I read 47% of this book and normally would give a book 20% to capture my attention. I could not relate with the main character or storyline. Adelaide portrayed herself as being a modern day feminist, that has a distaste for patriarchy, gender inequality and stated that birthdays resulted from capitalism. The hypocrisy of telling the man that has sex with her yet consistently ghosts her that he can c_ _ on her where he likes is astounding to me. That if she were only perfect he would like her seems to contradict a strong, feminist woman. Thanking him for letting her fall in love with him! Texting him nude photos to keep his attention is an act of desperation, in my opinion. I was allowed a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

Twenty-six-year-old Adelaide Williams is an American living in London. She’s making her way in her career and has a solid group of friends, but when she meets Rory Hughes - her life completely changes. He’s charming and interesting and he feels like The One she wasn’t even looking for. Problem is… he’s a flake. They have amazing times together but he never calls her his girlfriend. He will take a week to respond to a text. He doesnt make advance plans and she hasnt met his friends- but adelaide is a fixer, and she quickly becomes engulfed in Rory’s life, even though it means losing pieces of herself.

I’d call this a millennial sad girl novel, and it really worked for me. It’s an excellent debut and it felt very honest and raw. The author addresses mental health in a real way and very much captured that feeling of what it’s like to be young and in love and desperately wanting to grow up and find yourself.

My One criticism is that there was a bit of time hopping drove me crazy- we’d be in the present day and instead of a new chapter than said something like ‘then’, she’d throw us into the past where adelaide and rory first crossed paths. Once i got used to it it was fine, but its worth mentioning.

There were a lot of times where i wanted to throttle rory. I can acknowledge that yes adelaide was at fault too- but rory really was hard to read. I was rooting for her the whole time, and i think despire her flaws it was a very realistic story. I know people like adelaide, and i have been a version of adelaide myself. Loved it!

Adelaide is an incredible debut about finding yourself in your twenties and learning when (and who) to walk away from while doing so.
If you're looking for a romance with a happy ever after this is not it. It is a love story in a sense because this young woman is slowly learning to love herself. But the road to self love for Adelaide is full of strife, and grief, heartbreak and loss. It is as devastating as it is ultimately uplifting. And it deals with some heavy topics.
What I loved most about this book is how relatable it is. I am much removed from my twenties and yet I completely understood Adelaide's need to please-her friends, her work colleagues, and a boy who can't figure out how to love her back. Highly recommend this book to everyone, but especially women of all generations.
4.5 stars

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the chance to read and review this title.

Adelaide just stole mine. She is an American woman living in London, struggling with figuring who she is, who she wants to be, who she wants to surround herself with, all while dealing with issues from her childhood and her own mental health struggles. And this is all while being in a relationship with a man who just will not or cannot love her back. The emotions and angst jumped from the page in its realness, relatability and honesty. It was witty, raw, heavy and also full of hope. Instead of it being a romance, it was the story of Adelaide’s journey of self-love and self-reflection. I loved every minute of it.

This book is for sure in the running of my top book of 2023. The empathy and understanding the author inspires for Adelaide is unmatched. Beautiful story that is entirely relatable.

I found this book to be a bit of a slog. The main character is pretty tiresome and it was hard to finish.

This book was fantastic. As someone who has suffered from depression, I really appreciate and identify with Adeline's story!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Love is messy. Love is hard. Life is a struggle. This is NOT an easy read.

This is the story of Adelaide, a twenty-something who is struggling to quite her inner monologue. Her story is filled with childhood trauma, rebellious actions and mental health struggles. Adelaide will penetrate your heart and soul as with every "break" her will to live shatters until she has nothing left to give the world. It's only the darkness that will make it ALL go away.

The female friendships are her only salvation, always there in her time of need especially when the day comes for her to make the darkness real. They'll drop everything to fight with her to overcome the challenges to be her best self.

Adelaide is dark, depressing and realistic. Mental health and relationships were accurately and respectfully portrayed throughout the story. One cannot help but root for her to stand tall again.

Thank you St. Martins Press for the complimentary copy.

There are so may trigger warnings in this book and I'm not educated to name them all, so I would check other reviews before diving in.

Haven’t we all loved someone who didn’t love us back? Someone who threw us breadcrumbs and we thought we were getting the entire meal? Reading Adelaide is like reliving those memories with your loveable and sweet little sister.

I'll be honest -- I majorly procrastinated on diving in to Adelaide because the first chapter made me feel so extremely sad. If you're in the same boat, I am here to tell you that, yes, this book is sad, but it is also hopeful, real and absolutely beautiful. This book made me want to wrap Adelaide up in a hug and also prompted me to look introspectively at those heartbreaking moments in my own life. This has been one of the most unexpected books of the year and I hope you pick it up.

The story opens with Adelaide in the hospital for suicidal thoughts and alluding to a tough break-up. We then rewind to the beginnings of her tumultuous relationship with Rory Hughes, which starts before even the start of their actual relationship. While her relationship with Rory is the focal point of the book, I loved the female friendships in the book the most. They were so pure, so solid, so honest. The author lets us in early that the push and pull of Rory and Adelaide's relationship obviously causes a break for Adelaide, but the in-between are both hard to read yet so worth it.

I can't wait to see what this author has up her sleeve next. I'm a huge fan. Five stars.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Beautifully rendered tale of mental health issues. Profoundly moving and completely engrossing from start to finish. Also, a lovely ode to female friendship. I eagerly await more books by this Author. Big thank you to St. martins press and NetGalley for making this ARC available.

Adelaide, a young female navigating life, love, friendship, and more. This story, and these characters feel so real to me. Adelaide falls for a man and while things are going well on the surface, there is definitely tension and misunderstanding below. I can relate to seeing friends in similar positions and wanting to shake them but not fully understanding what they are going through. This book is a great read and I would recommend to young adults!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK!

