You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle Book Review

March 10, 2021

“I have no right to be offended that he doesn’t want to marry me, since I don’t want to marry him either, but I am.”
(pg 71)

About

Author: Sarah Hogle

Genre: New Adult Contemporary

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Synposis

Naomi Westfield has the perfect fiancé: Nicholas Rose holds doors open for her, remembers her restaurant orders, and comes from the kind of upstanding society family any bride would love to be a part of. They never fight. They’re preparing for their lavish wedding that’s three months away. And she is miserably and utterly sick of him.

Naomi wants out, but there’s a catch: whoever ends the engagement will have to foot the nonrefundable wedding bill. When Naomi discovers that Nicholas, too, has been feigning contentment, the two of them go head-to-head in a battle of pranks, sabotage, and all-out emotional warfare.

But with the countdown looming to the wedding that may or may not come to pass, Naomi finds her resolve slipping. Because now that they have nothing to lose, they’re finally being themselves—and having fun with the last person they expect: each other.

Review

Spoilers Contained Below

To the crazed lovers,

There’s absolutely no way to say how CRAZY good this book was! And when I say CRAZY, I mean CRAZY. In a good way, duh!

Naomi and Nicholas’s relationship was absolute bonkers 🤪

I just kept wondering, the in the HECK were they getting married if she didn’t like him—-actually wanted to kill him—-and he didn’t seem to care that much either. It just seemed like the whole relationship was wrong. Then Naomi started to explain all the ways she resented Nick. First, there was the overbearing mother-in-law Deborah who prizes her last name so much that she would get a plaque outside her door to commemorate it. From Naomi’s point of view, Nick sounded like a true and true momma’s boy! 😂 He bought his mom flowers all the time instead of her, he went to his mom whenever she called him, he answer whenever his mom called, he gave access to his mom to call him every time, he never stood up to his mom, and he bought his mom all this jewelry and things instead of her. He absolutely spoiled the mom more than he did his own wife. I honestly was not mad with Naomi because I agreed with her that it was too excessive. Yes, I respected that Nick treated his mom like a queen and respected her, but gosh, get a back bone! Or at least get a better pair of working eyes to notice how unhappy your own fiancée was and you weren’t treating her right. Honestly, men are clueless sometimes 😅. Did Nick seriously not think to buy Naomi all these things or go out of his way to show her he loved her when he did all these things for his own mother? **Shakes head***

Second, there was the absolutely sexist moment when Nick has the audacity to say he’s going to take a shower and that Naomi should bake the darn cookies for his Saturday staff and Rise and Shine. Like, excuse me sir, hike up your big boy khakis and bake your own darn cookies like the grown man you are! You don’t tell Naomi to do it because she’s a woman ☹️. I could not with that Nick. And Nick at Naomi’s friend gatherings was such a prick. I didn’t like how defensive he would get around her friends and to bring up Melissa’s ex and all those things. I get that Nick didn’t like Zach and why Zach was angry at Nick, but they didn’t need to be disrespectful and hateful to each other. It really made the situation awkward. And it made Naomi look back. But looking back, I could see how Nick would feel like he didn’t belong with Naomi’s friends, so he would naturally close up and feel like it was him against them. Still he didn’t have the best social cues in the beginning of the book.

Suffice to say, there was a lot of things wrong with their relationship and they were both too prideful to back out of the wedding. And I was like, you guys are PETTY 😂. Naomi didn’t want to back out of the wedding because then it would make Nick look good. Deborah would continue to baby Nick and save him the sorrow of being a sperm donor because his “heart would be broken.” Then she look like the bad guy. People would spread rumors about her or talk rudely about how she broke poor Nick’s heart and blah blah blah. She would have also wasted a lot of non-refundable money like for a dress she didn’t want. That reason made me bonkers because if she was staying in this marriage just because she couldn’t get a refund on her wedding dress, that seemed unhealthy 😅. There was also the threat that Deborah would bill the wedding on her if she backed out of it.

