4.5

What an absolute delight. I adored "Face Blind" to bits.
JL Merrow has been a favourite of mine since I devoured her "The Plumber's Mate Mysteries" a few years back (if you haven't read those, PLEASE DO), but I've always wanted to dive into her backlist a bit more. "Face Blind" was the perfect occasion: I loved this gentle, lovely, heart-wrenching romance so so much.

The atmosphere was so damn vivid and evocative; the prose absolutely dreamy. And the characters? I don't know were to start but I'd lay my life down for both Corin and Adam. UGH, they were so lovely. Adam was that peculiar blend of cocky and extroverted, while also being fueled by whimsy and that perfect amount of immaturity and gullibility that comes with being young and (mostly) carefree. He hasn't had it easy, and he goes through quite a lot of turmoil in this book, but I loved his easygoing nature. And Corin! He was my favourite. God, I wanted to jump into the book and hug him to death. He broke my heart, but I also adored seeing him slowly but surely get back that spark of life, the joy he'd forgotten about after his accident. He was so damn brave and relatable and lovable. I also loved their relationship so so much: they made me squeal into my pillow, and not many new-to-me romances manage that nowadays. I also looooooooved the disability rep: I've never read a book about a character with prosopagnosia (aka face blindness), and while I found the depiction both brutal and fascinating, I also found it really well done too. So yes, double kudos for that as well: I love how JL Merrow seems to always effortlessly include some kind of rep in her stories (like with Tom's disability in "The Plumber's Mate Mysteries").

I also loved the side characters: Sasha, you're an icon; Scratch? I cannot wait to be in your head for book two. He was the absolute BEST.
I even adored the plot: it was absolutely fascinating, and gut-wrenching too. Grief is the theme that guides the entire book, but it never feels overwhelming nor does it take away from Corin and Adam's romance.
I loved this book okay? And I wholly recommend it.
I'm jumping into book two ASAP.

TWs/CWs: grief, death of parent, death of partner, cheating (in the past), ableism, neglectful parents, abandonment, pregnancy complications (mentioned),

child kidnapping

.

Many thanks to GRR for the ARC. This is my honest review.