I read this book in a weekend - I absolutely could not put it down. The realness and relatable flaws of these characters will pull you in from the first page.

Ari has just been broken up with. Her fiance suddenly calls it quits after a decade=long relationship. Ari feels that she doesn't know who she is anymore without him, and so moves from NYC back to Boston where she went to school. She takes a job at a tech start-up where she meets Wells, the much older (and married) founder of the company. Wells and Ari find they can't stay away from each other, and soon, Ari finds herself deeply entangled in his family life. Ari's journey of self-discovery will keep you hanging on every word.

I loved this book because it was so much more than just an age-gap affair. The complexities that each character faces internally and in relationships were so well crafted. This is sure to be a title that has the celebrity book clubs fawning.

Thank you to NetGally for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Just Want You Here will be published on March 11, 2025.

Messy, messy, messy. If you love mess, complex characters that are deeply flawed, then this book is for you. This book was a quick read and very engaging. The only thing I didn't like was the characters at the end didn't really learn anything and were virtually the same people, but I guess that is closer to real life.

This book wasn't for me, but I think it could be for a lot of people. This story focuses on Ari who's reeling after a big breakup with her high school sweetheart and its ramifications on her friend group. The novel shifts halfway to be more about Ari's new life and an affair with her married boss, his wife also becomes a primary character. This novel focuses on messy relationships, but often stops short of fully interrogating the full range of emotions of its characters. That said, it was a fun and engaging read that I think others may love.

This was such a sad and touching book! I would be devastated to be in the position that the main character was in, losing the person you are in love with and did everything with and confided in. It would wreck me, so seeing the character in this book go through it and grow is so heartbreaking but nice to read. I loved it even though it was painful.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and especially the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review of the book!!

I have mixed feelings about this book. It’s a story that follows Ari, who’s trying to navigate life post-breakup with Morgan, and while the premise seemed promising, the execution left me somewhat conflicted.

The first half of the novel felt slow. Turits uses complex and almost unnecessary language that occasionally disrupted the flow. It felt like the characters, especially Ari, were being drowned in over-complicated expressions that didn’t really match their personalities. This made it a bit hard to connect with them initially. However, by the second half of the book, the writing settled into a more natural rhythm, and that’s when I found myself more invested.

Ari is not your typical protagonist. She’s messy, makes poor choices, and at times is hard to root for. But that’s what makes her real. We all know people like Ari—people who don’t always choose the best path but are still trying to figure things out. I appreciated that about the book. It felt relatable, especially for someone like me who’s in the middle of figuring life out as a college student.

That being said, there were moments where the pacing felt off. The story drags in the middle, and then suddenly everything seems to happen too quickly, especially towards the end. The abruptness of the ending left me feeling unsatisfied. It’s like the book builds up to something significant, only for the final pages to leave us hanging without any real resolution.

In terms of character development, I wish there had been more growth. Ari doesn’t seem to change much by the end, which was disappointing. I wanted to see her learn from her mistakes or at least have some clarity by the conclusion, but that never really happens.

It’s a decent read if you enjoy complex, flawed characters, but don’t expect a neat and tidy resolution. While I finished the book, it’s not one I’d highly recommend unless you’re into slow-burn character studies that don’t necessarily wrap everything up with a bow.

Raw, emotional, and often jarring in it's intensity - what happens when the one true love you have always relied on is ripped away? A journey of the self, finding strength, making connections, be they appropriate or not, to ultimately find your way.

Ari and Morgan are childhood sweethearts, they move away together then Morgan decides to end it all.
Through the book we meet true friends, family members and new loves.
Life moves on for both characters and the book mostly concentrates on Ari. This is where I found the book strange and unrealistic (I know it's fiction).
It's an easy read.