From Nick’s eyes, she thought he wasn’t going to back out of the wedding because he was old and it would be easier to just stay with her and try to change her to be more like who she was/who he wanted to marry—-the easy path. Or Naomi thought that his mother would hound him even more to use these saved eggs to have grandchildren, which was honestly pretty darn weird. But who am I to judge? The mom was CRAZY.

So they both weren’t going to budge—-it was literally a game of trying to see who would budge first. Or I think it was. Because from Naomi’s perspective it seemed like Nick was doing everything to make her irritated to call the wedding off, but it doesn’t make sense to me since he loved her this whole time. Because GOSH, I WILL get into that! Naomi on the other hand was obviously falling out of love with him and she had this whole percentage thing where she would say what percentage of her felt in love with Nick.

“I love you eighteen percent.”
. . . He stops in his tracks. Turns. “What did you just say?”
“That’s the percentage.” I clear my throat. “Eighteen.”
He’s so still, I think a strong wind might knock him over. “There’s no such thing as loving someone eighteen percent.”
“Yes, there is. I’ve done the math.”
“You can’t measure love. . . but if we’re going to play the numbers fame, then I guess I would have to say that I tolerate you eighteen percent, Naomi.”
“So you don’t love me, then.”
“I didn’t say that.”
He did not say it. I cross my arms and what for him to say something else. “Well?”
(pg 190)

I JUST WANTED TO SCREEEEAMMMM!!

Naomi HE FREAKING LOVES YOU!!!!

He was obviously upset and hurt by how she barely loved him. It PAINED him. And I felt like in that moment it hurt him to know he hurt her that badly and that it came to the point where she barely loved him anymore. So I’m still wondering in the beginning did he not like her and that’s why he treated her poorly? Why was he giving into her game of making each other mad? Did he have some epiphany along the way that he wanted to change things? Oh, I think it’s the moment when he flipped the coin and he wanted to start again. Because I think they were both at their breaking point before that and then something literally flipped in Nick that made him realize he had to try to save what they had together. Honestly, all the ways he tried showed how much he cared, but in Naomi’s perspective, it came across wrong. Women 😅.

Here’s the thing about their relationship, their was a lot not being said. And that is such huge problem, because anyone and everyone and their mother knows, COMMUNICATION in a relationship is key. They were both being this glossy, safe versions of each other for years because they didn’t want to hurt each other’s feelings. But in that time, they’ve been bottling up their feelings instead and that’ why it turned to anger and hate—-why their love was falling out. They weren’t being their honest selves because they didn’t feel like they could be. It really surprised me that they had never had a fight until that one night. For two years? Not one argument? That’s not healthy. Arguing all the time is not healthy, but none? That’s just as bad. And you could feel them literally holding it in, waiting to spew. No wonder Naomi was crazy! She was holding it all in and she wanted to pop off! 😂

The thing they lacked most with communication was how they need to be loved: the five love languages. Reading their whole relationship, I just felt like they both didn’t understand each other because they never communicated how they want to be shown love.

If you don’t know about the five love languages, the five are: physical touch, quality time, gifts, acts of service, and words of affirmation.

Naomi wanted someone who would give her gifts and who would do acts of service—–stand up for her and be romantic. Nick wanted words of affirmation that Naomi really did love him, he wanted quality time with her, and the her physical touch. They didn’t know this about each other and that’s why Nick never cared to give her gifts or to do acts of services in a romantic way. It’s also why Naomi didn’t know that Nick wanted to hear that she loved him and that he wanted to spend time with her because he loved her. And he wanted her touch, because he’s a hormonal man 😂. So it was all this big confusion.

The way a person gives love languages is also different. For me, I picked up how Naomi was really a words of affirmation person. She wants to be open about her feelings, but she never felt like she could do so. And Nick, he gives his love by doing acts of service. He take the ice of her windshield when it’s snowing without being told. He shovels the driveway for her. But in Naomi’s eyes she just saw that as things he did everyday, but really he did those acts because he cared about her. And sure, shoveling the driveway doesn’t seem like the most romantic thing—the most telling thing—but it really said a lot.

