ARC Review: What I Thought Was True

NOTE: This is a review of an ARC that is due to be published in April of next year. Whooo!

Damn, Huntley Fitzpatrick is back with another awesome summer romance because her new book What I Thought Was True was more than I could have ever hoped for.

This book is about Gwen Castle, a poorer girl in a working class family, worries about her future and her relationships with her family, friends, and the rich boy Cassidy Somers over the course of her summer. (Better summary on Goodreads)

I liked this book a lot. I have a lot of reasons to think so, like it was amazingly well-written, it was hilarious, and it touched on important points so I SHALL EXPLAIN THEM TO YOU.

*GONNA TRY NOT TO SPOILER BECAUSE THE BOOK WON'T BE OUT FOR A WHILE AND THAT IS NOT FAIR TO YOU PEOPLE*

One of the main things I liked about the book is that the characters were so well-rounded. Some of them were great people who did great things, some of them were bad people that did bad things, some were good people who did bad and some were bad who did good. AND THAT'S SO INTERESTING. It made reading the book so interesting and it made the characters so human because you rooted for these dynamic characters even though they made mistakes. And, there were kind of flashbacks where Gwen looks back on what she did and it shows what she thinks now, and it was almost like two POVs and it was done very well.

Plus, all the mistakes being made gave the book a certain cringe factor. But Fitzpatrick made the cringe factor good and fun.

This is what I visualize when I think of "cringe factor"

I also like the fact that the book had a moral, without being annoying about it. I'd say the main question posed was "Do you speak up if you witness something bad, or do you shut up?" I think this is important because I consider myself very honest, but I've never had the consequences of honesty. And I think it's important to explore it. Fitzpatrick did a great job weighing the pros and cons, then showing the benefits or consequences of the actions.

This thing is pleased by how Fitzpatrick handled this. And so am I.

There were other things I liked, but the last thing on this list was the romance. It's so hard to explain without revealing too much, but I really really liked and appreciated the romance in this book. It wasn't some silly romance novel (like the ones they happened to make fun of in this book,) there were mistakes and outside influence and sex was a thing but it wasn't a be-all-end-all thing. I loved it.

HAPPY DANCE IT OUT

Yeah this book is awesome. Definitely buy it when it comes out. 88 out of 89 Starfish. Because I said so ;)

Farewell!

Owyn