Sam@WLABB
Written on May 8, 2020
This was my first Liara Tamani book, but after finishing it, I immediately pushed her debut, Calling My Name, up my TBR. She captured me with her beautiful prose, wrapping me up in the rapture of first love using vibrate and lush imagery. But, it wasn't just the gooey love stuff that got me. I was hit with every emotion these characters were feeling, and I felt them with full force.
Obviously, this book was about first love. It was sweet, and heady, and intense, the way teen romances tend to be. I loved watching Rex and Carli navigating these new feelings, and forming such a strong connection with each other. I can already hear the cries of "instalove", but I don't care! I remember being a teen, and all those firsts were so extreme and powerful. I also was sold on this union, because of Rex. When Carli looked at him and spoke to him, he finally felt "seen", and I accept that as a driving force to seek deeper connection with someone.
Rex was quite a complicated character. He carried around a lifetime of hurt, grief, and guilt related to his mother's death. He craved to be loved, and to be loved for who he was, not his skills on the court. I could feel his joy, when he was embraced by Carli and her family, and it was both touching and heartbreaking. He was a rather sensitive young man too, who wasn't afraid to bear his soul, and I never get tired of seeing boys like that. I felt so rewarded, when Rex started to build a positive relationship with his dad, but as things started looking up in his world, Carli's was falling apart.
She had always enjoyed a rather idyllic home life. Her brother was caring and very generous with his love. She had a mother she admired, and a father, who was known to dote on her. Now, her parents were getting divorced, and she had to choose which parent to live with. This decision, plus her resolve to quit basketball was weighing on her. She had many difficult choices to make, this weight sometimes kept her from being as emotionally open with Rex as she wanted to be, and as he wanted her to be. Let's just say, their relationship experienced the same sort of ups and downs, that they were personally experiencing apart.
There were also many secrets, and they played a big role in this book. It seemed like everyone had some, and ready or not, they were all getting uncovered. I think the one I didn't see coming until it was right in front of me, was the secret which prompted Carli's parent's divorce. I may have let a "wow" escape from my mouth, when I realized what had happened there, but I rather liked how it played into the overall story, the way Carli embraced the secret.
Overall, I had a fantastic time reading this roller-coaster romance. This was a wonderful story of first love and family, which was filled with fantastic characters to root for, lots of emotion, and many beautiful and heartfelt moments.
*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.
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