So it made sense why they were both so angry and frustrated.

But my GOSH, was Naomi on her tipping point because she was CRAZY. 🤪 Now, now, before you start being like, “How dare I call a woman crazy like she’s the issue in the relationship?” I’m not saying she was crazy in a way people say all-women-are-crazy-way, but I think Naomi was fed up with her situation and that drove her absolutely bonkers with anger way. That’s what I mean by she was crazy. Because you can’t tell me she wasn’t a tad bit ( a lot a bit) pyscho at points.

I mean, she kept thinking of ways to murder Nick.

Then she burnt his flowers. She thought he sent her oleander, which symbolized a threat to watch out, and she thought he was threatening to kill her when he was just sending her a bunch of flowers because she told him she wanted flowers, so he thought he would finally please her in a sarcastic way like “here’s your flowers.” And let’s just talk about how as women—typically—when a guy asks us if we want flowers, some of us will naturally say no. Deep down, we mean yes. And this is why men think we’re crazy! We say one thing and we mean the other and to them it’s like they can never win! To all the men out there, let me just tell you, as a woman, when we say we don’t want flowers, we want flowers! 😂 But what we actually want is for the man to get flowers because he wants to get flowers, not because we told the man so. You know? Because telling a man we want flowers, makes it seem obligatory and has no real meaning because they just get us the flowers. But if the man puts in the effort to think about getting his woman/man flowers. It’s the thought that counts. It’s the effort that counts. That’s why we’re so gosh darn crazy and don’t say what we want! We want the person to do something because he/she cares.

“I never should have brought up the whole jag about not getting flowers from him. I’m not at all gratified by the jasmine, because I had to nag to get it, and he didn’t send it out of love. He sent it because he felt obligated, just like he does for his mother. . .It’s an empty gesture, a dark condemnation. In all the places it’s supposed to please., it stings instead.”
(pg 96)

I found it hilarious how she it just ended up to be jasmine, but again, it goes back to the idea that she really just wanted Nick to send her flowers because he loved her, not because he had to.

I also loved how tensely hilarious everything at home was 😂. There was the moment she didn’t cook dinner—-very sexist of Nick to think she would cook him something—-and then Nick instead ordered pizza for himself. And then when talking about what to eat for dinner the next night, they were just straight up yelling at each other and she was like “I want freaking pizza!” I swear, CRAZY 😂. Or how she cut her hair to have bangs because she knew Nick would LOATHE it. I was like girl, if you want to get bangs to make him call off the wedding with you, go to a hairdresser and have them cut you some bangs!!! 😆 And let’s not forget the dinner with Deborah and how both were trying to one up each other with Naomi saying they’d get a dog and then Nick saying they’d get a cat. They were driving each other crazy. They were driving me crazy! Like couldn’t they have just told the parents that it was a mutual decision to not get married? 🤔

Nick had enough of the games with Naomi and I thought the shift in him was interesting because before he just sounded like a sexist prude to Naomi, but after he goes all “Nature Valley,” and buys the cabin in the woods, and yes, the canoe, I really didn’t like Nick. But the more Nick tried, the more I respected him. Because it highlighted to me how he always loved her and wanted to fix everything. Naomi was reluctant to this new Nick and I think she thought this was a part of the game and that’s why she pushed back so hard. But then she went along with it because she fell in love with the house and she needed a place to stay.

“I just want you to care about me . . . I want you to listen. I want you to give a sh** about my feelings.”
(pg 137)

I really felt Nick was putting in the majority of the effort. He was trying to communicate to her the way he wanted to be loved and Naomi turned it around on him, which I didn’t think was right. I get Naomi needed to be loved to, but he also needed that in return. He wasn’t the only one unhappy and I think she was too far up her head to see the other shoe.

I mean, Nick really gone bought them a house. He called her freaking beautiful. And let’s not forget how he got jealous when Naomi was checking out those moving guys. Nick wasn’t jealous for nothing. He FREAKING loved her!

