DNF on PG. 34.

The premise of this book caught my attention. Kathleen and Jase meet right before she is set to leave town for college and forge a connection. But when she goes off to college, she meets someone else who sweeps her off her feet. Returning home, she sees the town she grew up in had drastically changed, and the biggest change of all, was that Jase was missing. Listen, I am a sucker for second chance romances, but this one just didn’t make the cut.

For one, this book is told in first person POV, but I never felt fully immersed or connected to Kathleen. The writing was a lot of telling, and not showing. Kathleen would tell us who said what and how she felt, but we didn’t actually experience these things. There is also not much dialogue, or not enough to offset Kathleen’s musings about her everyday life. I also didn’t care for Kathleen very much as a character. She says that she grew up with a father only concerned with having more money, and that he doesn’t really care about people. He is the CEO of the Mill in town which employs a lot of people, and doesn’t even offer them health insurance. Kathleen is different though, let her tell it. She wants to grow up to be a psychologist and she works in a nursing home because she’s just so good of a person and genuinely wants to help people. And yet, she can’t stop mentioning how all her clothes are designer; Tiffany bracelet, Chanel purse, Kate Spade sandals, etc. And then, she complains about the fact that she got a brand new red Audi for her graduation present to replace her old BMW, and I lost it! Are we seriously supposed to feel bad for her? Nevermind the fact that, she was about to get the lady at the flower shop fired because she didn’t have her requisite white roses ready like usual. I couldn’t stand her.

Secondly, I felt that the angry overbearing father, and the pill popping alcoholic mother trope is entirely overdone. I have read so many books where the parents are this exact way, and I’m honestly just annoyed. Can we have some originality please? The dad is just known as bad, so everything he says or does is just bad or mean with no background as to why he is this way. And then the mother pops pills and drinks her life away, because the dad is mean to her. Why is he mean to her? Oh just because he’s a mean guy. That’s his only personality trait. The parents just felt so unoriginal and one dimensional.

The love interest, Jase? Yea couldn’t stand him either. They initially meet at the florist, when Jase gives up his white roses to Kathleen who was about to throw a fit. They meet again at the nursing home, Kathleen as she calls out Bingo numbers to the residents, and Jase as he visits the residents who don’t have anyone to visit. (because he’s just so kind). Quick side note here: Kathleen is calling Bingo for the residents, but she’s using letters like Q, Z, and J. The letters used in BINGO are the letters in the name. Where the hell did these other letters come from? I was like did chaptGPT write this…? Anyway, Jase is just so attractive that Kathleen is unable to resist. He didn’t seem like a terrible guy, but any guy who starts a conversation by insulting someone’s father to their face, is not my type of guy. In at least two of the interactions he had with Kathleen, he insults her father. I get her father was an ass; her father fired Jase’s father for being drunk on the job. (which hello, is a valid reason. Be mad at your dad and not Kathleen’s). But I just didn’t find it attractive that he was always ragging on her dad. He also was written as this sensitive guy, who visits nursing homes, and dropped out of college to take care of his family, and also lost his girlfriend because of it. But he didn’t feel real. He felt one-dimensional, and there was something about him that was a tad bit aggressive. He calls Kathleen rude for making a joke and I was like seriously, what is your problem?

Anyway, I just couldn’t stomach reading anymore of the story. I know it can take time for a reader to warm up to a story, but I was starting to pause and just document everything about the book that annoyed me while reading and realized I wasn’t enjoying the book.

I really enjoyed this story for it being the author's debut work. It was so real, raw and honest. You can definitely tell that Leigh writes from a background of psychology with the amount of heart and thought provoking content she puts into her stories. I feel like I would go into this checking the trigger warnings and not expecting a lovey dovey romance but more of a story of perseverance, and the effects of darkness on one's life. I would give it 3.5 stars rounded up!

Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the E-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.