Wow, what an emotional ride! Hannah Bird has a really unique ability to be having me cry one minute and laughing the next. This book had so many ups and downs, the story was definitely not a straight path to the end. We rode the winding journey with the MCs and what a journey it was 😭😭😭Big Spoilers ahead!My heart was just so sad for them both throughout the entire story. Like how do you even process all of the things they went through?? With Leo being a 20 year old pregnant college kid, like I am not annoyed at her for not telling him. That would be terrifying and you’re so young and don’t know how to adult yet. The shock and tragedy and grief is all something that would be extraordinarily difficult for a 30 something to process, let alone a 20 year old.Normally in contemporary romance, we get a brief backstory for the characters and dive into the fun of falling in love. This is not that kind of story. Her/their entire story was excruciating. Because the conflict is so massive and heavy and emotional, it made sense to work through the confusion of how to process the grief with her/them because it’s true grief from loss, not just a past heartbreak. That made me view the slower romantic buildup with a different perspective than I normally would. I’m glad for all the time we spent inside their heads ahead of them giving their relationship a go again, before their big confrontation and the reveal. It made the semi-fallout more understandable, relatable and I was feeling those emotions right there with them because I was so in tune with their thought process by that point. Hannah did a great job bringing us into the characters minds and hearts, not writing a story that you’re observing- you’re right there in it with them. You’re hurting with them, laughing with them, crying with them, getting angry with them.Switching gears a bit…The characters were each lovely. I love that we didn’t have like a true villain (aside from Catherine who wasn’t on page at all) and just let the story shine. There wasn’t drama for drama’s sake. The conflicts that happened were all believable and raw and just so dang painful.Siobhan is the best mother/mother figure/MIL I’ve read in a book. There have been some pretty great ones that I’ve encountered in various romance books but she was absolute perfection. The moment between Leo and Siobhan after Callum gets the full story where she’s just rocking Leo, being there for her despite knowing her son is hurting too… my heart was squeezed so tight. I hope everyone who has been through this kind of grief has a Siobhan to love on them through their pain.Special love to and for the girls I read with, specifically E. This was a painful read in general but I know it is gut wrenching for those who know this specific kind of loss 💕Thank you, Hannah, for the ARC! As usual, you broke my heart and glued it back together.Two quotes that had me sobbing:“Turning thirty didn’t scare me the way it did for so many of my acquaintances. Like every birthday before it, I ushered in the day with a peace settled around my heart, knowing I was one day closer to seeing my baby again.”“Your life was painfully brief. I can’t bear for your memory to be also.”