Always There for You by Halli Starling

3 stars.

RTC.

---

I changed it. 4 stars.

Firstly, I just want to take a moment of silence for the fact that Starling took the time to not only put CW in, but also representation and I don't know, for some reason, that made me very happy.

This book was exactly what I needed. A few of you may have seen my disdain of other books for there lack or quality of representation. Here, Amelia one of the fmcs, is demisexual and suffers from fibromyalgia, while the other fmc, Hadley, is half Latina and lesbian. It just- for some reason it was a very good addition and that's what I'm going to leave it at.\

Next, I want to talk about the fibromyalgia aspect of this book. Often, books with MCs that have disabilities seem to- and I won't die on a hill for this, just stating my opinions - glorify or portray a disability in a very unlikely way, some almost "fantasy(?)" way of it. 

However, although I don't have extensive knowledge on fibromyalgia, I found this book to be very honest and forthright with how they portrayed Amelia. I'm glad that it was acknowledged that, with a chronic pain condition, each day looks different. I also thought that it was "nice" to see the ways that it could be helped and the support from the people around her.

Now. Why is it four and not five stars?

The writing. It was juvenile and maybe it was marketed as that. I can check. But, for some reason it fell extremely flat. While I've never been the biggest fan of dual-POVs, this positively drove me insane here. Maybe it just wasn't exactly what I was looking for, because I was led to believe (by my own brain) that Hadley was pining for years and then Ames fell for her. But no, very quickly into the story, we are given Amelia's POV and it's very clear that she's been in love with Hadley.

Not to mention the blatant homophobia that seemed to cloud the room after they figured their stuff out. 

Thank you to BookSirens and Halli Starling for giving me the opportunity to read this book. All thoughts in this review are my own and I was not pressured any way into leaving a positive review.

Set to be published: September 15th, 2023