Book Synopsis:
Adam Moynihan’s life used to be awesome. Straight As, close friends and a home life so perfect that it could have been a TV show straight out of the 50s. Then his oldest brother died. Now his fun-loving mom cries constantly, he and his remaining brother can’t talk without fighting, and the father he always admired proved himself a coward by moving out when they needed him most.
Jolene Timber’s life is nothing like the movies she loves—not the happy ones anyway. As an aspiring director, she should know, because she’s been reimagining her life as a film ever since she was a kid. With her divorced parents at each other’s throats and using her as a pawn, no amount of mental reediting will give her the love she’s starving for.
Forced to spend every other weekend in the same apartment building, the boy who thinks forgiveness makes him weak and the girl who thinks love is for fools begin an unlikely friendship. The weekends he dreaded and she endured soon become the best part of their lives. But when one’s life begins to mend while the other’s spirals out of control, they realize that falling in love while surrounded by its demise means nothing is ever guaranteed.
My Review:
4.5/5 stars. This was a heartbreaking and heartwarming story with great, complex characters and a very cute romance. It was also very well written; it wasn't overly flowery, but it was beautiful when necessary. While a lot of the side characters didn't have any depth, the main characters were great. I'd never read anything by this author before, but I'm interested to possibly read more from her in the future.
When I started this novel, all the family problems stressed me out. As the main characters spent more time with each other, though, and their family problems weren't as prominent, it quickly got better. Speaking of the main characters, I loved them both a lot. I liked Jolene's passion for videography and directing, and I liked that Adam was kind of a nerd.
The romance between Adam and Jolene was super cute! It was somehow insta-love and slow burn at the same time. They were attracted to each other right away and flirted all the time, but it still took a long time to develop. It was very realistic in that way. I also loved all their banter and how they went out of their way to do things for each other.
The side characters, on the other hand, lacked depth. I barely remember the name of Adam's friends and couldn't tell you anything about them outside of their interactions with Adam. It felt like most of the side characters, with the exception of the family members, existed just to interact with the main characters and didn't have their own personalities.
I really enjoyed the ending of this book. It was heartwarming and made me smile, but in a sad way. Things became more positive for the characters, but only because they couldn't have gotten much worse than they were before. It wrapped everything up nicely, but still left a few things open-ended.
A big conflict that happens closer to the end of the story is a sexual assault. Right away, when the perpetrator was first introduced, I got a creepy vibe from him. I felt Jolene's apprehension right along with her and knew she shouldn't have been hanging around him. At the same time, I felt so bad for her and angry at the situation.
Finally, there were a lot of great and kind of poetic lines that the author wrote. It wasn't so flowery that it distracted from the story, but the occasional nugget of great prose was nice. Here are a few of my favorite lines:
"She made my heart sink just from knowing hers was heavy."
“If I’m not mad all the time, then I have to be something else, something I don’t want to be, because if I start, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop.”
"After the night in his barn, when I’d felt our hearts beating together, it was like a cruel joke to feel mine breaking when his was so full."
"Adam’s broken family was more than mine had ever been whole."
"I never needed a movie with you, because when you love someone—and I can say it now a million times if you want—it’s already perfect.”
There were also a few that made me laugh out loud, such as: "The pineapple upside-down cake in my stomach tried to turn itself into a right-side-up cake."
I loved Jolene's essay included at the end. I loved the line about how she was a filmmaker before she ever picked up a camera. As a writer, I relate to that. I've been a storyteller since before I knew how to write.
Content:
Language: p*ssed off, b*tch, h*ll, a**, wh*re, d*mn, b*stard, t*ts, mention of someone giving the middle finger
Sexual Content: a side character makes out with her boyfriend a lot, but it isn't described much, main couple kisses a lot and they are described in some detail, including how they "tasted", a character is sexually assaulted by a 28-year-old, but it doesn't get further than kissing and touching, discussions of an affair that ended a marriage
Drugs/Alcohol: a character's parent is an alcoholic and is visibly very drunk in some scenes
Violence/Gore: a side character has an abusive father, and it's mentioned that he has bruises from it, two characters beat up another character.
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