Can life begin again…every other weekend?

Adam Moynihan’s life used to be awesome. Straight As, close friends and a home life so perfect that it could have been a TV show straight out of the 50s. Then his oldest brother died. Now his fun-loving mom cries constantly, he and his remaining brother can’t talk without fighting, and the father he always admired proved himself a coward by moving out when they needed him most.

Jolene Timber’s life is nothing like the movies she loves—not the happy ones anyway. As an aspiring director, she should know, because she’s been reimagining her life as a film ever since she was a kid. With her divorced parents at each other’s throats and using her as a pawn, no amount of mental reediting will give her the love she’s starving for.

Forced to spend every other weekend in the same apartment building, the boy who thinks forgiveness makes him weak and the girl who thinks love is for fools begin an unlikely friendship. The weekends he dreaded and she endured soon become the best part of their lives. But when one’s life begins to mend while the other’s spirals out of control, they realize that falling in love while surrounded by its demise means nothing is ever guaranteed.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for this ARC! It was a heartwarming YA romance that swept me off of my feet. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump lately, and I panicked when I saw how soon this release date was, so I made up my mind to buckle down and read it whether I felt like it or not. It wasn’t long before I had been swallowed whole by the triumphs and struggles of Jolene and Adam, and I was unable to put it down. I haven’t read a book that gave me this many warm fuzzies in months, and it was exactly what I needed in this cold, dark season. It was beautifully written in both characters’ perspectives, and each gave not only a piece of their soul with each chapter, but also an outside view of the other. It was an enemies to friends to lovers story that had me cheering by the time they had their first kiss, and the happy ending was a much needed reprieve from the more depressing reads I’ve taken in this year.

We meet Adam and Jolene in the midst of the lowest points of both of their lives. Adam and his brother Jeremy come to spend time at their dad’s apartment as he and their mother are separated for a time. The two adults are floundering in the grief of losing their eldest son, and it has left both boys with a lot of unresolved anger at the situation. Jeremy is able to put his aside to spend time with his dad, but Adam blames his father for the split and therefore takes any chance he can to get away from him. In waltzes Jolene, who has been used as a pawn in her parents’ divorce for longer than she’d care to remember. She too, stays at her dad’s apartment every other weekend, but she is forced to share a living space with her step-mom, Shelly. Her dad is always away working, and though Adam gets relief in going home to his mother, Jolene isn’t that lucky. Either place she goes is hell, and she is desperately awaiting going off to film school to pursue her dreams and get away from the life she was born into. When the two meet, they have an instant electricity, but Jolene’s fierce sense of humor and blunt manner turn Adam off at first, but the two are drawn together by their similar circumstances.

What starts off as a casual friendship swiftly veers into romance as they continue to grow closer; they spend more time together in their shared weekends than they do with their families, and they begin to trust the other with hopes, secrets, and pain. It is such a joy to watch them fall for each other, and I love how strong their personalities are. They shine through in this whole book, but especially in how they relate to each other. Adam is the more soft-spoken one of the two, and he loves through empathy. He has an uncanny knack for reading people, and while his wit is matched by only Jolene’s own, he is a very serious person with a huge heart. He gives all he has to the people he loves without asking for anything in return, and that makes it easier for him to block out all the trauma from losing his brother and the collapse of his family. Jolene helps him to see himself and it breaks his world open. Jolene has a boisterous exterior that hides her broken heart. She uses humor and deflection to keep everyone at a distance because she has spent her whole life believing that she is unlovable. She uses her talents in film-making to benefit her friends; whether it’s a music video for her best friend’s brother’s band or a short film to showcase her friendship with Adam. She is filled with hurt and self-loathing and fear but drops it all when Adam is near. He helps her believe in herself, and she feels wanted for the first time in a long time.

I also love how we see two sides of a family falling apart. As a child of a single parent, I took both of their individual hardships to heart, and I think it’s important for kids to know that adults have a tough time sometimes. Love isn’t something that’s easy, like Disney would want you to believe. It takes work, and some people are willing to put the work in and others aren’t, and that it sucks but you can find that equilibrium as you grow up. Having a split family is hard, and I think Abigail does an amazing job of capturing that. Adam faces hate towards his father and loyalty towards his mother because he blames him for leaving. It’s only when he spends more time with him that he sees the whole picture and realizes his father deserves a break, and he gets to watch as his parents reconcile. Jolene is being pulled from both sides in a battle of ‘who’s the better parent’ when they’re both losing. She knows there is no hope of them ever getting back together, but she craves their time and attention, which are lost in their constant back and forth and absentee tendencies. It forces her to learn you can’t choose who your blood is, but found family is just as important.

I could go on and on about this novel, but it’s something that needs to be experienced. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone needing a little pick-me-up. Yes, it deals with very hard topics: grief, divorce, and assault to name a few, but these things are handled with care and grace and the amount of love and attention put into each page feels like the warmest of hugs and you are left with that feeling as the book ends. It’s a very raw snapshot of real life, captured within the lines of a fictional tale. I will be thinking about Adam and Jolene’s love story for such a long time, and using their strength to fuel my own as the new year approaches.

5/5 stars