ARC read 2025
This story is told from 3 viewpoints our lead FMC Tess has had a tough life being a foster kid and has gone through stuff that no child should ever have to worry about, the death of both parents at a young age and being transferred from home to home led to no real ties to family when her last foster mom got too close she ran... all the way across the country on a scholarship to start college.
Tess is a freshman and gets talked into going to a college party where she runs into Jake, he is hot he knows it and so does everyone else... when he spills beer onto her and offers to wash her shirt she lets him it also starts a friendship but he is hiding some news, he has a long distance girlfriend who comes to visit occasionally. Tess finds this out early on in the story but is still hurt that she felt he was leading her on a bit and not mentioning the girlfriend was a big no for her but even after this Jake goes on to become her best friend.
There is chemistry and tension between Jake and Tess for the remainder of the book... but even with that Jake continues to date his girlfriend and Tess starts a relationship with his best friend and room mate Brayden.
Brayden is quiet/shy where Jake is loud and impossible to miss as the handsome life of every party, Brayden becomes the safer option for Tess and she for the first time in a long time feels like she has found a "home" staying with the guys frequently and getting closer to both men you see her relationship grow closer and you wonder what will happen with this love triangle since we as the reader are seeing both guys fall for Tess... and along the way she loves them both for different reasons.
Brayden has been hiding something from his best friends and his family he has been struggling with the news himself and how he will let his loved ones know that he's sick and how will they look at him after knowing about his illness?
This story has some truly emotional and heartbreaking moments so before you decide to read this one check your trigger warnings.
*College romance *Love Triangle *three POV's *sick boyfriend *insta love *forbidden romance
*found family *Best friends girl
Have you read this book? what did you think?
---> below may contain spoilers read at your own discretion -->
Trigger Warnings: *Cheating *Substance use (drugs, underage drinking) *illness (cancer)
*suicide *Death *loss of parents
my thoughts on the book:
I obtained this ARC and I know from my own experience that not every story will be for everyone but I did appreciate the opportunity to read this.
This book was not for me but I'm sure that many others will enjoy it. I felt throughout the book that Tess had a stronger bond with Jake and Brayden was a bit of a side character. Tess and Brayden really didn't have enough on page engagement to progress their relationship to the point where I would see how they could be "in love" so when that was thrown out there I was like what? we barely know them together as a couple at all and they have only been "together" for a few months there was more on page chemistry between Tess and Jake the whole book. There are some time jumps and I'm guessing a lot of off page encounters between Tess and Brayden that would lead to the L word.
Jake continues to show his interest in Tess even though he has a girlfriend and she is with his best friend leading to some extra drama. I struggled to get through this book there were a lot of heavy topics and the relationship escalated so quickly it left me feeling like there was something missing from the story, throughout the whole book I felt that Tess and Jake should have been together from the start and felt bad for Brayden and Maggie (Jake's girlfriend).
There was also another side story with Tess where she ended up losing her virginity to her manager at the bar she worked at and not remembering any of it because she was too drunk... after this that part of her life isn't really brought up again kind of felt like it wasn't really needed for the story.
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