What an emotional gut punch. The byline of this book is "A Love Story" and while yes, our two leads shared a beautiful relationship that made me cry on multiple occasions, it was also a love story between family, careers, friendships, and life. TJR nailed the dual timeline because even though we know of the tragedy occurring in the present timeline almost immediately, the timeline set in the past never feels like its unnecessary. We grow to love and care for the side characters so much so that I would dread the present chapters because I just wanted them all to be OK.

The audio narration between Vanessa and Joan is award winning, I felt as though I were standing next to them watching their conversations. PSA don't listen to this at work like I did because you'll look like a psycho trying not to cry 😭😭

Alright, Bartholomew, another solid duology by Rachel Gillig. In the first book, my one complaint was that I didn't really get the connection between Sybill and Rory - their romance kinda just seemed like it was there because they were the two leads. In the sequel??? OBSESSED. Their chemistry was so GOOD! Bartholomew continues to be one of my favorite characters in recent history, and I found myself way more attached to some of the other side characters (cough Maude) than I was in book 1.

Really, my only reason for docking a half star is that I didn't love the tournament aspect that we followed. I liked seeing how everything was crumbling around Benji through his competition stops, but it felt a bit repetitive and boring at times. The character moments were really what made this book shine.