Six years back Jade Summers left Willow Creek, the
small town she grew up in for the city. Along with her hometown she also left
her then girlfriend, Brianna Kistler, literally crying her eyes out. To make
matters worse, she then didn’t answer any of Bri’s text messages or calls and even
blocked her on social media. Six years thence, Jade knows that Bri is the love
of her life and has returned home hoping to have another go at their
relationship. Except that Bri has changed. Jade broke her and she is now a
strictly emotionally unavailable person who has a series of relationships and
hook-ups scattered around town.
The basic premise of the Jade-Bri story reminded us of
Georgia Beers’ Flavor of the Month with
one important correction – Jade has come back to apologise and make good. The
lack of remorse was something that we’d hated in Flavor of the Month. We usually are completely put off by people
who hurt others emotionally in the name of their own heartbreak, but Bri didn’t
evoke any particular negative feelings. Which is quite a win for the author.
Between Jade’s comeback and the return of Bri’s homophobic
father who’d left his family and started a new one when Bri was but a child,
there is plenty of space for high emotions and angst. Yet, we were left
strangely untouched by the happenings. We really wish that the writing could’ve
got us more invested but it didn’t – and we sorely missed that.
This is a book in which we don’t find anything recommendable
but nothing particularly off-putting either (except that it doesn’t draw you
in).
⭐⭐☆
