✨ARC Review✨

“I find that the books with the saddest endings are the best because they make us feel. We don’t always get a happily ever after no matter how hard we work for it.”

⚠️Heed my warning: if your books must contain an HEA, then this is not for you (there is not one). If reading about death/chronic illness bothers you, this is not for you. If you don’t do well with emotionally wrecking books, again not for you. Lastly, if you don’t enjoy the stepbrother romance trope, turn away.

Did this book wreck me? ABSOLUTELY, but it was beautiful. Beautifully written, and full of love, loss, reparation, and awareness. I won’t go much into detail as the synopsis speaks for itself, but it involves chronic illness, death, love, and loss, while impacting multiple relationships. This was incredibly hard for me to digest, and I felt it in my core from the beginning how this was going to play out and ultimately end. I chose to carry on and allowed myself to be gutted. The writing was beautiful yet heartbreaking. It brought truth and emotion, love and pain.

What’s On The Pages:
-chronic illness
-death / grief
-no HEA
-stepbrother romance
-love / loss
-mending of multiple relationships

⚠️CW/TW: chronic illness, death of a sibling, stepbrother romance

✨Rating✨
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

A special thank you to NetGalley and Bloom Books for this eARC! Underneath The Sycamore Tree is out today! (This was a previous book written years ago by the author, now picked up with a new cover by a major publisher)

I grabbed this one because someone said it was like Colleen Hoover. So of course I jumped on that one. Sadly it let me down. It felt kind of like a mash of up of things like Five Feet Apart for adults. And the romance was kind of weird. I think that for me this just wasn't my type of story.

My first B. Celeste book and it was definitely a book that stirred many feelings. Tough to read at times but I was happy I did. Not sure I would recommend widely but would recommend this to a specific audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

4 ⭐️

After seeing a recommendation for this book from a friend, I went in without even reading the blurb. This story is amazing. The variety of emotions it makes you feel can make it hard to read, but it is so worth it at the end. It is a great book to start the year!

Emery Matterson is definitely broken, but she tries not to let it show. We learn that her twin sister, Logan a.k.a. Lo, died when they were children after battling lupus. Sadly, Emery also has lupus, though she is eighteen. The loss of Lo was extremely difficult for their mother, who goes into a deep depression basically pushes Emery away. Their father was noticeably absent when Lo died, but still had limited contact. In an effort to get away so her mother might heal, Emery decides to move in with her estranged father and his new wife, Cam, and step-son, Kaiden.

After moving in, Kaiden kept Emery at arms length and was brutally honest. This refreshing interaction led Emery and Kaiden to get closer in their way, offering Emery opportunities and many different firsts she may not have otherwise encountered.

This story is told in such a raw and honest way that you feel all of the emotions. I loved every minute of it, even when it was breaking my heart.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloom Books for an e-book for honest review.

5 out of 5 stars.

My first read of this year 2023 and I'm satisfied to have picked this book in order to start my reading journey for the year. Just the perfect Emotional read I needed.

Emery - I almost forgot she's a fictional character. I was hoping that she'll find ways to ease her pain. This girl truly went through so much and she's so strong enough to let the pain over take her. If the loss of the twin is not enough to tolerate then she herself is facing all the pains and aches her twin has faced. When her mom should support her she sent her away to her dad who abounded her sister and mom. Luckily she was having a sweet step mom (Cam) who helped her female better with her health condition. I just wanted to hug her so tight and cry with her telling all her pains would vanish soon.

Kaiden - As much as he appeared to be a Jerk. I somewhere sensed he was protecting her. The reason behind him taking care of his Stepsister was something I didn't expect. Each time he called her mouse it was really adorable.

“I was about to risk getting arrested just to see you. Do you know how damn hard it was standing out there while they had you in here?” This line when he told her while she was in the ICU.... just made me cry even harder.

How can someone be so sweet? God! Why wasn't he able to have his mouse forever in all his games as she promised him?

Tropes:-
Hate to love
Stepsister/Stepbrother
Chronic illness
Tragedy
Small Town

Everyone should read this book to know how much we should value a day in our life. If anyone's is in a need of a heartwrenching book please go ahead with you and I'm sure you won't regret.

Thank you so much @netgalley and @authorbceleste for the ARC of this extraordinary book with the best plot line.

Oh wow.
If ever I was going to cuss out an author, this would be the book to do it.

Besides pulling intently on my heartstrings, Ms Celeste managed to rip it out, then stomp on it for good measure

While I have no experience with a disease of this nature, I can only imagine how hard it is to know that one day—soon—you are going to lose the battle with your own body.

