Member Reviews
thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.
I Love You More is a well-written novel that explores our different versions of love. While the central storyline includes romance, I enjoyed that it focused on the relationship between our two sisters, Tess and Avery, as well as their respective partners.
A good story that empowers families and women. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole story. It’s a fun, feel good and interesting book.
I would have to classify this as Women's Fiction since the HEA was not a forgone conclusion. Nevertheless, if my own life hadn't interfered, I would have read it straight through. This is a well written story about family dynamics and sibling rivalry.
Tess Stone is at the top of her career and her world as the anchor to the top rated NYC morning show and married to the Kit Reid, first baseman for the Yankees, when it all crashes down on her, when she finds out that her husband had been cheating on her. When she breaks down on air, she looses her job and becomes toxic to any other network. She goes home to her family in San Fransisco, to the home she grew up in and their family restaurant. She hopes to at least fix her relationship with her younger sister, but doesn't even realize, why her sister, Avery, became cold to her. Her sister is engaged to a man that Tess once dated, not knowing that Avery was in love with him. Their parents are keeping secrets, Kit is trying to get Tess to forgive him and more family drama ensues.
I read an advanced readers copy from NetGalley.com. This is my unbiased, honest and voluntary review.
Excellent book!! I really really enjoyed reading this and can’t wait to read more from this author. Excellent character development and a beautiful storyline. So well written!!
Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy!!
I Love You More is a good fit for readers seeking a heartfelt story about the complex bonds of sisterhood, the importance of family, and the challenges of finding one's own path in the face of adversity.
A perfect spring read.
Two sisters learn that they need each other, and that getting through life is easier when you have someone by your side.
Especially when everything's falling apart.
Facing tragedy has a way of doing that.
I absolutely adore Avery and Tess.
"She leans over and hugs me and that's when I know everything is going to be all right."
This is the story of two dysfunctional sisters, where jealousy, insecurity, and narcissism overrule their love for each other.
Somehow, Avery found it ok to become engaged to Tess’s former guy. We all know that’s a big no-no, so I have zero sympathy for her insecurities in her relationship. Tess threw him over so she could pursue her career as a news anchor. Eventually she threw away that career when she lost her temper on live tv after learning her husband had an affair. Basically, both women are sort of a mess and sort of people I don’t think I would like in real life.
Because of circumstances, Tess and Avery are back in close contact and eventually must learn that family is important. Love conquers a lot. It may or may not conquer enough to forgive cheating, and it may not be enough to make coming in second in a relationship ok, but it makes it easier to be there for each other as sisters and as children for their parents.
I absolutely loved this story. Sisters Tess and Avery have a complicated relationship and only gets more complicated when Tess moves back home. Avery is now engaged to Tess ex boyfriend. And Tess just learned her husband is having an affair and lost her job. Avery on the other hand is stringing to learn her parents are going to retire and sell their family restaurant. Avery loves there but begins to feel like she isn’t reaching her full potential.
The characters were very relatable and I was content with a happy ending
"I love you more" follows the Stone family, particularly the sisters Tess and Avery.
They are as diferent as they can be. And their lives are not easy, each in their own way. Even so, love shows at the corner and helps soothing their hearts. And their readers' hearts. This is a book about hard situations, hard choices, hard lives. And how we need each other not only to survive but to be happy.
"You once told me if I found joy, I would find myself"
This is such a heart warming book. It will be very hard to live without these characters.
Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read and review this book! Another fantastic book from Stacy Finz. The characters in this story have depth that helps build the story of family relations. It is a great full circle story that follows each individual through personal challenges and seasons of growth.
*Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book for review, all opinions are my own*
3.5 stars
I ended up liking this book more than I thought, it's a quick read that keeps you hooked.
Here we will follow two sisters who are going through difficult and decisive momentsin their life's.
I admit that I liked the point of view of one of the sisters more, in fact if it had just been the point of view of one of the sisters I would have liked the book more, but I liked following their lives during this period of time, I liked seeing their evolution and growth.
For me, I would only change the ending a little bit, I think the author rush things a little bit in the resolutions, and everything was resolved very quickly and easily in the end, but I liked the resolutions so it didn't bother me that much.
I think this is that kind of quick book to read when you want an easy read about interesting characters.
Poor Tess in this book. Her day imploded on air where she worked as a news anchor because someone else had answered her husband's phone and she just could not pretend everything was all right any longer. Of course her language on air did not help her. I liked that she flew to San Francisco to be with her family and to try and mend her estranged relationship with her sister and to see what she was going to do about her husband and her job.
I liked that this book had strong characters who seemed real in how they felt and reacted, which pulled me into their drama. It was interesting to learn about their family's restaurant business and how her sister Avery had lost some of her passion for the business but never made any waves to change and do what she wanted until Chef Gaines came along. I loved this line from the book. "You once told me if I found joy, I'd find myself, and that's when I found you." I received an advance copy of this book and I willingly chose to write an honest review.
