whitneydaniell

by: Regina Black
published: Aug 1, 2023
genre: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction
304 Pages, Hardcover
GoodReads Link | Story Graph Link

Nate, being in love is selfish. It’s all about how good you feel, and what you want. Giving love is selfless. So no one cares if you want to say the words or not. What matters is whether that person needs to hear them.

Joe Vasquez

This was a beautiful love story and a story about forgiveness; forgiving yourself and others. I appreciated the softness of this book.

I. Characters

The Abbott’s are local celebrities. Revered by others, feared by some, and loved by many. Matt Abbott, the epitome of the title ‘Nepo Baby’, he is insecure, with an ego bigger than Texas and, no sense of self. Of course, Matt is a politician who stumbled his way through law school and is riding the wave of his (wealthy) last name. With all the wealth that he didn’t earn but, simply acquired by being born, Matt Amazon Primes, 2-day shipped a colossal amount of audacity — it was on sale. Rachel Abbott, Matt’s doting wife, who is out of his league and way too good for him, is thrown into a whirlwind, life-changing situation to rival the tornado that swept Dorothy to Oz.

Rachel has to let her heart break into a million pieces, for her to put herself back together. It’s as if, Rachel’s pieces are that of a puzzle and because she doesn’t have the reference photo, she cannot get the edges together. She cannot see herself for long enough to put herself back together. It isn’t until she’s sitting barefoot, at a drive-in movie that she stumbles into the life of Nate and he becomes the mirror that she needs.

The Vasquez family is just as known in Oasis Springs as the Abbotts, in fact, they’re the descendants of the original settlers of the land. Nate is the youngest son of Beto and Sofia Vasquez and an heir to their coffee conglomerate but, Nate wants nothing to do with the family business.

While Rachel has been broken into pieces and Nate, is the mirror that she needs to put herself back together; because he can see her, he cannot see himself either. Nate is her reflection but he needs to see himself too! These two are flawed and unforgiving but somehow, through their own trauma and pain, they find a way to put themselves back together – I found their story to be soft and beautiful.

Joe and Beto Vasquez are examples of all the things that Nate loves and hates about himself. Beto, his father was the distorted mirror up to Nate; in front of his father, he could only see a distorted image, the cracks, and the ugly. Joe was the smoothing, slimming, photoshopped mirror up to Nate; in his brother, he could only see the things that made him feel better about himself, made him look good, and smoothed over his rough edges.

Mia, Alesha, Faith, and Bobbi, I mean… they were cool too.

II. The Story / Plot

A forbidden love story, you could say this was similar to The Perfect Find, but written better (sorry, Tia). Although it is a love story between two people, there is a substory about forgiveness. Forgiveness of our own burdens that we carry through life and never set down. Forgiveness to the people who have wronged us, that we wear as a shield to protect us from letting that hurt to happen again. Forgiveness for the things that we didn’t say and, for the things we did say.

Both Rachel and Nate wear their burdens like a badge of honor but, the only problem is, that each badge that they wear carries the weight of the person who gave it to them.

I enjoyed this love story. I loved that the people around them, checked them when they were projecting their pain onto others, namely Bobbi who continuously gathered Nate when he was getting out of hand. His brother got him in check a few times too. I did wish that Rachel had more people around her whom she could confide in and trust, I wanted her to reach out to Mia so many times but she didn’t. Rachel carried so much shame from her past but, it was nice to see her work through it in the end.

III. The Writing

Beautiful. The story was written masterfully, dreamy rather. The love oozed from the pages. The dialogue felt real. The scenes felt visualized.

IV. My Final Thoughts

I thought this was a very cute love story. While there were a few things that I felt were a little far-fetched, those things didn’t distract from the overall story. After finishing the whole story, I kind of got Waiting To Exhale vibes – can’t explain further without spoiling the story but, just know that, that is a good thing.

If there was one criticism I had to offer it would be that, I didn’t like the backstory of Matt and Rachel’s meeting. It came off like he was the “white savior” and I think in the end, that’s how he felt like he saved her from some oppressive life, and in turn, he was so kind to give her this life that she would have never had without him — hated it. To me, his behavior through his campaign would have been a huge red flag and I can’t image why anyone would have stayed with him.

Overall, liked it. Would I recommend it? Yes.