Reading a book like Under The Sycamore Tree is such a treat. It not only reminds you to embrace your life but also puts into perspective some of the daily struggles people with "invisible illnesses" deal with. As one of those people (with an invisible illness), this story really resonated with me. While I may look fine from the outside, some days it is a struggle to find the motivation to get things done. Anyway, I digress.

If you are looking for a book with hearts and flowers and all the good feelings, this is definitely NOT the book for you.

This book will suck you in, tear you up and leave you with a gaping hole where your heart was. But I couldn't love it anymore if I tried.
One of the best books I have EVER read.

I thought the chronic illness rep was done really well but the relationship in the story was a hard pass for me.

I absolutely adore B. Celeste's writing - her words are so beautiful, and her stories are always so heart-wrenching. Underneath the Sycamore Tree was no exception. Emily and Kaiden's story is very hard-going at times; there is so much loss and sadness that in parts I had to take a break to just steady my nerves. The thing is, I always trust this author to get me through the pain and bring me out the other side...and she did just that.
This book is so gorgeously written and I fell in love with it right from the start.

Get your tissue ready. Underneath the Sycamore Tree is heartbreaking. It explores reinforcing familial relationships heavily strained by invisible diseases and the harsh realities of them when someone is diagnosed with one. In 368 pages, you are immersed in the head of 19-year-old Emery Matterson, a high-school student, grappling with these realities. Her thoughts convey sadness, and depression, but also gleanings of reflection and hopefulness. 

Although I enjoyed Underneath the Sycamore Tree for the first-person narrative, near the midpoint, it became challenging to read, and left me unsure. Despite tugging on my heartstrings and forming a likeness towards Emery, because of the forbidden love element, I still have mixed feelings about it and that’s the reasoning behind my rating.

My rating is 3.5/5. I enjoyed it for being informative and entertaining, however, I do recommend this book with a hint of neutrality and caution. :-) This book has a specific audience. Try it out. This may be your next great read. 

Many thanks to Bloom Books, B. Celeste, and NetGalley for an Advanced Review Copy in exchange for an honest review. My review/reaction is voluntary, all thoughts are mine and unbiased, and receiving the ARC does not influence my rating and/or recommendation.

My full review: https://readingbeyondthebookcover.com/book-reaction-underneath-the-sycamore-tree-by-b-celeste/

Underneath the Sycamore Tree
B. Celeste
5 ⭐️

OMG this book is beautiful inside an out! As soon as I saw the words “for anyone who loves Colleen Hoover” I instantly clicked to request. So happy that I did. I loved it so much. It gave me a little Heartbones, and Hopeless vibes. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Blurb: Time is a luxury we don’t all have… Emery Matterson’s life has been broken for a while. First, she lost her twin sister to an incurable autoimmune disease, then her father left, then her mother fell apart when Emery herself was diagnosed with the same disease that killed her sister. The only option for emery seems to be to move in with the father she hasn’t seen in ten years, and start over. Enter Kaiden Monroe, the brooding athlete who has baggage of his own. Kaiden makes Emery feel normal. Hated. Cared for. Loathed And…loved.

“The trouble with time is that we only think we have it. It’s an illusion—an excuse to linger in existence. Some people use it to be reckless; others use it to hold themselves back.”

Underneath the Sycamore Tree was an emotional, gut-wrenching story that had me full on crying and wanting to sing you are my sunshine. 🎶 It wasn’t easy to read, but the story and the characters were so beautifully written, and perfectly paced, that it was absolutely worth the heartbreak.

“I find that the books with the saddest endings are the best because they make us feel. We don’t always get a happily ever after no matter how hard we work for it.”

What I Loved;
🌳 Coming of age/NA romance
🌳 Chronic illness rep
🌳 Emotional journey
🌳 ALL the feels

A story that will having you feeling ALL the feels, and one I will definitely recommend to everyone.

Thank you Netgalley and Bloom Books for the advance digital copy in exchange for my honest review! I honestly loved it and I can’t wait to add the stunning finished copy to my shelves.

I finished this book feeling bereft and full of emotions. Having read books by B. Celeste in the past, I was not expecting this story and its characters to have such a chokehold on me. There is death, divorce, autoimmune disease diagnosis, chronic pain, grief, moving away, starting over, falling in love. I was definitely not expecting the outcome. Nonetheless, Emery and Kaiden's story is a beautiful one. The author's note at the end of the book helped piece together those parts of me that broke apart and shed some light and understanding into her thought process.

I received an advance copy of this book at my request and voluntarily left this review.

I felt so many emotions reading this, from the pain and heartache to the loss and feeling of understanding behind really loving someone.
While I was completely enthralled from page 1 till the very end. I felt like I was best friends with these characters till the very last page and I’m going to miss them greatly!
If you can go into this blind I would, it’s the best way to get the full effect and feel every word the way you should!

