Yes & I love you

The story:

Yes & I love you is the first part in the Say Everything series. The story is about Hollyn Tate who runs a very popular entertainment blog under a pseudonym (Miz Poppy). Hollyn would like to keep the anonymity behind it, but her boss thinks differently and wants her to step out of the anonymity and start making videos. While Hollyn herself does not know what to do, she gets unexpected help from Jasper Deares. Jasper, an improv actor, who would like to break through, but now works as a barista, finds out that Hollyn is Miz Poppy. He offers her help in exchange for a good blog post about his acting club. It seems like a win-win situation for both of them, until feelings kick in and everything changes.

The characters:

This story has two main characters from which the story is told (though in the 3rd person).

First we have Hollyn Tate, also known as Miz Poppy. Hollyn has Tourette's and has been bullied for it, after which her mother took her out of school and she was mainly kept at home. Hollyn still experiences problems with that today. She is also afraid to talk to people and to address people. For this Hollyn also follows therapy. She does have one good friend, who also has Tourette's, with whom she shares almost everything. Throughout the story Hollyn's character makes leaps and bounds and she also learns that her Tourette's is sometimes a great strength instead of a hindrance, as Hollyn first sees it.

In addition, we have Jasper Deares. Jasper is an extrovert who, at first glance, seems like the opposite of Hollyn. He loves being on stage with his improve friends and would love to break through to the general public with it. Yet Jasper also had a difficult childhood which he still experiences problems with. He has spent time in many foster homes and therefore has difficulty accepting people into his life. Jasper also has adhd, which he does not always cope with well and therefore he sometimes makes choices he would rather not have made. Just like Hollyn, Jasper grows through the story, but in his own way.

My opinion:

From the beginning of the story, I got pulled into it. I lived along with the different characters, especially the main characters, and I kept wanting to know what would happen next to them. Especially Hollyn, who has Tourette, I liked to follow in the story. I don't (didn't) know a lot about Tourette, but in this book it gets (to my opinion) discussed pretty well and realistic. Furthermore, are the emotions in this book well written. As a reader you really feel what the characters feel. Particularly, the humor is present a lot in the book, which makes it a light novel to read. Of course, there are also hard moments, but those are described super good as well, and also take you along with the characters and what they go through. Next to Hollyn I also find that Jasper is worked out pretty well, with everything he went through and everything he deals with now. You can see the big differences between the characters, but also the connections they have and that they go along pretty well.

This is the first book I read from this author, and I'm pleasantly surprised with how I liked it.As is often the case, I went into the book with no expectations, but I really enjoyed reading this one.

The fact that Hollyn was in therapy for her anxiety disorder and worked hard on it. Maybe I even wanted that to be in the book a bit more, because I felt that the therapy faded into the background a bit (too much) in the end. In addition, from the flap text and cover I didn't expect some very erotic scenes, but then again they fitted in with the story. For me it was not disturbing to read, it was just not in the expectations I had from reading the flap text, seeing the book and the beginning of the story. Other than that, I don't really have any points of criticism about this book. Although I can't really judge Hollyn who has Tourette's and an anxiety disorder, I haven't seen anyone really criticizing that either.

For me, this was a book that you read very easily in between. A story that is both written light-hearted and contains heavy subjects, but also appeals to a very broad audience who will enjoy reading it. I am very curious about the next parts in this series.

Conclusion:

Yes & I love you is an easy book to read. The writing style takes you into the story pretty fast and the characters make you want to keep reading. You get to know them super well, and you also hope that together they will come to a good end. As a reader you go to the story super fast, as it changes every second in emotional aspects, like humor, sadness, romance, etc. The end of the story holds a twist, which makes you want to read  the second part. Altogether, it's a fun read for ya/na readers who are looking for a rom-com with well worked out and special characters.

Let's finish with one of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Being capable of doing something and actually enjoying it turned out to be two different things."

- Roni Loren. Yes & I love you

{I received this book as a review copy, wherefore I thank the Dutch publishing house from this book, but this doesn't influence my opinion on the story}