I could not believe when Naomi had this great grand plan to trade her car with Leon’s broken-down stick-shift one. She didn’t even know how to drive it and the whole time Nick was waiting at the restaurant for her. But Naomi got stuck and called him. He could have laughed outright at her and left her there. But what did he do? He went to help her. Because even in those angered, heated moments, HE FREAKING CARED.

“Real Nicholas hasn’t said any of this. But Imaginary Nicholas is an amalgamation of realistic predictions based on callous things he’s said to me in the past, so I easily hear his voice shape those words. It’s not fair to be hurt or angry over something he didn’t even say, especially since the words i put into my own head are all true, but knowing he potentially could say it—-and probably will–is enough to make me sink into a dark silence that I don’t rise from for the rest of the ride home.”
(pg 155-56)

Naomi was holding onto her anger and hate for Nick. She was holding onto this idea of him in the past and I think that wasn’t fair to him because HE WAS TRYING to be better. He wasn’t trying to ever hurt her or say anything wrong, but he didn’t know it was wrong because she didn’t’ tell him. She wasn’t giving him a full chance to be better in her eyes because I think deep down maybe it was easier to push him away than fix everything. Honestly, Naomi’s lack of trust with Nick and letting him into her life again made sense given her parental situation. Naomi had neglectful parents, which could have led to her developing these abandonment issues or feelings of aggression. Maybe she felt unworthy of love. I don’t know, but she deserved to be loved and so did Nick.

After he saved her that night, things went back to being heated and I COULD NOT STOP LAUGHING AT HOW BONKERS Naomi was when Nick reached for her phone, she jumped on his back, basically tackled him to the floor, pinched not one, but TWO of his nipples, and then got her phone back all the while Nick was getting hard 😂. If this is what love is, I am good 😅. I still think about how she deliberately thought to pinch both his nipples.

I kid you not, I walked away from this book days after and I was like, the one thing I’m going to remember is that Naomi pinched both of Nick’s nipples in a rage 😂.

I’m just sooooooo sorry that she’s BONKERS. And if I was Nick, personally if I’m getting attacked by my finance and getting pinched in both my nipples, I would not stick around. Like Nick didn’t deserve that. He was a dentist who had a good house and good looks. Like, he’s fine wine, my friends. He don’t need to be with a nipple-pinching prude. But at least, at least, she never kneed him in the ding-dong 😂. Gosh, if she did, I think that would have ended their relationship.

Nick had his absolute crazy moment too when he went canoeing in his lake and had Naomi save him. I’ll admit the whole Nick stepping into the shower thing was steamy and he knew EXACTLY what he was doing. Nick, you sly, sly dog 😏. Then it snowed that night and it just felt like something shifted in their relationship. I think they went past their breaking points and could finally just let loose because they truly did not give two hoots about what the other thought. That really did allow them to be more honest and vulnerable. And I loved the moment that Naomi told him about her dream of having a nutcracker on the mantel and that she wanted to look out the window where his desk was. The next day, Nick put a nutcracker on the mantel just for her and moved his desk. HE CARED.

I thought it was hilarious how clueless Naomi was when Nick was asking what he should get his coworker, Stacy. Naomi, he was asking what he should get you!!! Women 😅 And that led to a very heated conversation they needed to have. They needed to clear the air. Because he thought he was cheating on him and she also thought the same and just the idea that they were both having these thoughts, but never wanted to confront them until now was also part of the reason why their relationship wasn’t healthy. They were both sitting there thinking the other didn’t love the other and were unfaithful. Of course, all the not knowing would make them resent each other even more.

The real shift for me was when Nick got sick. A maternal, protective instinct took over Namoi, and I LOVED it. I loved how she cared for him and went out of her way to do all these things for Nick so he could rest. He got him food to eat when he woke up. She actually put on his overalls and flapper hat and shoveled snow out of Deborah’s driveway because she knew Deborah would have a hissy fit and Nick was in no shape to do so. When she was shoveling snow, it taught her how hard Nick worked not only for his parents, but for her also and it showed her that he did a lot more than she realized. I think she needed to put on his shoes—-his overalls and flapper hat—–to walk a mile in his shoes and appreciate all he did.