This is a heavy topic that creates some dark spots in the book and can be difficult for some readers. Underneath the Sycamore Tree was a book I had to put down for a break and it was sometimes hard to pick back up; because of the subject matter. I commend the author for bringing an honest and raw view into a misunderstood world that she herself lives in. While harder to recommend this book to the masses, I would encourage those who are intrigued by the synopsis, to give it a chance.

The chronic illness representation is this book is really well done. My heart ached for Emery and the pain she experienced on a daily basis. She was so tough and determined, I really enjoyed her character. Unfortunately for me, the relationship piece just wasn’t my favorite. I wish it could have been a strong friendship that was built from the characters bonding over their shared grief and learning to heal rather than the direction the story took. I felt disconnected from those pieces of the story because of that and didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped.

The representation in this book regarding chronic illness is so refreshing. So many times I would get tears in my eyes because I went through the exact same thing or could relate to the main character regarding her experience with chronic illness. Even if you don’t have lupus but have any form of chronic illness you will find yourself relating to what the character goes through. I also felt so seen by how the author highlights how doctors are dismissive of young people and their pain when dealing with an invisible illness. Even the doubt the you start to feel about your symptoms due to doctors dismissing you. There are so many sentences and paragraphs I highlighted in this book because of how much I deeply resonated with what the main character was feeling or going through. This is one of the most realistic fiction books regarding chronic illness that I have ever read. The authors note mentions that author has chronic illness and you can truly tell that this book is coming from someone who understands what it is like.

Underneath the Sycamore Tree is a love story of strength and purpose. The harsh reality for this teen is simple but breathtaking as she discovers the second chances she never thought she'd have in life. You'll fall in love with her fight, her compassion and her love that is everything. This book is all the feels!

Thank you SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books for the complimentary copy.

Thank you to Bloom Books for providing a digital Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3⭐ 2🌶️

I think I'm in the minority on this one because I have mixed feelings about this book. I knew going into this that it was supposed to be an emotional read (and I love books that emotionally ruin me), but I honestly felt nothing while reading this. I really wanted to love this book, but sadly this just didn't work for me.

This follows nineteen-year-old Emery whose life has been nothing but difficult and filled with tragedy. She was diagnosed with Lupus when she was thirteen, the same disease that killed her twin sister ten years ago. Emery's mother has never been the same and Emery can see that her presence is a constant reminder of her sister. In order to give her mother space to heal, Emery decides to move in with her father, who left shortly after her sister's death and started a new family. The story starts off with Emery moving into her dad's house. It's there that she meets Kaiden, her brooding and damaged step-brother. The two form a connection and Emery finds solace and begins rebuilding her broken relationships.

❌ I wasn't emotionally invested in the characters or the story. Despite the heavy topics in this, I just didn't find myself connecting with any of the characters. I'm not totally sure why, but I think it was because there was too much telling and not enough showing. It felt like we got a lot of highlights and snippets of things happening that weren't enough for me to feel fully engaged. We also got a lot recaps of things happening through Emery's inner monologue (which we get a ton of) instead of actually watching it all unfold. I also found Emery's inner monologue to be very repetitive and not all that compelling. I feel very guilty saying all this because of Emery's situation and everything she's been through, but there it is.

🆗 Kaiden (H): 3⭐. Kaiden was too hot/cold for my taste. He's obviously dealing with some anger and grief of his own, although we don't know why until later on. He was pretty mean to Emery in the beginning, which I wasn't a fan of, and then he would do these random nice things like cook her eggs. I wish we could've gotten his POV because it felt a bit insta-lovey when he finally admitted his feelings for Emery. But once he did, I thought he redeemed himself. I liked how he cared for Emery and how attuned he was to her and would call her out on her bullshit if she was trying to hide her pain.

🆗 Emery (h): 3⭐. I have a huge amount sympathy for Emery and everything she's gone through. She's had such a difficult life and I can't help but respect her for not being totally broken by her situation. By the same token, I almost found her too accepting of her situation at times. I was surprised she wasn't more angry, especially at her mother. The fact that Emery had to be the one to make the hard decision of moving away for the sake of her mother, that just didn't sit right with me and I don't know how Emery was so level-headed about it. But then I found it incredibly stupid of Emery to ignore her symptoms later in the book. Was she in denial? Maybe, but for how mature she seemed it made me angry. Overall, there were things I liked about Emery as well as some things that annoyed me.

