I do not know what to make of this book.
Macy lost her mom at a young age and she and her dad lived in Berkeley during the week and had this vacation home in Healdsburg, where she fell in perfect soulmate love with the neighbor kid next door, Elliot. However, it's been eleven years since they last saw each other, and by the time they meet again, Macy's gotten herself quickie-engaged to a guy named Sean who has a kid. The book alternates back and forth between Macy and Elliot's sweet, innocent teen love story and how they are whammy-back-into-each-other-again immediately in the current timeline. Like Elliot IMMEDIATELY breaks up with whoever the heck he was dating after running into Macy again because nobody compares to her. Smart move, Elliot, let's not drag that shit out. Macy, on the other hand, has yet another Disposable Fiance (a trope I am truly, truly sick of) to eventually break up with. Sean lost his wife to drugs years ago and while he's blandly nice, both of them are clearly in Settle For Me, I won't be hurt if this breaks up mode. Yawn. Okay, fine, break up already. This is even more pain-free than the breakup in Sleepless in Seattle because of their mutual "well, you're a warm body, that's cool" meh. It kind of makes me feel bad for the kid, but the kid probably won't super care either?
I will not deny that the adorable teen romance of Macy and Elliot is super sweet. There's pages and pages of their understood love and their slow creeping up on sexual activity together and Elliot wanting to be with her forever. However, you spend the entire book waiting around to find out what tore this perfect soulmate couple asunder. As a person who doesn't have a soulmate and never will, I just wanted to yell WHY DID YOU MESS THIS UP so many times. Like if you KNOW, why aren't you? What was SO BAD that it wrecked these two so much? I will note that it's pretty much the most typical reason ever that you can guess (I'll discuss in the spoiler section below the cut), while also being SO out of character for Elliot that I hated it. I know stories like this you have to have some good reason for the breakup, but frankly, I wish the breakup impetus had been something else. Anything else.
It's also handled confusingly because while one girl is foreshadowed as being a possible issue between the two in their teen years, in modern times some entirely different ex girl from their interregnum is invited to Thanksgiving for...some reason, and even though Macy hasn't been in touch with Elliot in eleven years, somehow she knows to Red Flag this particular girl's name and have things Get Weird at the holiday over it. Like I started wondering, did the authors write down the wrong name at some point and nobody caught it in editing? And in the end, girl #2 doesn't even seem to be involved? I'm so confused.
Like I said, the reason why they broke up isn't told until the very end of the book, and I wish (a) it had been something else and (b) had been revealed sooner because it felt way too long to drag out that depressing mystery and not explain. And finally, (c) SOMETHING COMPLETELY HORRIBLE AND WHAMMYING (note: it's not quite out of nowhere, but suffice it to say I'd forgotten about the other outstanding mystery of the book by the time it's told) finally happens in the past that just gutted me to have it revealed at that moment in time. I'll discuss this below the spoiler cut as well, but partnering two disasters together at once just ...oh god, it hurt. Again, I rather wish all of this had crept out sooner in the novel's plotline rather than smashing the reader in the face at the end. Sure, there's a happy ending, but I was so wrecked reading "oh dear god, THAT happened?!" that I found it hard to recover and be all "oh, everything's great now!" after that.
So...basically this is good except for the too-long dragout of why they broke up, and throwing the excruciating double whammy at the end as well, and the reason for the breakup also is blech. It came out problematic for me, I'm afraid. I have been trying to talk myself into giving it a higher review because the romance itself is sweet, but overall I don't think I can recommend it for the stuff that made it problematic for me. Two and a half stars.
Spoiler space
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Elliot, a guy who you cannot picture getting blackout drunk or cheating ever, gets blackout drunk at a high school party being thrown by a jerk and cheats--well, according to him he's so drunk he thinks he's having sex with Macy instead of his off-and-on schoolmate flirtation Emma, who apparently made her move at New Year's. Macy drives over to the party and walks in on the asleep postocoital and refuses to speak with Elliot again.
Oh yeah, and as this review points out, wasn't that date rape?
I note that the Thanksgiving girl is Rachel, who is some vague other ex of Elliot's and I still don't get why she's there or why Macy was upset. Literally, why was this girl not Emma if Emma was The Other Possible Woman Elliot vaguely fooled around with once in awhile before he and Macy made it official/LDR'ing. It should have been Emma.
Also I can't figure out why some random ex would be at Thanksgiving if they know Macy is gonna be there. That never made sense.
And finally, the horrible whammy thing is that we know from the start that Macy's dad has died since Elliot last saw him. However, it's incredibly slowly revealed that her dad died in a car accident New Year's Day, because he was driving a devastated Macy after the cheating revelation. (He said not to drive at New Year's.....) So in addition to Macy losing the love of her life, she loses her one remaining family member all within 24 hours and is utterly alone to deal with this. And I was all JEEBUS H CHRIST HOW DID THIS POOR GIRL RECOVER AFTER ALL OF THAT?!? That was such an excruciating whammy to read and find out about--and presumably this has been the subtext throughout the whole book. I felt so wrecked for her, and that level of trauma and being left alone without Elliot.
And as this review points out, how the hell was the Petropolous family completely unaware of the accident happening? That didn't hit the news? No obit was posted anywhere?
I felt like as the reader, I wanted this to be revealed earlier as well so I had more time to process it instead of being slammed at the end.
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