Not every love story has an immediate happily ever after. Sometimes you meet someone and have an immediate connection but the time is not right in some way.
I have seen some people comment on whether or not this is a true story and feeling tricked between the opening and the author's note at the end. Stories are told in many ways and, for me, as long as any trickery is revealed somewhere in the content of the book, I don't feel slighted.
This was not a traditional love story but it was beautiful and tragic. I enjoyed the narrator and the story.