I’m the wild girl whose mom decided she didn’t want to live anymore. I grew up with a daddy who only had half a heart, in a town where everyone knows everyone. I’ve feared love nearly my whole life because I’ve seen first-hand what losing it looks like. It’s ugly, it’s scary and its pain is almost unbearable. When I was nine years old, my daddy told me you’ll only find one true love in this life.… one true love in this life.
“It’s the rarest but truest love there is, Little Miss. You find it and you never let it go.”
But I didn’t share the chief’s feelings.
Until one summer day, when a brown eyed boy with a busted lip and a smirk, showed up in the small town of Green Ridge. Tommy Kingsley started to change everything. The boy from the south side of Chicago taught me that love isn’t something to be feared and that it’s the only thing that makes everything else worth it. He gave me hope and this story tells you how.
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There’s no way that you cannot love this book. It has all the feels because even though it might make you sad and angry at times, there’s also lots of hope and happiness to make you feel good.
And we all know that things often get worse before they get better.
The Story:
Ellie Williams learned early on about the pain love can bring. Her father lost the love of his life and is nothing but a broken shell ever since. Even though Ellie is known to be wild and carefree, she’s also terrified of loving someone because of what happened to her parents.
When Tommy Kingsley moves to Green Ridge and into her life, she finds herself a best friend. But when their feelings grow, everything changes between them.
While Tommy has his heart set on his wild girl, she seems to struggle with accepting her feelings. And when a wild girl feels caged in and scared, she will most likely break loose and run.
Thoughts:
As much as I loved the story, Ellie was a challenging character for me. I wanted to love her because she’s the result of an undying and out of the world kind of love between her parents. I couldn’t help it and got angry and annoyed at her a few times. It didn’t matter what she did, as soon as Tommy said something she didn’t want to hear, she fought him. Maybe I’m biased because I loved Tommy, but I actually would have acted the same way that he did almost all the time. She was selfish and I get her reasons for being cautious and restrained because she’s scared to love and of getting hurt but at some point this didn’t matter anymore and she still fought him at every chance she got. I got mad at her when she didn’t for once just stop and think about how he might feel and how it must be for him in the situation. I guess I was just disappointed that she wasn’t more understanding.
I adored Tommy and even though both haven’t been without fault I still thought a few times that he would’ve been better off without her.
Tommy had to grow up early because of his father. He and his brother had such a great relationship. I loved how they gave each other sh*t but in a brotherly way. I am proud of who they’ve become despite their father. It showed that despite your upbringing you can make something of yourself.
What I loved most about the story were the different stages of Ellie’s and Tommy’s relationship. They grew up together and I can imagine that it’s a challenge to love so early while still growing up and experiencing different things that put their friendship/relationship to the test.
I absolutely loved to read about Cash. His story (Chasing Fireflies) was the absolute best and I was always so heartbroken because of him. There were some really sad moments (which will have a different effect on the reader whether they’ve read the first book or not.). I was deeply moved because Cash is still one of my favorite characters. Despite everything he went through and of what happened in this book I think that the ending was well chosen and I liked it a lot even though I shed some tears until then.
If you plan on reading the first book, which you should because it’s amazing! You should read it before this one because this spin-off is a spoiler book for the first one and I believe that the reading experience will be a lot different depending if you’ve read the first book or not.
This book follows two friends on their journey to finding love and everything they go through before finding their HEA. It was heartwarming and fun and at times I wanted to throw the book! That’s when you know you’re invested! It’s a great read and I definitely recommend it.