I started reading Heartstopper on Tapas in October 2016. Cheers to a series that I spent 10 years of my life with.

4.25 The writing is gorgeous. All the irish authors I've read so far have a way to write about emotions like no other. Sunburn is raw, vulnerable and often painful to read. You can feel the teenage angst and the yearning through the pages. It's exactly like it felt to be a teenager. Everything is all or nothing, acting selfish and still caring so much what everybody else thinks about you. Lucy is not the most likable character, but she is one of the most realistic teenagers I’ve ever read. Even if you don’t support her decisions, you understand why she acts the way she does, because the Catholic guilt practically drips off the pages.

Readingbythestream not only has the ability to successfully convince you to buy books just because the edition looks cool, but also to recommend great books. Also, in case anyone is wondering, you don’t necessarily have to read the first book beforehand. I haven’t read it yet, and I still could follow the story perfectly.

The romance of this book was top tier. It was a dynamic I don’t think I’ve encountered before. It was really interesting to see how Marian’s past influenced her struggles with loving, trusting, and letting someone get close to her while feeling comfortable. Sometimes I saw myself in her, which made the reading experience a lot more personal for me. It was great to see that Rob respected her boundaries from the beginning and that asking the question “Is this okay?” didn’t stop after their relationship settled more.

Another aspect was that they communicated. After something happened that mattered for the plot, they didn’t dance around each other, and I didn’t feel the need to skip ten pages because one person couldn’t communicate properly. It was great to see two grown-ups knowing how to use words to express their emotions and opinions towards each other, resolve situations, and avoid unnecessary arguments. On top of that, the emotions that Marian and Rob felt were described so perfectly that the story felt really realistic.

Normally, I would’ve complained about the book being too fast-paced, but because the letters were used as a foundation of their relationship, I think the pace was perfect.

Furthermore, I loved the language that was used. This book is set in the 18th century, and I had the feeling that the proper words were used to describe certain actions. There were none that felt like they had teleported from the 21st century into this book, and it made me really happy because this is one of the main reasons why a book could get a lower rating from me.

This book gave me a lot of hope to see more romance books with a similar dynamic in the future. Especially with handling situations like grown adults and showing consent, because respecting each other is a lot easier than starting a discussion because someone said “No”.