4.5 Smooches!
Synopsis
Chloe has one plan for the future, and one plan only: the road. She’s made a promise to herself: don’t let anyone in, and don’t let anyone love her. She’s learned the hard way what happens if she breaks her rules. So she’s focused on being invisible and waiting until she can set out on the road—her dream of freedom, at least for a little while.
Blake Hunter is a basketball star who has it all—everything about him looks perfect to those on the other side of his protective walls. He can’t let anyone see the shattered pieces behind the flawless facade or else all his hopes and dreams will disappear.
One dark night throws Chloe and Blake together, changing everything for Blake. For Chloe, nothing changes: she has the road, and she’s focused on it. But when the so-called perfect boy starts to notice the invisible girl, they discover that sometimes with love, no one knows where the road may lead.
Review
Chloe and Blake are both struggling through different aspects of their lives. Chloe can’t let anyone in, she doesn’t want anyone to love her incase she gets the terrible disease both her mum and auntie got. And Blake has no idea where he wants his future to be. His dad who is not really a dad pushing him to be in the army but Blake’s love for basketball is trying to pull him in a different way. These two meet but will Chloe let Blake in and will Blake stay by her side no matter how much she tries to push him away?
“Maybe we both had something to hide. Maybe we both enjoyed the company of someone who didn’t know us well enough to judge us. Maybe we were both so sick of faking it—our breathing had somehow become natural around each other, the way it should be and not a struggle like it usually was.”
This was a really beautiful love story. A story about two young people who are struggling and who help each other more than they can know when they meet. I loved the story line, I loved the characters. It was beautiful and heart warming with a lovely and tearful ending.
“I never should have let him get so close. Now he was willing to change his life for me, and I couldn’t do the same for him. No matter how much I wanted to.”
Blake and Chloe were just made for each other. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect couple. I felt Chloe’s fear at letting people in, her anguish with her possible future and how she thought she was doing the best for everyone. She was incredibly brave and strong and a character you could look up to. Blake was so caring. He wouldn’t give up on Chloe no matter how hard she tried to push him away. He was strong and defiant. He was there for Chloe always and I just adored how strong he was for her.
“I’m so in love with you. And that love—it might not be forever. But while we’re both here—that love is always.”
The plot kept me hooked the whole way through. It didn’t have lots of action and suspense; it was just a beautiful love story with heart-ache and hope mixed in. The supporting characters were brilliant in their own ways; Josh, Mary, Dean, the children, they all played a good part and I kind of hope for some of them to get their own stories like Josh. I smiled, I cried, I laughed, I hoped and my heart melted with how these two were with each other; like the notes they left in each place they stayed; so beautiful.
“You’re my unexpectedly phenomenal, Chloe. You’re my red-letter day.”
A really lovely romance that would be perfect for those who want to escape for a few hours and read about a beautiful young couple who struggle but never give up hope.
~Bethany
