After I had my son, I went through a pretty long reading slump. Despite my lifelong love of reading, I just couldn't find it in me to pick up a book, let alone finish one. I kept trying to push through and find a book that I loved, though. I didn't want to lose that part of myself but I was having trouble finding books that I connected with.
But then I found some new booktubers on YouTube and got some really great recommendations (particularly Hailey in Bookland). Through finding those booktubers, I discovered so many wonderful books that I had never heard of. Suddenly, I was devouring books again and I rediscovered my love of reading. I started to feel like my old self again and I was so grateful not to have completely lost the part of me that loved to read.
But of course, not every book is for everybody and I was going to eventually find a book that I didn't completely mesh with. Time of Our Lives by Emily Wibberly and Austin Siegmund-Broka was that book.
The premise was really interesting to me. The story is about Fitz and Juniper who are both complete opposites in personality and circumstance. Juniper was from a large family and wanted nothing more than to be on her own, as far away from her family's hold and influence as possible. She was confident, intelligent and focused. Fitz, on the other hand, had a mother who had the gene for early onset Alzheimer's and was crippled by his fear of the disease. He had seen his grandmother go through it and worried every day that his mother's memory would start slipping away. He felt like he had no support from his older brother about his mother's care and was socially withdrawn and anxious. He was determined to go to a school close to his mother so that he could care for her the second that she got sick.
This story currently has a 3.6 out of 5 star rating on Goodreads, which normally would deter me from picking it up. Reading a book is a commitment; If I'm going to be spending hours of my time invested in a story, I want to know that it's going to be worth that time. But because I watched my own grandmother suffer with Alzheimer's, I felt a personal connection to this book and decided to pick it up anyway. Unfortunately, it was a minor part of the story, as his mother is barely in the book and when she is, it's during a phone call or text message exchange.
The whole book takes place over about two weeks and the insta-love trope just isn't something that I can get behind. Fitz also goes through a complete personality change as soon as he meets Juniper. Almost all of a sudden, he goes from an awkward, self-conscious teenager that's barely even spoken to girls to being confident and flirtatious. While I know that people can change, it doesn't happen that quickly and I found that to be unbelievable.
This book also lost points because Juniper had a boyfriend at the beginning of the book. Had I known that, I wouldn't have picked this book up. She never physically cheats on her boyfriend but she starts developing feelings for Fitz way too quickly. She claims to be in love with her boyfriend but he's easily forgotten about and she's barely heartbroken over their breakup. He was a great boyfriend and treated her well throughout his time in the story, so I felt bad for his character.
Overall, I was just disappointed. This book touched on the complexity of familial relationships, which I appreciated but I wish that there was more discussion about Alzheimer's. I know that this writing duo has written many popular books together, so maybe I'll pick another one up one day.
I gave this book a 2 out of 5 stars. Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?
-Chelsea