This novel offers a familiar storyline about heartbreak, self-discovery, and morally complex relationships, but it doesn’t do much to set itself apart from other contemporary romances. Ari, the protagonist, starts the novel reeling from the end of her decade-long relationship with Morgan. While her emotional turmoil is relatable, the plot quickly veers into well-worn territory when she begins an affair with her married boss, Wells. The dynamic between Ari and Wells is meant to be intense and forbidden, but their connection feels somewhat contrived, lacking the depth needed to engage the reader truly.

The inclusion of Wells’ wife, Leah, adds an interesting complication to the affair, but the triangle feels underdeveloped. Too much focus is placed on the affair itself and not enough on the emotional consequences or the psychological depth of the characters. Ari’s entanglement with both Wells and Leah could have been a source of real tension, but instead, the relationships come off as predictable.

The writing is decent but unremarkable, with moments of insight into Ari’s feelings. The themes of self-reinvention and the search for happiness are compelling in theory, yet Ari’s journey toward discovering who she is lacks originality. Her choices often seem impulsive rather than introspective, making it hard to invest in her growth fully.

In the end, while the novel has its moments, it never quite delivers the emotional impact or the complexity that its premise promises. It’s a quick, moderately enjoyable read, but one that ultimately doesn’t leave a lasting impression.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book to be slow getting off the ground, but once I was invested and connected to the characters, I really started to enjoy this story. It was an interesting plot and the characters were well written. The timeline worked for me- I always like a past and present storyline.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC.

Amazing book that leaves you wanting more, in all the best ways. The author draws you in to the lives of all of the characters in a way that makes you love them despite their flaws. The book ends in a somewhat surprising way that leaves you wanting to know where the lives of each character takes them next.

"Without Ari, Leah wouldn’t be able to function in her daily life, care for her only child. Without Leah, that space Ari has found unoccupied so many times in her life would be open again."

this was a pretty interesting read! it really picked up around the second act when i got my head around the characters. however i feel like some of the characters really lacked depth, i do love reading about complicated/dysfunctional characters but didn't really feel the connection between ari and wells or the friendship between ari and summer. the time jumps can get a bit confusing and cause the text to feel disjointed at times, it also doesn't help with character development as it feels like the author is just telling us things and not showing us.

overall, i really enjoyed this read! and found at times i couldn't put it down, very compelling and emotional.

I get what the author was going for here, but between Wells, Ari and Leah...there was a lack of character depth. I felt like I was supposed to care about Wells and Ari having an affair but I didn't care because I wasn't sold on the sexual chemistry-actually Wells had more chemistry with Khrish than both of his romantic leads. Ari basically fell into the background as I've read too many characters similar to her that are going through a millennial lid life crisis but find themselves attracted to people within reach. Leah was just...Leah. I felt the book could've benefited from cutting a few chapters where the plot didn't move.

This novel was a beautifully written and engaging read that kept me captivated throughout. I found myself increasingly invested in the plot and characters as the story progressed, especially in the second half, which I enjoyed even more than the first. As the narrative unfolded, it became harder and harder to put the book down.

Turits has a knack for building a story that pulls you in, and I found myself wanting to read more with every chapter. The characters were well-developed, and their experiences felt relatable, making me even more immersed in their world.

However, one challenge I faced was the occasional jumps in the storyline. At times, it felt a bit disjointed, and I found myself struggling to keep track of what was happening. Despite this, the overall quality of the writing and the emotional depth of the story more than made up for these moments of confusion.

Overall, *Just Want You Here* is a compelling read that I highly recommend to those looking for an emotionally engaging story. Turits has crafted a novel that, despite its occasional shifts, is both beautiful and difficult to put down.
book.

2 stars.

Big thanks to the publisher and author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had pretty high hopes for this book, especially during the first half. It was packed with tension and anticipation, and I found myself eager to see where things were headed. The buildup was really well done, it kept me hooked, and I was excited to see how all the threads would come together. But then the second half happened, and... well, everything just fell flat for me.

It felt like all that tension and buildup was for nothing because the story started to rush through things. Just when I thought things were about to really kick off, the plot sped up, and it seemed like the author just wanted to get to the finish line. I don’t mind fast-paced endings, but this one felt abrupt. There was no real payoff for all the buildup earlier in the story.

