this book broke my heart. i really liked the complex exploration of grief. taylor jenkins reid remains my favourite author. i’ve read all of her books except After I Do and im so excited to read it!

Daisy Jones and the Six has been my favourite book pretty much ever since it came out and I'm just now getting around to reading more of her backlist. I'm definitely not as interested/not as much the target audience for her women's fiction as her "famous people" books but thought I'd give them all a try. I admit I wasn't that much into the subject matter of this one - newly married Elsie who unexpectedly finds herself grieving her new husband. I wish the book had given more time with Ben before he was killed because maybe I would have been more attached to him. The book alternates between Elsie's grieving and the budding romance between Ben and Elsie leading up to Ben's death. It really is the best version of flashbacks and present day I’ve ever read because each flashback is directly related to something happening in the present day. This book isn't really romantic, but it is entirely about love: platonic and romantic, lost and found, the kind you're looking for and the kind you aren't. 

I wasn't particularly attached to any of the characters, and yet, TJR is so stunningly good at making you feel like you could be a part of somebody's world. She's one of few authors I have read that write character and subject matter so well that you legitimately wonder if they have a real life experience or relation to it. Grief is a really relatable feeling for everybody, but it definitely got a little repetitive and boring for the main character. I did like the journey that Elsie went on in her grieving and it was really realistic.