Enay QueerBooklover's Reviews > Exiled

As anyone knows who follows me, I’m a massive fan of Jessie & her writing. She has, yet again, given us a gift with this book. I think she’s one of the most exciting & talented new authors of the last couple of years.

Swoon /5 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Angst /5 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺
Steam /5 ♨️♨️♨️♨️♨️
Plot /5 🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐
LOLs /5 🤭🤭🤭

Jessie says in the author’s note that this book is the “lightest” to date that she’s written. I disagree…she had me crying in the quickest time of any book that I’ve read. Perhaps it’s my ability to relate to one of the MCs, Skylar. Jessie has done an incredible job at writing Sky as neurodivergent - it’s so authentic that it will pluck at the heartstrings of anyone who is, or knows someone on the autism spectrum. It was so accurate that I was frequently choking back tears because I could connect with the words so completely.

Sky has been deprived of love for all 18 years of his life, & comes to Black Diamond with significant trauma (check content warnings). There he meets Nolan, an older man struggling with alcohol addiction, all-consuming guilt, & his awakening bisexuality. We see their back-stories in a succession of time jumps which are gut-wrenching in their detail, & blend well into the storyline so there’s no disorientation. Nolan is difficult to like initially - he’s quick to judgement, & lashes out at people when he feels challenged, & Sky is in the path. But once we see what he has been through, & hear his self-aware but highly critical internal monologue, we can empathise with him more. Especially when he soon shows that he sees & appreciates Sky for all of his wonderful qualities & his beautiful heart.

The heat in this is absolute next level, definitely Jessie’s spiciest yet. Nolan takes to his bisexual exploration with fervour & toppy dominance, showing his DIRTY mouth in words & actions… & Sky laps up every minute of it. It’s thigh-clinchingly sexy, especially when they experiment with fruit & sex…SAY.NO.MORE. But they won’t kiss! This teases out the intimacy, leaving something for when emotions get involved, and I appreciate a change in the usual way things go sexually.


When they separate, it’s one of the most angst-ridden, traumatic scenes of loss I’ve ever read. They believe that, due to the age-gap, their mental health histories, and family circumstances that there is no hope of it working outside of the resort, so don’t even share contact details. Buckets of tears. Thank God they find each other again. Eventually. But the growth in both of them in the interim is significant & makes the reunion all the more special. We go from heart-stopping drama, crushing loss, to blissful reunion in a rollercoaster of deep emotion.

Quotes:
“He laughs, and something just…shifts in my chest, like a rusty seal breaking open at the sight of his lip curving up just before he turns away.
My mouth dries. My heart thumps a little faster. Harder.”

“Forget the ocean—let me drown in him.
Engrave me in his bones.
Bury me in his veins.
Let me live as I died—as his.”

“Skyler swept into my life like a hurricane.
I had plenty of warning.
Plenty of time to board up my walls and take shelter.
And yet when the cyclone finally hit, I realized how futile it was.
It was always coming for me.
He was always going to be my downfall.
And now I’m left with the wreckage, and a sky so blue, it makes me ache for storm clouds. For lightning and rain and bone-quaking winds.
I miss him.
I ache for him.”

Content warnings for religious trauma, suicide attempts, bullying and violence towards neurodivergent MC, abusive parents.

Check out my reviews and MM content on Instagram, Threads, StoryGraph, Facebook & Bookbub, all under the same name! I gratefully received an advance copy and this is my honest review.