The Thanksgiving dinner was also such a fun time. I thought it was funny though how both of them saw Melissa at the craft store and how they made her bag the items specially/gave her a hard time and she was like:

“You two are a******* . . . you deserve each other.”
(pg 250)

If you’ve read my reviews, I LOVE finding the title in the book or at least seeing what the title means. Because when Naomi and Nick weren’t out to get each other, they were a perfectly malicious team together. They supported each other and I loved how they were starting to stand up for one another. I liked how when Deborah was spitting all these questions to Nick, Naomi tried to take the brunt of the them or distract Deborah from talking to Nick because Naomi realized that maybe momma’s boy didn’t really enjoy being mommas boy, but he did it because family mattered to him. But being momma’s boy was hard for Nick because he had all this expectation on him to do right by his parents, never talk back, and be the golden child because the sister ran off to be a DJ. It was a burden Nick carried, but he never told anyone how he really felt because that’s just who Nick is, he just wants to make people happy and I respect that. So I also respected how Naomi realized that and took that burden for him during dinner. I was more surprised when Nick stood up to his mom for her. As a momma’s boy that couldn’t have been easy! 😅

“The dress is made to fit Naomi,” he snaps. “She isn’t made to fit the dress. She’s my fiancée, she’s beautiful and perfect, and I won’t have her spoken to likes this by anyone, much less a member of my own [dang] family.”
(pg 263-64)

I was like YES NICK, POP OFFF! 👏🏼 Naomi can eat all the cake she wants and she should have a dress that fits her, not the other way around! Get you a man who understands that! (Also, shameless self plug, but I have a blog post called Size Does Not Matter where I discuss this very topic 😅. I’ll link it below if you want to read it!)

When Nick and Naomi walked out of Deborah’s house, I was like, please, slam the door because that lady has no respect in her body!!!! Don’t they dare go back to her!!!

But I absolutely loved when Deborah drove to their house in the woods and they pretended they weren’t home 😂. But Deborah knew they were home, yet they didn’t answer the door. I kept laughing at how Naomi stuck her head out the upper window and told Deborah off and how Nick was taken by a spaceship 😂. Naomi’s not a good liar. Nick had to ruin it by speaking up, saying he wasn’t home. But I guess he had to “feed the dog” if you will by making his mom know that he was home and just refused to hear him. It was ridiculous what they said to Deborah, but it drove her back home. I just didn’t like the utter disrespect she had for Nick and his home. When she first got there, she was already berating the place, saying it’s unsafe and how she would fix it. And I get it, she was his mother and wanted the best for him, but still, that was her son and this was his mom, she should have respected it. And she also needed to stop babying her son so much and let him live his life. She couldn’t keep calling him for everything or expecting him to keep doing what she wanted of him. She needed to get a life! 😅

I honestly, loved how Nick opened up to Naomi about that, though. How he would write to the paper where his mom worked at and where she would give advice to people who sent in. Nick would tell the mom about the situation with her—-under an anonymous name—-and the mom would always reply with sane ideas like talk to the mother and ask for space and all the things Nick wanted the mom to do. But the mom couldn’t see the connection between the advice she gave and her own life. And it hurt to know Nick felt this burden to please his family so much, but he didn’t want to push them entirely out of his life. Family was important to him. I think Deborah’s overbearingness actually created anger and a drift in Nick to the point where he didn’t even like his family and that wasn’t healthy. One of the things that was left kind of unsolved was the relationship with Deborah. We never really see her after she was sent away from his house, which is fine because that woman is too much. But I would hope that Deborah calm down and that Nick and her could have an open conversation about her giving him space. I think they need that because I think he loves his mom, just he doesn’t want her calling on hi 24 hours 7 days a week.