This is a story of two estranged sisters who both suffer in their personal lives and reconnect with each other. Good story.
I like this one. I fell in love with it, and I read it pretty quickly. At first, I was very hooked on Tess's POV. Her situation hurt my heart, because her husband cheated on her and then she lost her job. She was at the lowest point in his life, and she ran to her parents' house because that was her safe place. I just wanted to hug her 🤧. Avary's POV was good too, but I have to say that I did found weird her relationship with Bennet. That thing didn't had a future, I don't know why it took her so long to finish their relationship. But I confess that Avary and Jeremy's scenes were the best of Avary's POV.
I loved every minute of the Stone family's story. It started off with a bang and was great all the way through. Avery was my favorite Stone sister and I was so happy with how her story turned out. Loved, loved, loved the epilogue!!
There is a lot crammed in between the covers of this book, and Ieaves you with a lot to think about. At its core, the book is about two sisters who are both going through a lot both separately and together. The family restaurant is a main focus, and food and cooking features heavily. I really enjoyed the characters, how they struggled with their own feelings and emotions. It felt real, and imperfect in a nice way. I did think some of the middle drama dragged on and was perhaps a bit repetitive. However I really enjoyed this and couldn’t put it down once I started. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to provide my honest review.
This novel is really a love letter to family – as Erma Bombeck put it, the “Ties that Bind … and Gag.” The things we ‘know’ about our family members, how we view each other, how we behave toward each other in a crisis, all these issues are explored. We meet Tess as her marriage implodes and learn immediately that there is friction with her sister Avery, but even though Tess can’t figure out why, she never questions that she’ll have Avery’s support in her time of need. The story that spools out from there is a long one, of Tess’ ambition, Avery’s need to maintain the family business even as it chafes, and two romantic relationships that come under intense scrutiny.
Stacy’s ability to get inside her characters’ heads and make them live is unparalleled. From Tess’ attempts to puzzle out the cause of the distance between sisters, to Avery’s unwillingness to hurt her father or lose his approval, it all feels incredibly immediate and intimate. There were times I wanted to shake one sister or the other until they saw sense, and by the conclusion they felt like old friends that I’d gone through some stuff with. I don’t really think there is a higher compliment to give a writer! The plot is interesting in that there are some twists and turns I did not expect, and it kept me interested enough that I couldn’t put it down - I read the whole book in just a few hours. I think this will make an excellent reread based on the strength of the character development, while I wait anxiously for her next book.
“I Love You More” is an interesting and introspective look at two sisters and their relationships, both with significant people in their lives and with each other. We start the book with each sister on a different coast, Avery living in San Francisco where they grew up and working for the family business and Tess living the ‘big life’ as a television anchor in New York. Once Tess returns to San Francisco seeking the comfort of home after both her personal and professional life implode, it’s clear that proximity alone won’t solve the distance that has been lingering in Tess and Avery’s relationship.
The story is told with a dual narrator perspective from Tess and Avery. As we learn more and more about each sister’s reality and the way in which they approach situations, it becomes clear that the only way Tess and Avery will be able to get back on the same page is through genuine communication with each other. Sometimes being honest is more important than telling someone what they want to hear. And sometimes decisions that are right for one person aren’t right for another. The story felt like a reminder for the reader that all types of relationship take work, even with the people that we are expected to be closest to.
I think Stacy Finz crafted a really compelling story that will hook readers right away – and readers will likely find themselves relating to both protagonists at different times throughout the duration of the story.
Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced arc of this book.
This book highlights relationships, the good, the bad, the struggle and the work needed to maintain them. The relationship between two sisters, Tess and Avery, is at the centre of this book. Tess is a broadcast anchor on a morning television show. Her meltdown on a live broadcast and the aftermath sends her home to her parents and her sister. Her sister, Avery, is not exactly thrilled to have her home. She is a talented pastry chef and works in the family restaurant along side her parents. For most of her life she has felt that Tess was the golden child, always in the spotlight and always the centre of attention. She sympathizes with her sister over her marital troubles, but she can’t forget that her new fiancé loved Tess first. Her jealousy spikes and puts more distance between sisters at a time when support and loyalty are needed instead. Avery sees having her sister nearby for any length of time as a threat to her relationship with the man she adores.
Tess is not looking to replace the husband who devastated her, because as hurt as she is, she is still in love with him. Losing the job she loved is painful, but still doesn’t compare to having her marriage dissolve before her eyes. She is not prepared for her sister’s attitude when she goes home to lie low and regroup. The tension between the sisters spills over to include their parents and Avery’s fiancé who doesn’t know what to make of this new angry, uncertain side of her. Their parents have their own decisions to make that could add further upset and tension. These two sisters have a lot of work (soul-searching and growing up) to do before they can make their way back to each other.
Tess and Avery’s story is tumultuous, insightful and very relatable. It is a compelling read and one I would highly recommend.