This book evokes so many feelings. The story weaves together beautifully, but it is heavy. Weighty. But oh, so realistic. The themes of mental illness and healing is deftly and gently handled by Wheeler. And she creates such a beautiful soul in Adelaide. A lovely, thought-provoking read.
Thanks to #NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

Adelaide is everything: she's a lover, a giver and everything in between. Her life story is told in bursts of past and present leading up to her mental hospital stay. The past: Rory and his wishy-washy ways of keeping Adelaide from leaving him. It's complicated and definitely not a love story. But, it's Adelaide's story.

Knowing from the start that this wasn't a love story made this novel easier to read through. It does deal with challenging topics, suicide and grief, and did take me about a week to read through. However; Genevieve Wheeler was able to keep my curious mind flipping through the pages. This is a debut novel that will stay with me for a time. I enjoyed listening and reading Adelaide by novelist Genevieve Wheeler.

Thank you MacMillian audio via Libro Fm and St. Martin's Press for my alc and earc in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

oh boy. a painful read for all the girls who have ever been made to feel like they’re “too much” for a boy.

twenty-six year old adelaide’s tumultuous relationship with a man who will never love her back becomes more complicated when he suffers a personal tragedy and she feels the need to support him.

i liked how this story showed how there can be multiple important relationships in our lives, and that our story doesn’t end when we fall in love. I also think the struggle of wanting to feel wanted and feeling undeserving were very well-portrayed.

i understand that adelaide’s narration was very much internal, but i wish her friends had spoken to her about her relationship sooner–it felt odd that they only expressed their concerns toward the end of the book.

i went into this book having no idea that the MC had endometriosis rep, which really excited me. while the rep wasn’t inaccurate, per se–some people do have very mild symptoms–I feel apprehensive about the fact that the only time Adelaide’s endo significantly affected her life was when it came to thinking about pregnancy. again, this is accurate to how SOME people live with endo, so it’s not inaccurate, but endo is a full body disease with a whole host of symptoms that affect most people with it much more severely than being limited to struggles with fertility and the pain easily treated with birth control that are described in the book. this is also a very common way that endo has been represented in books– as solely affecting one’s fertility. there was no mention of endo affecting adelaide’s romantic relationships or mental health, for example, two pieces that would have fit nicely into a story that is already about romantic relationships and mental health.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

WOW🥰🥲

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the chance to read this book.

Take note by "love story" it means it's referring to the messy, emotional, mental health awareness kind ... Trigger warnings.

This story was so gut wrenching, heartbreaking and absolutely beautiful. I just wanted to hug Adelaide through out this whole story...heck I wanted to hug them all!!

This book was heavy and hard, but I absolutely loved this book! I was in tears for a majority of the read because it was so full of emotion and incredibly relatable. I will happily recommend this book and on the look out for anything else Genevieve Wheeler writes.

Thank you St Martin's Press, Netgalley and Genevieve Wheeler for the ARC of this incredible story.

Adelaide is a solid protagonist who finds herself while accidentally finding love. I loved this book! She's a modern woman with progressive sensibilities. Adelaide is not a typical "love story," but who needs typical? The timeline moves at a nice pace and the setting details are clear. Give this unique story a chance. Love to hear what you think.

Adelaide was the beautiful and raw story of a girl in her twenties navigating love, careers, friendships and anxiety. As I began reading and getting to know who Adelaide is, I realized that I am her. I know so many Adelaide's as well. We follow her as she meets her 'Disney Prince', Rory Hughes and a rollercoaster courtship ensues. They are what the kids call a 'situationship'. As the reader, you can feel Adelaide's anxieties and confusions going through the ups an downs of dating someone new. 'Do they like me?' 'Do they want to see me?' Waiting for those messages, waiting for those dates, holding hope that they feel the same. Overthinking until you make yourself dizzy with anxiety. I felt for Adelaide so much and I loved that she had a solid group of supporting characters to be there for her through it all. Slowly and all at once, we can see her mental heath deteriorating as the story builds and ends. This book was so raw and real with handling anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder. Adelaide sank to her lowest low and then there was hope. There is always hope, there is always help, and there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Genevieve Wheeler's prose was beautiful with her third person narration. We had some different timelines to see Adelaide throughout different stages and phases of her life to make it all make sense. I never wanted this book to end and it will stay with me forever.

I didn't know going into this book that it would give me the same yearning, nostalgic feeling that I got the first time I read Normal People, or the first time I watched 500 Days of Summer. Adelaide made me suddenly feel like a young girl on the brink of the rest of her life. Penny Lane whispering in my ear "It's all happening." And then delivering a realistic gut punch of life - life isn't a book or a movie. Our mental health can sometimes get in our way.

Adelaide is a beautiful love story of finding love in oneself after searching for it in others for too long. I will cherish this book for years to come.

I have already preordered a physical copy that I believe will become tattered with rereads.

