3 STAR REVIEW

Thank you so much to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was my first novel by Tracey Garvis Graves and I’ve heard many rave about her past works so I was very excited to receive this book. But I felt myself really struggling with this book. I thought Annika was sweet, compassionate, and an amazing girl and I really liked Jonathan as well for how well he treated her and how amazing he was towards her and her special needs. Even though I loved the characters I’m still conflicted about how I felt when I finished reading.

Annika and Jonathan fell in love in college in 1991 after meeting at a chess club that they were both players in. Fast forward 10 years later and they meet again not knowing that they’ve both lived in the same city for the past 5 years. As they start to try and re-kindle the love they used to have Annika finally finds out why she’s different from everyone else and why they broke up all those years ago.

The beginning of this book was a bit slow for me and I had a hard time getting into it. I did like that the book is told from the past and present, 1991 and current day 2001. I also liked that the story is told from both Annika and Jonathan’s perspectives but I still struggled with this one.

The ending is what I feel really did it for me. There was barely any lead up in the book and then you get thrown a twist at the end and then the book just ends. Like, that’s really all you’re going to say about it? I would have liked the author to talk more about it instead of just ending the book.