The thing I loved most about the Naomi and Nick who got along was how they were both trying to consider what the other person wanted or felt. They were starting to understand the five love languages. I loved how Nick let Naomi into his world of this game he played on his computer, because I swear all men play some sort of video game 😂. I loved the moment where they made pancakes together and danced in the kitchen. I really adored how Naomi would leave Nick all these cute little messages around the house and in his lunch box because it highlighted how she was trying to love him the way he wanted to be loved. And I loved how nervous she would get putting those notes for him to find because it meant her being vulnerable. I thought it was absolutely cute how when Nick left to go do something for Deborah that he promised to do ages ago, that Naomi missed him a lot and that she actually told him how she felt. I think her being open was such a huge step in the right direction because she needed to communicated how she felt so he knew she cared. It was sweet that when she missed him, she slept in his bed 😢. Or can we talk about the fact that Nick is such a sentimentalist!!! Like, he’s sooooooo sweet! 💜 He kept this straw wrapper bracelet in his drawer that Naomi gave him a long time ago at a diner when she was out with her friends and they were all laughing. Then Nick came and everyone seemed to turn against him and Naomi didn’t want to go sit with him because then it would seem like she wasn’t on her friends side. But laters she gave him this straw wrapper bracelet—–such a random menial object—–and Nick kept it because it came from her. That meant more to him than anything. It was a token that she still cared. And he kept all her notes in the drawer by his table too! And he has a picture of them happy together on his wall. And I COULD NOT!!! I mean, get you someone who loves you enough to stay even when the other person pinches your nipples! 😂 I’m joking! But I loved loved loved how Nick was so in love with her.

When Naomi texted him that she missed him, my heart bursted by the way he drove straight home through the snow and to her because he missed her to and wanted to be there with her. And it was SOOOO SWEET! He found her in his bed and I just couldn’t. Naomi really is a sweetheart when she’s not angry 😅.

“His eyes are bluer than a lake and they’re gleaming with happiness. It dawns on me that I haven’t seen him genuinely happy in forever. I’ve been so concentrated on my own unhappiness that I haven’t noticed his. I’ve been fooling myself to think he’s been content all along. How arrogant, to assume he was content with me when I so obviously wasn’t content with him.”
(pg 292)

They were both happier because not only were they being their true selves, but they were finally understanding each other. And I loved that. I loved how Nick was becoming happier and so was Naomi.

I think that’s all they ever needed too: to understand each other.

Naomi didn’t want to kill him anymore because she actually loved him again and that to me warmed my heart. But it made me sad to think how Naomi felt scared too that this was too good to be true and that Nick wouldn’t love her one day and that another girl would live in the house she has come to love with the man she has come to love. I understood where she was coming from because Nick never outright said he loved her and she needed to hear that, so that was still a big gray area that they needed to discuss. So when Naomi found their wedding invitations thrown out, it terrified her. It was all the things she worried about come true.

I’ve read enough YA romances to know that if a main character just let a person EXPLAIN what happened, it could save everyone the hassle and heartbreak of all the worries in their heads. Naomi should have let Nick explain to her rather than just running away and assuming the worst in him. When he did explain it to her, it made sense. He threw away those invitations because it wasn’t an invitation that felt like them. It was a wedding for show and a wedding for Deborah. It brought up an interesting point that I’ve been hearing a lot lately with weddings. How weddings are really for the guests and to show everyone a couple getting married. Family, extended family, and random people are invited that the couple doesn’t even know just so everyone can see them get married. And it made me think how when it comes to weddings, it should really be about the people getting married. It should be about what they want, who they want there, and the love the couple share. All the other things like the cake flavor, the dress, the millions of guests, the drinks served, or the venue don’t matter. Weddings are about love.

Nick still wanted to marry her.

“Of course I love you, Naomi. I never stopped.”
(pg 346)

HONEY, THAT’S WHAT I’VE BEEN PREACHING TO CHOIR ABOUT THIS WHOLE BOOK!!!! NICK ALWAYS LOVED HER!!!! 😆

She just needed to hear it and I hope he tells her he loves her each and every day because that’s what she needs to hear.