I don't know if and when I will ever stop thinking about this book. Adelaide believes that you meet certain people at exactly the right time, and I'm a believer that you read certain books at the right time. This is one of those books for me.

Bar none, one of my top reads of 2023. I loved the prose, the writing style, and everything that Genevieve Wheeler made me feel. We really got into Adelaide's head and I felt for her. I wanted to be her and also saw myself in her. This is one of those books that made me feel just so grateful to be a reader, and make me envious as an aspiring writer.

The best part of this book were the female friendships. Wheeler writes about them with such care, and it's clear she has friendships like this in her own life. The friendships also felt so real, which I think is incredibly hard to do. Eloise and Adelaide's friendship, in particular, reminded me of mine with my best friend, and I loved that so much.

One small thing that I especially loved: Adelaide's attachment to A Wrinkle in Time. As a fellow AWiT girlie, I really felt seen.

My one critique is that characters turn to Harry Potter for comfort -- while I understand the importance the story has in our culture, I just wish we could have done without the reference to works without a problematic author.

Anyway, I'm off to weep about this book some more and get the last line tattooed somewhere on my body!!

Book 22 of 2023 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2
Real, Complicated, Meandering
Format: ebook
I finished this one five days ago, but it took me some time to process what I want to say. I really want someone to read it so we can talk about it and also I’m not sure any of my bookish friends will love this one. I have seen it categorized as romance, which I wouldn’t call it. This is not a book to read to escape real life. It is very well written with some different stylistic choices - like dialogue being italicized and flash forwards being in parenthesis. This book follows Adelaide and tells her coming-of-age story as she navigates her 20s, dealing with her past trauma, her mental health, grief, relationships, and friendship. This book was believable, nuanced, well-crafted and I cared deeply about the main character. This is an impressive debut and I’ll definitely want to read whatever this author does next. Skip this one if you need to escape real life. Read this one if you’re up for a slice of life novel with all of the complexities that brings. Check the content warnings. StoryGraph is an excellent source for content warnings. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

#bookreview #bookstagram #stmartinspress #genevievewheeler @geewheeler @netgalley @stmartinspress

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC.

This book is most definitely NOT a timeless love story, and there is absolutely nothing romantic about it at all. Unfortunately, it is a real look at hurt people navigating hopeless and damaging relationships out of a great need to be loved. Add in mental health struggles, narcissism, sexual and emotional abuse, and masochism and you have a book that, while interesting and real, is very tough to read.

It took me a minute to even figure out what I was reading. The male lead is described almost as a stalker and I thought this was a psychological thriller or something. I had to keep going back to read the blurb on the jacket to be sure I was (or wasn't) on the right track.

Thankfully, the main character has a group of strong female friends, who at the end of the day end up saving her through support, friendship, understanding, and unconditional love. The main character truly would not be alive without them.

If anyone is triggered by anything, except maybe war, be prepared because you're probably going to find it in this story. And the only love story that exists here is that between women friends.

3 1/2 stars

Thank you to Genevieve Wheeler, NetGalley, and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Adelaide will be on shelves on April 18th!

This novel is not light by any means and I'd recommend looking up trigger/content warnings beforehand.

Our protagonist, Adelaide Williams, is a 26-year-old American girl living in London. She is just the kind of girl I'd find myself drawn to... Kind, smart, witty, and a little bit broken. The story begins in the aftermath of her suicide attempt, but draws you back to the very beginning, to the very moment she meets the boy who would consume so much of her heart and soul throughout the novel. She gives too much and asks for close to nothing in return, and I wanted to shake her until she came to her senses more than once (just like her fiercely loyal best friends in the novel).

I'd recommend this book to all of the Sally Rooney lovers in my life. Genevieve Wheeler has such a poetic way of writing, and an incredible ability to pluck the heartstrings of her readers. I found myself tearing up several times, empathizing with even the most aggravating characters, and relating to Adelaide in every sense of the word. How it's possible she bottled up bits of me and channeled them into this spunky, big hearted American girl in London, I'll never know... I'm looking forward to reading more of her work in the future, and I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this book!

Wow this book was amazing. This is one of the few books I’ve read that I can equally and confidently compare to Sally Rooney. This is a 20-something coming of age novel that is raw and dark, but ultimately full of love and life. I fell in love with Adelaide and my heart was aching and rooting for her so so much. The writing style of the book was rich and beautiful, which really helped suck you in to the story and the characters. An added bonus is I love when books have tons of literary references, as this one certainly does. I’d recommend this book to anyone who loves Sally Rooney, coming of age novels, and women’s fiction.

I loved the flow of this novel about a young woman, Adelaide Williams, living in London. The story reads slightly like a Bridget Jones story until it doesn't (Adelaide mentions BJ in the narrative). Adelaide made wonderful friends in the UK and spent many nights at home and in pubs and bars with those friends, constantly meeting new people. Her professional life was on the right track, and I found that relief for a change.

