just could not get into it and tbh their love story felt too forced?

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me an e-arc of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

While a novel for emerging adults, this book has many of the same themes of LaCour's earlier YA works, but with added life milestones which will appeal to LaCour's dedicated fans who have now moved into post-high school life. The novel is character driven, focused on the lives of two young women named Sara and Emilie. It has themes of finding oneself, recovery from past trauma and loss, family relationships, and of course there is a wlw romance.

I enjoyed the slow pace of this novel. It was almost dreamlike in the narration and the detail put into the settings really brought the book to life. I was under the impression that this book was going to be a romance from early on, but instead the reader really gets to know the characters--Sara, who ran away when she was 16 after her father predicted that her missing best friend/secret girlfriend would be found dead in the river, and Emilie, whose life is at a standstill after seven years of undergrad and too much pressure to be the one with her shit together. Toward the end they get together, after their paths have crossed multiple times over years inside a restaurant called Yerba Buena.

I listened to the audiobook version and I must say that I think the reader was an ideal choice for this work. Her narration is dreamy, fluid, and easy to listen to.

TW: murder, drugs, sexual assault, death.

This book is perfectly imperfect. The descriptions feel so real, as if I’m a true fly on the wall watching the characters interact. The two main women are beautifully written as whole people with histories, flaws, and baggage. I devoured this book and feel inspired to be more purposeful creative in my own life.

A lot happening in here. The restaurant felt right to me.

I really liked the way this book started and was excited for the build as they came together as a couple but I don’t think the actual relationship part of the book is fleshed out at all. They seem like two people that have hung out a couple times. I like where it started and I liked following their lives a little bit but I was most excited for the connection and I don’t believe it did that.