I loved this one. April is one of my favorite characters in a long time. She’s so lost, but not in an annoying way. The whole time I was reading I just wanted to swoop in and save her and feed her. Poor lonely girl. There are some heartbreaking moments in this one for sure, but also full of beautiful moments of friendship and love. I’m glad to have read this.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC of this wonderful story in exchange for an honest opinion.

Thank you Gallery Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read this novel before it comes out! It was an immense joy to read and it had completely captured my full attention (and my heart), I couldn't put it down! I needed to get through it as fast as I could because I was so immersed in April's life and all of her sweet adventures.

The People We Keep is a beautiful and emotional story filled with characters I wish were real so that I could run into them in my life. It tells the story of April, a 16 year old singer/songwriter who is just trying to find a place that she can call home. We follow her through all her adventures, heartbreaks, and loneliness as she struggles with accepting herself and her past. This book in general is one I wish I could put in the hands of my 16 year old self. The 16 year old with jittery feet who couldn't stay still and was constantly looking for the next adventure in her life. There's beautiful lessons weaved in about family and learning to trust yourself and letting yourself be loved how you deserve to be loved. I felt everything April went through so intensely because I was her once, I felt what she went through when I was her age. It was easy to connect with her and let her into my heart. I wish I could give her a hug! The was a level of intimacy to this novel that was done so well I sometimes forgot I was reading a novel. I felt like I knew April and I was living her life right alongside her.

I loved finding out this story was set in the '90s, I think that was such a strong point of the novel. The time period really set the story and allowed it to unfold the way it did! This is such a character driven novel as well and the characters were developed in such a real way.

I am a huge romance fan, it's always my favourite part of novels, and that's the area where I had an issue with this book. I didn't particularly feel a strong connection to the romance in the book and the love interests. I know the books main focus is not on the romance and April's story is much larger than that. However, when the romantic relationships April had were such a large part of the book, it was hard for me to see past them ]. Every other element of this novel was gorgeous and heartbreaking, but I found myself feeling a bit disconnected with her romantic partners.

Overall, I'm definitely going to keep my eyes out for anything else Allison Larkin writes because I found the writing the strongest part of this book and the story was incredibly honest and heartbreaking in the best way. Sometimes we need books that show us how messy and imperfect life can be, but that doesn't mean it's not worth living. Again, a huge thank you.