[Book Review] You, with a View by Jessica Joyce

Summary

‘Two weeks on the road… stuck in a car with your high-school enemy.

Noelle Shepard is grieving the loss of her beloved grandmother when she discovers decades-old photos and letters that hint to a forbidden love in her gram’s past. Needing to know the full story, she creates a TikTok video appealing for information – and it goes viral.

Through her video, she manages to track down her grandmother’s secret love, Paul, who offers to take her on the honeymoon road-trip he and Gram planned but never got to go on.

Noelle jumps at the chance to make this one last connection with her grandmother. There’s just one problem – Paul’s grandson is Noelle’s frustratingly handsome high-school rival Theo.

And Theo has to come, too.

It’s only two weeks. Surely Noelle can survive that long? But with one car between them – and often only one bed – it doesn’t take long for things to heat up…

Facts

Published: July 2023
Length: 367
Genre: Romance
Format: ebook

Review

I devoured this book! It was damn good. It’s my favorite romance read of the year so far!

I rarely find a book that makes me laugh and cry in equal measure, but this book sure did. When Noelle’s Gram passes away, she finds a letter and photos in her belongings addressed to her first love whom Noelle never knew about. Still grieving, Noelle sets about trying to find the mystery man that her Gram was writing to, what she didn’t count on was having to deal with her high school nemesis at the same time.

I loved Noelle, she was so funny and her banter with Theo was utter perfection, so many lines made me snort-laugh, it was great. These were some of my favorites:

“It’s fucking rude that he’s so good-looking”.

“THEO KEEPS HIS SHIRT OFF THE ENTIRE MEAL. IT’S OBSCENE. My eyeballs hurt from the strain of not looking.”

As well as the laughs, there were a lot of poignant moments. Noelle is still grieving, so this book was as much about her processing this grief as it was about her falling in love. I liked the found family kind of vibes here and I also enjoyed the side characters, particularly Noelle’s brother and best friend.

Over this was a fantastic read and I would highly recommend it if you are in the mood for a good romantic comedy with lots of heart. I feel like this book would make a great movie!

My Rating: 5/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

About the Author‘s

Jessica Joyce lives happily-ever-ongoing with her husband and son in the Bay Area. When she’s not writing character-driven, realistic and relatable tales of millennials who are just Doing Their Best while falling in love, you can find her listening to one of her dozens of chaotically curated Spotify playlists, trying out a new skincare face mask, crying over cute animal TikToks, or watching the 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice.