By Carolina Moriello
“Life was too short, too brittle, to keep secrets and live in half-truths. Even when we thought that we were protecting those we loved. Or protecting ourselves. Our hearts. Because the reality was that without honesty, without truth, we never lived fully.”
When Rosie Graham’s ceiling caves in—literally—she decides to stay at her best friend Lina’s apartment while she is away on her honeymoon. Unbeknownst to Rosie, Lina’s cousin Lucas, a.k.a. Rosie’s internet crush, is staying in Lina’s apartment as well while he visits from Spain. Even though the studio apartment has one bed and no walls, Lucas convinces Rosie to room with him. As the two become close and start to form a friendship, Rosie reveals to Lucas that she quit her engineering job to pursue her dream of becoming a romance author. Following the success of her first novel, Rosie is now on a deadline to submit her second novel but has been hit with a serious case of writer’s block. Lucas decides he will help her by going on a series of experimental dates to hopefully inspire and ignite new ideas for her novel. Rosie and Lucas have six weeks to complete this plan, but neither of them could have predicted what would happen at the end of those six weeks.
From the moment you meet Lucas Martín, you cannot help but be affected by his charm, charisma, and confidence. If he were a real person, he would be the one who walks into a room and fills it with his quiet confidence. He is the guy that women and men alike gravitate toward. Rosie, on the other hand, is not someone you would naturally gravitate toward. While she is a well-developed character, she oftentimes finds herself in situations that could have easily been avoided had she actually spoken her feelings or addressed her issues. I found myself rooting for her happiness while at the same time being completely frustrated by her actions. While the forced proximity trope was excellently developed, the slow burn trope was infuriatingly slow. Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue if the chemistry between the characters was so palpable you could feel it from the pages of the book, but once Rosie and Lucas were finally together, their connection was a little lacklustre.
Ultimately, this story was about following your dreams and finding the self-love and confidence within yourself to know what you want and what you deserve. These themes were prevalent throughout and even though the ending was predictable, you couldn't help but be happy with the outcome not only for Lucas and Rosie as a couple, but for Lucas and Rosie as individuals. They were able to chase their dreams and achieve individual happiness first, before giving themselves completely to one another.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review!