I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Sometimes I read a book and I go in with no expectations, and I get halfway through and depending on how much I’m enjoying it, I’ll start having some either low or high expectations, and that will pretty much decide how I feel about the book. I enjoyed this book from the start, so when I got to about midway I knew I’d hold the whole thing to pretty high expectations, yet it still managed to exceed all of my expectations!
“But the first time I saw you. Rio. I took that down to the gardens. I pressed it into the leaves of a silver maple and recited it to the Waterloo Vase. It didn’t fit in any rooms.”
The main description of the book gives a clear preview of the enemies-to-lovers trope, which is probably the main thing that the book focuses on at the start. As the story deepens, it turns into friends-with-benefits-to-lovers, which isn’t really something I’ve read in a book before, and I loved it! I think one of the most important notes to make about this book is that despite the romance-based plot, the book deals with a lot of other important themes; Alex discovering and coming to terms with his sexuality, the consideration he is giving to his future career goals, divorce, death, and grief.
“A curious thing about grief is the way it takes your entire life, all those foundational years that made you who you are, and makes them so painful to look back upon because of the absence there, that suddenly they’re inaccessible. You must invent an entirely new system.”
The impact of both Henry and Alex’s political/royal statuses on their relationship, and in turn the impact of their relationship on their statuses is also a key aspect of this book, and it is interesting to consider how people with such statuses have to consider every detail of their life in this way – it’s like they have to make decisions about their relationship based on how other people will like it, and if they won’t, they often can’t do it. I think this is something a lot of people can take for granted, and it’s thought-provoking to read about it outside of an environment that’s not necessarily based on differences in culture.
“History, huh? Bet we could make some.”
I loved all the relationships in this book – obviously, Alex and Henry’s relationship was my favourite, but there were many other relationships that in some way were key to the story. I enjoyed reading about Alex’s relationship with his sister; sibling relationships can often include a lot of fighting in books (I hear this is often true in real life too, but I’m an only child so I have no personal experience), but the way Alex and June were written felt real, and they were both portrayed as very mature characters.
“If Alex from this time last year could see this,” Alex says, leaning into Henry’s ear.
“He’d say, ‘Oh, I’m in love with Henry? That must be why I’m such a berk to him all the time,’” Henry suggests.”
Alex’s mum, Ellen, doesn’t have many scenes in the book (she’s busy off doing her presidential business – although she is talked about often), but I like how supportive she is of Alex. It was interesting to read about how Alex often sees her as ‘president mom’ as well as just mom, and in these moments she has to deal with something personal in a business-like way, making sure they’re right for her presidency as well as her family.
In terms of relationships, I think my favourite thing is the fact that every character has depth, even if they’re not one of the main characters, and I loved discovering things about their lives, or about how they fitted into Alex’s and Henry’s lives.
The only small criticism I have is that the story often jumped from one key time-point to another, although this could just be the fact that the ARC doesn’t have any dividers in place. If this is not the case however, it did make it a little bit confusing at times, although I am sure this will be changed in the final printed copy of the book. Overall, I finished this book grinning and teary-eyed, which definitely means it was a great read!
“He called Henry the North Star once. That wasn’t bright enough.”...more
"My past was a part of me and it molded who I was today, but it was not the sum of who I was to become. It did not control me."
Firstly, I would just l"My past was a part of me and it molded who I was today, but it was not the sum of who I was to become. It did not control me."
Firstly, I would just like to comment on the cover of this book. I think the ‘watercolor’ style is absolutely stunning.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. When I first started reading it, the first few chapters took me a couple of days because I couldn’t really get into it. But once I got so far, I couldn’t stop reading!
It’s clear from the start ‘flashback’ and what Mallory says that she had to deal with abuse in the home she was in previously. For some people, this can be a difficult to read about, so I liked the fact that it didn’t focus too much on ‘flashbacks’, and more on Mallory’s recovery...
You can see the full review on my blog, here!...more
First off, I would just like to mention this is the first book I have done a proper review for from Netgalley, and I jRead the full review on my blog!
First off, I would just like to mention this is the first book I have done a proper review for from Netgalley, and I just want to thank St. Martin's Griffin from giving me the opportunity to read this book!
Firstly, I found the start of this book to be a little slow. It wasn't a bad part, it just felt like a description of Mercedes having sex with multiple guys, and saying each one would be her last. (view spoiler)[ Also, I'm kinda glad Mercedes was able to admit to herself that she wasn't just having sex with them for their benefit, because it was easy to tell she wanted it too. (hide spoiler)]
I'm not entirely sure how to write this review properly without giving away much of the plot of the book, but I think it was easy to presume what w0uld happen to Mercedes system right from the start of the book, however I didn't think he would be the one to do it. I thought Mercedes must be pretty naive to not even consider the system would fall apart at some point, and before she started she should've considered the consequences of what would happen if people found out. However, I still wasn't expecting exactly what happened.
It was quite annoying that Mercedes wouldn't admit to herself that she wanted to be with Zach, and when she became annoyed with Freya I found myself getting annoyed, because it wasn't fair for her to lead Zach on and then expect him to just wait around.
I could comment on so many different areas of this book but it would ruin what happened overall, so I think it's time to stop. (view spoiler)[ The final thing I want to say is that I'm kind of disappointed that Freya and Mercedes didn't happen. (hide spoiler)] Overall though, I really enjoyed this book and I will definitely buy it when it is released....more
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