I’ve always been a person who feels too much, I guess that’s why words have always been a solace to lean back on and let it wash over me. Always a handy tool to express feelings too big down on a piece paper. I guess that’s why books will always be a main stay even if the rug is pulled out from under me.

So when I received an arc, hunkered down and got lost in the pages of Josh and Ari’s story — everything felt like a movie projector of my own life passing by. I immediately found refuge in Josh — this convoluted man who wants to idealize love in its purest form. To protect its essence that calls any two people here on Earth to seek the flexibility of its shape around the life they can supposedly build together. To chase a dream and not pay mind to the stubbornness of a parent whose affection was probably a little too severe than all consuming growing up.

Then Ari, who takes the details of my life of being a New York transplant, chasing a dream in a far away island that wasn’t originally home. Skating by, making the best of living situations that will inevitably price you out until you look for another fix.

All these details culminated in the best way, in the most heart rendering way to peel the layers of what so many of us are afraid to see with eyes open wide. All of our failures, our hopes, what they mean in the aggregate of a world where hustle culture is packaged as the most updated cruel joke of bootstrap theory.

Kate’s voice sells it like no other. She captures and envisions it with memorable dialogue, breath defying scenes that musters all the squeals and laughs. She does it ten times over and leads you to the finish line with a hydrated drink in hand, wishing you a job well done. This cast and crew of characters with Ari and Josh leading the charge will stay with me, calling me to open a dog eared page in the middle of the night when I’m lonely or cynical, exasperated from the trenches of finding love — and realize it’ll be worth it. Finding your person even if it takes several chances. Because in the end when you realize… I’ll let you finish the sentence.

Thank you so much to Random House, and to Kate for sharing her lovely words with a world that need it most.