I thought it was beyond sweet how there was a little flash back to how they met. I mean, Nick, you flirt! 🤪 Like he was smooth back then! Or he was a charmer!

“This is the first birthday I’ve been alive that I haven’t blown out a candle and made a wish . . . but you walked in here today, anyway. You ended up in the lane right next to mine, and you started talking to me, initiating conversation. What are the chances? Two people from Morris, emetic gin Eau Claire? And the very one I wanted to meet.”
“For the first time,” he finishes, “I’ve gotten my wish.”
(pg 331)

I mean, I don’t like bowling, but now? SIGN ME UP!!! I NEED TO GO TO BOWLING ALLEY’S MORE! 😂 But not in this pandemic 😉.

But it also made me stop? I mean, Nick was what? 28 at this age? He makes birthday wishes when he blows out his candle? No judgement, I just never met a man who still even cared about blowing out birthday candles at that age 😅. I bet Deborah made a spectacle for her baby boy!

I digress.

I loved how Naomi and Nick got married their way.

It was truly a big F and U to Deborah😂. But I loved it. It felt like them. I thought it was fitting how they had it at their log house because, I mean, they did have a beautiful house, so why wouldn’t they use it. And I would just like to throw the question out there, why would Leon even need a house that big for himself in the first place? 😂

They kept everything small and only invited Brandy and their close friends. What made my heart warm was how Naomi wore the overalls and the flapper hat 💜. It’s so untraditional, but so right for them.

When Naomi was walking down the aisle, she had all these loving thoughts about Nick and how she knew they could get through anything and what a great man he was. Reading that, it was such stark contrast to the woman in the beginning of the book who in the words of Darla from the Little Rascals, “hated his freaking guts!” She really had come a long way. And so has he.

“How did Nicholas and I meet?
We met in a house called Ever After, the second time we were strangers. And I am one hundred percent in love with the transformation of us.”
(pg 354)

I’m not tearing up, you are!

It’s weddings, I swear. 🤧

Because Naomi called the house Disaster, because that’s what it felt like—their marriage, their lives, and the wedding. But when they relearned each other and fell in love again.

“How great would it be, to get a second chance?”
(pg 353)

It was their second chance 💜.

It was their Ever After.

I LOVED that.

Because there’s something absolutely beautiful to be said with how people change as they grow older. They have different ways to be loved and sometimes when life gets in the way, we forget to show how we love others, say we love others, or even communicate about what’s wrong. And in that big silence, stews anger and hatred. But people need to talk through that to understand each other. No one’s going to be happy in a relationship where both people are tip-toeing around each other and bottling things in. That’s not love, that’s fear. Love is trying to make things work even in the hard times. Love is what Nick did in buying the house because he wanted to save his marriage with Naomi.

“She’s worth the pain of trying.”
(pg 313)

Love is complicated and messy. Love is scary and angry. Love is beautiful and wonderful.

Love is what keeps two people a part, but it’s also what brings them together. And I loved how they found love again. And I KEPT WAITING for Naomi to say she was 100% in love with Nick all throughout the time she was falling for him again. But Sarah Hogle held it out towards the end for us, which was writing genius if you ask me.

Besides the love Naomi and Nick shared, I appreciated the friendships that Naomi had. She had really loyal friends like Brandy who supported her in how she felt. When Brandy asked if they liked Nick again, it made me think how since Naomi was so angry at Nick, Brandy and her friends outcasting him and bashing his name was in support of how Naomi felt about him. It showed how they just wanted her to be happy and whatever she chose, they would go along with it. That’s what friends are for. And I loved how Leon was starting a restaurant where Junk Yard was and how he hired both of them. It kept the Junk Yard family alive. It also allowed Naomi to do what she loved. I think she would be a good interior designer if she over picked up the interest. Whatever makes her happy.

I really could not stop laughing when I read everything. And I could not stop smiling at how it all worked out for them. They truly deserved each other in the best way 💜

Anyway, what was your favorite part of the book? Least favorite part? Anything I mentioned that you want to discuss more about? What’s your love language? Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕

I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this.

And as always, with love,