This was such a sweet, surprising, emotional, and transformative read.
I love second chance romances, and the way Kate and Ben found each other again after the years had changed them, made their bodies look different, filled them with insecurities the way injuries and mental health struggles and unhealthy relationships can, made this story so deeply satisfying.
I really appreciated the careful depictions of chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and how these things can affect our relationships.
Kate and Ben were so beautifully matched, especially in their willingness to do the work to be the healthiest versions of themselves for each other. I loved rooting for them and their HEA. This was a hard book to put down, and I’ll be thinking about these two for a very long time.
Thank you so much to the author for this ARC. All opinions are my own.
A warm beautiful story about the kind of love that heals
Kate and Esben have known each other for decades and, from their first meeting on an archaeological field site as college students, the pull between them has been strong. But an ocean and time and other relationships and duties kept them apart, and they each suffered losses that nearly broke them.
By the time they come back together at another site in middle age, they are both afraid to hope. "Even If We're Broken" is the story of how their never-quite-lost friendship begins to heal them both, helping them conquer their fears and regain hope and joy and enough courage to honestly reach out to each other in ways they'd never been able to do before.
We get to see the two of them find their way to the relationship they'd always wanted, dealing with chronic pain, disability, mental health issues, and grief and betrayal together, healing themselves and each other in ways that help the young people around them too.
Weald's writing is clear and sparse and never gets in the way, letting us feel the weight of Ben's depression and the fluttery panic of Kate's anxiety while revealing them both in all their lovableness and their generous care for each other. Readers should be aware that characters deal with these issues as well as fat-phobia (internalized and external), sexual harassment, domestic abuse, and questions about sexuality.
I received an Advance Reader Copy (thank you so much!); my thoughts and words are entirely my own. I savored this lovely book and highly recommend it.
5 stars