The story shifts slightly when Adelaide finds a "Disney prince" called Rory on a dating app. There is a funny back story on that which I will not reveal (a spoiler). Adelaide falls hard for Rory, and life is heavenly until his lack of active affection becomes an issue.

This well-written story is a lesson for young women who believe they will love her more if she does just a little better. I recommend this novel to all young women still trying to survive in a male-dominated world.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press & NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this arc

Should you read this book, I can promise is that you will feel a LOT. Learning about this woman’s past and watching this man abuse her love was heartbreaking and frustrating. To be honest, I didn’t really feel the love story part of this. I did, however, find Adelaide’s personal journey worth exploring.

It was scary at times, as I know I saw parts of my younger self in this book. There’s that famous line about how we accept the love we think we deserve. Adelaide’s first love was so traumatic and terrible, it left her settling for less than she deserved. She was also conditioned to sacrifice her own needs for those of others which I think is commonplace for women and wholly unacceptable.

So much heartbreak and pain. I was happy that Wheeler surrounded Adelaide with such steadfast friends and allowed her to finally recognize her true “prince”. This was an extremely emotional and tumultuous journey, but Wheeler topped it off with a beautiful epilogue that left my heart filled with joy.

This is an emotional story and from the very beginning grips your heart. Definitely felt heavier at times than the description let on, especially with the opening chapter dealing with suicidal thoughts. It was a little jarring to read right out of the gate and then quickly transition to the past. But overall, a good story.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of this book in an exchange for an honest review (3.5 stars)

This not a typical love story. While it features romantic love as a central theme, I would say this is more closely aligned with a coming-of-age story in the wake of several life altering experiences.

I did enjoy reading this as it's a painfully realistic portrayal of your early to mid-twenties, a period plagued by uncertainty and heartache.. Adelaide is certainly relatable as she struggles with her mental health and a relationship with the hard-to-love, Rory, which continues to be one-sided throughout the book. Their relationship is messy and incredibly frustrating, and me want to stop reading at several points.

It feels like this book wanted to tackle a lot of contemporary subjects and struggles, doing so at a surface level and taking away from developing a core purpose of the story. Regardless, there will certainly be an audience for it, especially those seeking out the next best thing to Normal People).

WOW this is a hard read and not a love story. This book needs to have a trigger warning list inside the cover so the reader can make an aware decision before purchasing. While they were not triggering to me, it was a very uncomfortable read. I cannot honestly say I would recommend this book.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martins Press for allowing me to read an advanced e-book in exchange for my considered review. All views are solely my own.

A memorable, unique account of being a female through the years 2018-2023 that involve career aspirations, friendships, falling in love, and heart-break. But more importantly, it portrays a genuine and realistic experience of what it is like to suffer and live with a mental illness. I appreciated the realistic plot of unrequited love and having your self-worth attached to another person’s love for you. I found it relatable to witness how dangerous people pleasing tendencies due to past trauma can be and the work and realization it takes to overcome it.

Upcoming Release⁣
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𝐀𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐝𝐞 by Genevieve Wheeler [Thank you @netgalley @stmartinspress for the gifted digital copy, which releases April 18, 2023.]⁣
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𝐀𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐝𝐞 begins in a hospital. Adelaide is answering questions about her emotional state and how many pills she's taken. Her best friend is by her side. And Adelaide has realized what it feels like to hit rock-bottom. ⁣
"Internally, mentally, she was a mess of jagged disconnected pieces, and she didn't believe she was capable of putting herself back together...A handful of pills and a swig of water and she'd be free - her broken pieces swept up and transferred to another spiritual plane." ⁣
𝐀𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐝𝐞 tells the coming-of-age story (the 20-something version) of how she got there, the events leading up to her cry for help, and how this cry for help eventually led her to happiness.⁣
Adelaide spent too long feeling undeserving of love and unworthy of happiness. And after investing so much of herself in a relationship of non-reciprocated love with Rory, she had depleted her sense of self-worth.⁣
I didn't love their relationship. But I did find it all too relatable to some of my own younger relationships and naive views on love.⁣
I, however, 𝘥𝘪𝘥 love following along while Adelaide rose from rock-bottom, and wish that part took up more space in this book, as there was much to admire and learn from watching her growth. I appreciate the author's openness in normalizing therapy and medication as a means to understanding and treating mental illness. I would be remiss to not say how I absolutely loved the mentions of some favorite book references throughout (Atticus Finch in 𝐓𝐨 𝐊𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚 𝐌𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐝, Elio and Oliver in 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐌𝐞 𝐁𝐲 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞, and so many others!)⁣
Adelaide was a character I felt drawn to and could root for, and I loved reading her story.⁣
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TW: sexual abuse, sexual assault, rape, emotional abuse, gaslighting, panic disorders, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, mental illness, miscarriage