🆗 I wasn't totally sold on the romance between Emery and Kaiden. I wouldn't say the two of them hate each other in the beginning, but there is definitely some dislike. Kaiden is very cold and standoffish towards Emery in the beginning, even acting a bit like a bully towards her. And while he sometimes acted in ways that indicated he cared, he still acted like an asshole while he did them. I felt like we never actually saw his emotions start to soften, never got to see a different side of him. Even though I knew it was coming, when Kaiden finally admits his feelings to Emery, it seemed out of left field and felt a bit insta-lovey. On a side note, the dirty talk wasn't cringey but felt a little out of place.

✅ Although the relationship between Emery and Kaiden is taboo since they are step-siblings, it never felt gross or uncomfortable. It never felt forbidden and neither of them fought their feelings because of it. Since they didn't grow up together it felt more like they were roommates. There also wasn't really any drama about others finding out or judging them about it. So if you're on the fence about this because of the step-brother relationship, I would say this is pretty light on that aspect of the story.

✅ Although I don't personally have a chronic illness, I thought (as an outsider) that the chronic illness representation seemed very well done. It was woven into every aspect of the story and I thought the author did an excellent job portraying the challenges of living with a chronic illness. There were so many moments (big and small) that made me appreciate just how difficult it would be to live with a disease like Lupus. It's every day and it's hard and it's painful, not just physically but emotionally too. After reading the Author's Note, it appears the author wrote from personal experience and I'm not surprised at all because it was so thoroughly explored in the story.

❌ I felt like the book tried to cover too many things and ended up not doing any of them really well. Of course, there's Emery's lupus and her daily struggles living with it, as well her acceptance of the fact that it could be terminal. And then there's Emery's broken relationship with her mother, her broken relationship with her father, and the sort-of bully romance with Kaiden. I didn't think there was enough time spent on any of these story lines to feel like the characters went through a believable emotional journey. In the end, everything felt a bit forced and the ending itself felt very abrupt (even though I had guessed what was coming). The epilogue also seemed out of place and a bit pointless.

Overall, this has some very heavy topics and themes that have the potential punch you in the gut. Though I appreciate story being told, sadly, I didn't find myself connecting and this just wan't for me. I'm really sad that I didn't like this as much as I wanted to.

Am I glad I read it? 🔘 I suppose
Would I recommend this book? 🔘 Maybe, to the right audience.
Would I read this book again? ❌ No
Will I read more books by this author? 🔘 Not sure.

Genre/Tropes:Women's Fiction ◾️ Chronic Illness Rep ◾️ Taboo ◾️ Step-Siblings ◾️ High School ◾️ Loner x Popular ◾️ Bully

POV: Emery's POV in first person, present tense.
Pacing: The beginning felt slow but things pick up in the latter half.
Sadness: Very High.


❗❗Content Warnings (Spoilers)❗❗
* Chronic Illness (on page)
* Terminal Illness/Death (off page - significant to story though)
* Death of a Loved One (on page - through memories)
* Grief/Depression (on page)
* Suicide (off page - not a MC)
* Taboo relationship (on page - step siblings)

⚠️Safety Info (MAJOR Spoilers)⚠️
Age Gap: No (h:19 | H:18)
Explicit Sex: Yes  [Multiple explicit scenes (~2 scenes) that are somewhat detailed. Mild dirty talk.]
Sharing: No
Virgin h/H: Virgin heroine
Cheating: No  
OW/OM Drama: Some.  [A little bit of mean girl drama from the H's ex.]
Sex with OW/OM: No
Separation: No
NonCon/DubCon: No
Sexual Abuse/Assault: No
H/h Death:Yes
Ending: Unhappy ending

[ Review time ]

Title: Underneath the Sycamore Tree
Author: B. Celeste
Genre: New Adult/Heartbreak
Publisher: Bloom Books
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Maybe we should rename this book to
~ Underneath the Big Pile of Broken Pieces of my Heart ~

Something like that is a better fit to this story I would say!😍🥹🤩🥲😭
What do you say B. Celeste??😎

I’m not gonna say more that this book was amazing, soul shattering, beautiful and raw!
AND - very, very important.

Go read it now my sweet friends❣️

(Quick input: If you ’enjoyed’ the book A Thousand Boy Kisses you are going to like this one💔)

A big thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Bloom Books and of course B. Celeste for letting me read this ARC for an honest review.

Anyone struggling with or who has a loved one with invisible illness needs to read this book. It beautifully portrays the every day struggles and long term effects of living with a chronic condition. The emotion and insight into the main characters struggles can be very relatable to really anyone who has dealt with loss or depression. 10/10 would recommend.

I figured this was going to be sad going in but I didn’t know just how much this would pull on my heartstrings. My sister has a chronic disease so this hit close to home. This book was tragic and beautiful at the same time.

Thank you NetGalley for eARC in exchange for an honest review.