Pining & Loving by Emma Sterner-Radley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
There was a lot I liked about this book: the romance isn’t insta-love but more of a friends-to-lovers situation, there’s a lot of humor (should I say humour?), there are family issues at play for one of the characters, one character deals with clinical depression, AND one of the MCs is a non-white woman!
I’m a fan of Sterner-Radley’s romances because her characters usually have fun-loving sides but are all flawed in some way. Her writing style and sense of humor make it so easy to get into the stories and begin to cheer for the characters right away. And she’s guaranteed to have interesting secondary folks in the mix, too.
This one starts off with the first character we meet pining away for a hot older woman, then introduces another character pining for the same woman, but for very different reasons. I thought that was interesting but what really got me hooked on this book is Gwen’s depression. As someone who suffers with depression and anxiety, so much of her experiences rang true to me. I had to stop reading a few times so I could really think about a description the author used because I never put words to it before. It was validating in a way.
I’m so glad I got a chance to experience the beginning of Gwen and Aya’s relationship.