Have we not all had this experience at one point or another in our lives? Loving someone more than they loved us, but clinging on for dear life and screaming “WHAT THE FUCK MORE CAN I DO TO MAKE YOU LOVE ME?!” A part of me really wanted a redeeming arc for Rory but that’s the point isn’t it? We want it, but we won’t get it from him.

This book is 2023’s Normal People.

The emotions were written so vividly that you can feel the author’s personal experiences. It was palpable and satisfying to feel seen in the pages of a book.

There was a point where the author wrote “tears fell that she didn’t know were forming” (paraphrasing) and I laughed out loud because it’s so cliche, but that’s the point. This story is a universal experience and cliche phrases are practically required because they exist for a reason.

And the female relationships! This is a feminist book. This is what true friendship between women looks like. The fluidity and strength of friendship moving between life milestones and distances, and I absolutely loved this representation.

I also loved the representation of trauma healing and mental health, especially for bipolar disorder, which is so misunderstood and almost weaponized by men to describe “crazy.” This was a beautiful glimpse of a genuine, kind-hearted, hard-working woman who is successful AND has bi-polar. I loved it.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to review this book. I definitely plan to share this review on all of my platforms.

Rating: 5 Stars

If you have read "Out of Love" by Hazel Hayes, this is the exact book I would recommend you read next. This book starts with the ending of a romance, and the almost-ending of Adelaide's life. And then starts right back from the beginning right before the romance began.

I loved this book so much and I was able to deeply empathize and sympathize with a lot of what Adelaide was feeling and had gone through. I love the way this book was written, with the jumping timeline and a narrator who knows what will happen when the characters don't. This book overall just had me feeling so many things, and I think proves to show that everyone will get their happy ending, even those who feel like they can't get there.

Adelaide wasn’t what I was expecting – and that’s not a bad thing. While I expected a romance, it expanded to contain so many elements.

Adelaide is in her 20s, living in London, and finally meets the man of her dreams. He makes her feel so full – when he follows through. When tragedy strikes, another layer unfolds in their relationship and complicates an already tenuous situation.

Sometimes I wanted Adelaide to come to her senses, but like many of us, the 20s are a period to live and learn. Trying to throw more than her all into her relationship, it leaves her confused, hurt. The author truly captures what it’s like to be a woman in this situation, all while gently tackling issues including mental health struggles and grief.

It runs the gamut of emotions and really drew me in. This is a great read for someone who wants to really escape into a story.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. All thoughts in this review are honest and my own.

"How unfair, she thought. That she'd helped Rory piece himself back together, and he'd never even know she fell apart."

Summary:

Adelaide Williams is an American living in dreamy London. When she met Rory Hughes, it was a lightning bolt out of the blue. He seemed like everything she’d ever wanted. But is love enough when he has nothing to return?

Thoughts:

Wheeeewwww. This book absolutely DESTROYED me. There were a LOT of similarities between Adelaide’s experiences and my own, so reading this was really cathartic. I was absolutely crying the whole way through.

There were definitely like… 5 too many Harry Potter references in it. But other than that, this book is a freaking masterpiece.

Final star rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice rating: 🌶️

CWs: miscarriage, infertility, suicide attempt, toxic relationship, panic attacks/disorders, suicidal thoughts, mental illness, grief, sexual assault, emotional abuse, rape, and sexual content

Adelaide hooked me instantly and I loved the story all the way through to the end. Genevieve Wheeler really brought Adelaide, and all her characters, to life. My heart ached for Adelaide throughout her journey, as she experiences heartbreak after heartbreak, sometimes at her own doing. This book is dark, depressing, and deeply relatable to anyone who has experienced unrequited or mismatched love, yet it is also hopeful.

Run to your nearest bookstore or library to pick this up!

This is about a 26 year old American woman living in London and working in public relations. It’s basically focused on her newest relationship (with flashbacks to previous ones) and mental health.

I related to things Adelaide went through in her quarter life crisis. I’d describe this as a little similar to TELL ME LIES but with a likeable protagonist and more of a focus on mental health. I loved Adelaide’s friends but couldn’t hate her love interest more if I tried.

This is such a beautiful, emotional read and I’m truly blown away that it’s a debut novel. I really got in my feels while reading and even teared up a little in the end, one of the reasons it’s my first five star of the year. Definitely check this one out but mind the tw/cw. Also it’s listed as a romance on goodreads but it most decidedly is nottttt a romance.

⚠️: suicidal ideation/attempt, sexual assault, emotionally abusive relationship, rape, infidelity, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, miscarriage, mental illness

Very interesting concept! I enjoyed it for what it was but I typically read less heavy books. Apparently it’s like Sally Rooney’s book, Normal People. I haven’t read that book though, just what I’ve heard. I think it’s a hard read because it’s heavy.

If I could get through it, I think I’d really like it. But it’s one I have to pick up and put down several times to get through.

DNF @ 51%

GAH! This was a heart wrenching read: raw and unapologetic. Adelaide is big hearted and just wants to care for those around her with every ounce of energy she has, to the detriment of her own health at times. An honest story of a young woman giving and giving and giving and not listening to the warning signs around her, until she hits rock bottom. This is a tough one; if depression, anxiety, and a susicide attempt is a trigger warning, be cautious. But at the same time, I feel like it's such an honest account, it is worth the read. I just want to wrap my arms around Adelaide.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and get to know Adelaide!

This was a good story. The story was a little hard to follow because it jumps around so much without giving a lot of difference in the narrative. The problems in this story are very real to people today and should definitely come with trigger warnings of suicide ideation.