stories_of_the_soul27's reviews
265 reviews

I cannot imagine what the author must have gone through to be able to create such a realistic and raw picture of grief, loss and loneliness. 

This was a delightful read. A very delightful read. I'm still bubbling from the heavy dose of romance, friendship, family love and all the sweet things this book has to offer. I loved the story, it is not your average love story, because of the gender being involved and the lovers being the sons of very powerful and influential leaders of the world.
Alex and Henry - oh how much I'd have loved to meet this lads. Such quirky characters. One deep into politics and another deep into literature and both being complete nerds and having only two most important friends in their life. June, Nora, Bea and Pez. Exactly the kind of sisters and best friends you would want for yourself. The trio of two countries merged into The Six aka The Gang and we have memorable pages of sweet friendships, laughter, hugs and hangovers. Zahra and Shaan stealing the spotlight with their efficiency, temper and raging mouth. Rafael Luna, President Claremont, Oscar Diaz and Catherine, all made it to the heart. 
The romance was intoxicating and the writing was so beautiful that I was able to absorb all the love, laughter and pain from the pages. Alex and Henry's whole accidentally-falling-in-love-with-your-sworn-enemy romance, their insults to one another and the emails. Never had conversations made me swoon so much. All the gay historical figures and their love letters. If romance is this heavy with literature then I'm so in. The book was so full of happiness and optimism and it was infectious and it made me happy and giggly. Yeah problems were there and some heartbreaking moments too and it's almost crazy how everything turned out well.
Casey hoped that this book would be a spark of joy and hope. And maybe that's why the story has such optimistic events like so many supportive people and how the Presidential campaign didn't get derailed, Queen actually got terrified and didn't stop them and how at the end the world proved that things can turn out to be pretty great actually. See I used to be a sucker for happy endings but then realized world isn't that colourful and it's not a bed full of roses but thorns but just this once I wanted Alex and Henry to make. Because frankly in real world they never ever would have made it. So I wanted this utopia to exist, to have a fairy tale like happy ending, at least in case of Alex and Henry's romance. So that I can hope that sometime in future gender won't matter when it came to love.
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10-09-2023 : Rereading this book after 3 years and changing my rating from 4 stars to 5 beautiful stars because: 
1) I am a lot wiser now than when I first read the book and I cannot believe my 25 year old self can appreciate the rose tinted happy endings which my 21 year old skeptical self could not. It’s hilarious but over the years I have come to deeply appreciate the necessity of these types of happily ever afters. 
2) A little bragging for picking up this book before it blew up on booktok and bookstagram. 
3) I needed this book now rather than back then in 2020. Even though at that time the world was in a much more grim place. But my present self is wallowing in sadness which my 2020 self wouldn’t get a whiff off. So yeah I needed this warm book to nurture me, cajole me and lull me to happiness, even if it’s temporary and it did. 
4) I just love this book and it’s whole assortment of characters. It’s a phenomenon. They are a force. 

This is truly a groundbreaking reinterpretation of the origin of Batman!

This book was a pleasant surprise and quite dark!

As if I didn’t love Cardan before and now this made me love him more. 

The best part about this book has been the POV of Sam, that it’s not just the people left behind who have difficulty in moving on from the death of their loved ones but the ones who are dead also go through similar motion. The ones who are dead are heartbroken too, that their life was cut so short, that they couldn’t say goodbyes to their dearest, that they may somehow be forgotten, that they couldn’t fulfil their dreams and couldn’t grow old with their loved ones. Death and grief are such raw and devastating things that can happen to someone. 

There are many parts in this book that I really really liked; like Jo’s struggles and insights of how the author herself might have been struggling to write the second book, the thoughts on marriage and loneliness (something that Greta Gerwig also explored in the movie), a different version of Meg and the loss of Beth was felt the most in this retelling. I wanted Amy to be explored also. 
I would have loved this book more if only it was not a retelling.