"Because I see you. Even when you try to hide from me, I see you."
ALL. THE. FEELS. Catherine Cowles took my heart and ran off with it with this book. I’m not sure I want it back because I’m sure she’ll take it again with the next one.
This series is tearing down all my walls. Get ready for an emotional review.
"She has this pull. Makes you want to lean in and get as close to that light as possible. Makes you want to do better. Deserve her."
I knew I’d relate to Grae. She has Type 1 diabetes, just like me. A lot of what she describes are things I went through after my diagnosis and, like me, she had to overcome so much and show people she is more than her condition. I loved her in the previous books, and now all I want is to be her best friend.
Also, "hypo-hangover" is a very accurate description! Thank you, Catherine!
"A darkness that hadn’t been there before. But it was a part of him, and I couldn’t help but love it the same way I loved the rest of him. It just made those glimmers of his light shine that much brighter."
Caden is incredible. He may be afraid, he may have his walls up, but he loves with everything he has, and he would take a bullet for the ones he loves. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and my own heart broke for him a few times. And… if you look up “pining” in the dictionary, you may just find him there.
"I think I’ve got something that can solve both of our problems."
"What?"
"Be my girlfriend."
If you read the previous books in the series, you know there’s something going on between them. I knew it would be rooted in their past, and I love childhood love stories and that second chance feeling they give me… But I wasn’t ready for these two.
I don’t think they were ready either. Especially when they decide to fake a relationship to get some people off their backs.
"Eyes on me, Gigi. There’s no one here but you and me."
There’s always been something between them, but I didn’t realize how special it was. For how it all could have happened in the past but didn’t. For how meaningful they were in each other’s lives from the get-go. For their special place and moments that meant so much.
For how broken they both became with the distance that came between them.
"How do you see everything?"
"Because I’ve known you almost all my life."
These days, they mostly push each other’s buttons all the time, but it doesn’t come from annoyance or hate. It comes from what could have been. And they both carry the ghosts of the past.
But this fake relationship is about to change that.
"I thought you wanted to murder me."
"Murder’s my love language, remember?"
As with all books I love, it’s the little things for me. How much she cares about him and how much she wants to shelter him from a family that only causes him pain. How much he wants to protect her from everything and is willing to do whatever it takes for her.
How much they don’t see the feelings between them until they’re forced to.
"Things are replaceable. You aren’t. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you."
Now, Grae is being targeted by someone. Her life may be on the line, and that someone clearly doesn’t want them together. And Caden is there for her in every way he can be. And what starts as a truce of sorts quickly turns into a firestorm of feelings, which they can’t deny anymore.
"Because that was always what she’d been for me. The one person who could help me find my way."
Caden has his walls up because he’s already lost so much, and he knows he wouldn’t be able to cope with losing anymore. But she makes everything better—she always has—even when she doesn’t even know it. There was never anyone else.
"Because you sometimes look at me like you expect me to fall apart in front of your eyes. I didn’t break when I got Type 1. Or when you walked out of my life and broke my damn heart."
And Grae is so strong, it’s inspiring. She rises above her condition and becomes a force to be reckoned with. But there’s always a place for him in her life—there always has been, throughout the years they’ve been apart.
Caden is the first person to ask her what she wants to do; she’s the first person to be there for him through whatever comes their way.
"I’ve wanted you for longer than I ever should’ve. I tried to hide it, to shove it down. But only one person has ever owned me. You."
Her brothers are something else, and they had me laughing at times. I love how thick they are and how much they care about each other. I loved seeing past couples in the series and how in love they are.
But that, and even the whole suspense arc, doesn’t take away from Caden and Grae’s story. If anything, it makes it even better.
"Because you’ve always been that glimmer of light for me. A beacon of hope. Even when I didn’t want you to be."
There’s a feeling of something inescapable in the book, like they were always meant to be. Wherever life took them, you just knew they would somehow find their way back to each other.
And the people threatening their happiness have no power against the love they share.
That’s what got to me the most.
"Thanks for holding on for me."
"Thanks for being worth it."
There’s an old(-ish) song that came to mind as I finished the book. It has a line that says, "And the smiles, they came easy ‘cause of you."
Everything in their lives is easier when they’re together because, together, they can take on anything.
P.S. The bonus epilogue… <3