leah's brothers' best friend, and he is 10 years older than Leah. Leah and her brother, Oliver, have been suffering the tragedy of losing their parents in a car crash. Oliver travels for work, and for his next job, he needs to be gone for a year. With that being said, Oliver is worried about Leah because of what happened to their parents, so he asks Axel to keep an eye on her while he is away for work. This story is about healing and recovering from such a traumatic experience, and also loving someone who you can't have.

If you want to read a book that is going to put you on an emotional rollercoaster, this book is for you. Leah's emotions and thoughts were very relatable to me. As someone who lost their parents basically at the same time, Leah's emotions and thoughts were very realistic. Going through the pain and trying to live life is very hard to where you just want to give up. Losing interest in things that you use to love or having flashbacks is another thing that will affect you. I related to this book a lot in regard to that aspect. The author did an amazing job writing how to feels after such a traumatic experience. I really enjoyed the characters and their connection to one another -- they were meant to be together. The ending killed me -- it does end in a cliffhanger.