And then there’s the character development, or lack thereof. I’m all for complex, evolving characters, but there was nothing here. No growth, no change, nothing to make me feel like these characters were different at the end compared to the beginning. It’s like they were stuck in place, which made it really hard to care about what happened to them. I wanted more depth, more emotion, more of a connection.

Overall, I just ended up feeling disappointed. The book had so much potential, but it didn’t deliver in the end. I expected way more from the characters and the story. It’s a real shame because I was ready to love it.

Well this was a weird one…

Morgan and Ari, together since high school, break up on the first page and this is all about the aftermath of Ari’s life over the next two-ish years. I immediately had a hard time remembering which of them was which because of the ambiguously genderless names. Maybe because I’ve only known boys called Ari and girls called Morgan…so that was a confusing start, but worked out because Morgan’s POV simply vanishes from the book after a bit.

Once I settled in, I read a fairly well-written account of the absolute toxic train wreck that was Ari. I honestly was liking this book pretty well, despite all the terrible choices and refusal to ever take the obvious path to happiness, but people falter after a break up. People have unresolved trauma and dig themselves into holes they can’t climb out of, and that’s real, so Ari being unlikeable wasn’t a problem for me. However, when I felt the story was finally heading towards a conclusion but then noticed I was only 62% through, I had to scratch my head. What else can happen??

Ha. What else indeed.

*spoiler-ish from here on**

The final third of the book was just hard to get through. A sort of vague implication of a possibly romantic but mostly non-physical relationship with the very last person Ari should have been near. Meanwhile, her “best friend” is just giving her all the disapproval and lack of emotional support that she has been since the story started and then is the one who chooses to blow up Ari’s life “for her sake” and THEN….the book just ends. We have no idea what happens to anyone. No satisfying feelings, so cheering for our lost girl finally coming to her senses, no a-ha moment, no happy ending…because no ending at all.

You have to have a pretty amazing book in your hands for it to end that way and be ok with it. This wasn’t. It was a good read, I finished it, I doubt I will recommend it to anyone.

📖 Just Want You Here— Meredith Turits

Pub date: March 10, 2025
*thank you to NetGalley for the digital ARC!

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️💫

Some books are written to make you feel, and don’t always make sense, and that was this one. The story had such an enormous plot line when beginning, in the affair between Ari and Wells, but the emotions of each character were so muted that I found myself looking at the pages in absolute confusion. It was someone saying “I love you” without any depth to their inner dialogue, almost like watching a film instead and being expected to take what you wish from it, not what the author wrote.

The second half of the book had me equally confused. There were so many possible things going on but it felt like the inner dialogue of each character was saying so much while saying nothing.

That said— the book somehow sunk in and elicited emotion, especially of the time of our lives when we feel lost and confused and broken and alone. But I wish it could’ve achieved this without feeling so unfinished. The abrupt ending paragraph seemed like the author’s attempt to put their intended meaning in words, when the story should’ve already conveyed that.

It was my first time reading from this author and I really liked her writing style! It is rare that I read books with multiple love interests, but I really enjoyed the complexity of every relationships.

Just Want You Here was a great coming of age story that will have you believing in second chances. Don’t skip this one.

Pros:
- plot is gripping, keeping reader curious each chapter
- Gripping starting sentence
- Strong writing style
- Unique variation in word choices
Cons:
- feels like telling us more than showing
- Third person disconnects story (cannot emphasize with characters)
- Repeating words/phrases (ex: "retired to his bedroom")

- leaving all of this aside a personally enjoyed this book and would read it again :)

This book was a real page turner and incredibly addicting. I really enjoyed reading it. I preferred the first half of the book much more than the second half. I was very invested in Ari and Wells' relationship, and then very confused with Ari and Leah's co-dependent relationship. Was there a romantic aspect that I missed or was it just assumed? Great book and would recommend.