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Review

5 heartbreaking and healing stars

After falling madly for the spectacular The Man I Love, I wasn’t ready to go diving right into this one. I was suffering an epic book hangover and needed time to deal with my feels, and to make sure I was ready for it. And thank God I did, because this book was everything I wanted and more! It’s an alternate POV book that delves deeper, giving me answers to all that I wanted to know, and even things I didn’t know I wanted to know. I feel like I have a fully-rounded story now, and though it shattered my heart all over again, it’s a beautiful, beautiful story and I devoured every moment of this amazing story.

Make sure you read the first book before reading this one, but here’s a quick catch up – Ballet dancer Daisy Bianco’s world changed when she was involved in a shooting in her college theatre when she was practicing for a performance. Immediately, her life, and the lives of her closest friends, were shattered when a fellow student opened fire killing five and injuring many others. Slowly, the group falls apart as they individually try to cope with what they went through, and with the first book is written entirely from the POV of Daisy’s boyfriend, Erik, there is a lot of Daisy’s story that we don’t get to see, and now here it is, flayed out in all of its raw, emotional and broken glory.

*Beware that this review contains minor spoilers for the first book

Through therapy sessions, letters and memories, Daisy’s world is opened up to us. The years leading up to the shooting as we are introduced to Daisy and her friends and get to see her fall for the love of her life, the incident itself, the foggy months that followed and then the years after as she learns to pull herself back together. It’s an incredible journey that made me laugh, cry and feel, and it’s an amazing story of strength that touched me deeply.

“It feels like your darkest time. But I think it’s going to be your finest hour.”

Firstly, I loved that we got to see the early years of Daisy and Erik’s relationship from her perspective. From meeting, to effortlessly and inevitably falling for each other, every moment is a pure joy, even reading it for the second time.

She reached invisible hands to try him on. And found the warm jacket of his simplest self fit her perfectly. She pulled it close around her shoulders, drew her hair out from beneath its collar.
“I like you,” she whispered, lost in his eyes. You fit me, she thought.

I was so fascinated by Daisy’s story. While in the first book I knew she was spiralling down and she made bad decisions, from her perspective I could understand it! I could see how it all happened the way it did, and it shattered me all over again, this time with my heart aching even more for her. Daisy’s dual struggle to overcome the trauma of the shooting, and the trauma of Erik leaving her the way he did was brutal, but so easy to understand and feel right along with her as she hit rock bottom and had to fight to cope with it all.

“You can let your sorrow accompany you on the road of life without letting it be the road itself.”

And not only Daisy’s heartache, but we got to see how the rest of the close knit group coped with life after the shooting. And again with the feels! OMG, Will! Always a fan, we get to see even more of him in this one, and I freaking loved it! His relationship with Daisy is absolutely beautiful, and his reaction to Erik’s desertion was just as heartbreaking. I was so happy to see more of him, and the whole group, as they all found their own ways to cope with everything (and that reunion scene had tears streaming down my face!).

And while I was wary of seeing Daisy have relationships with other men, thinking it would feel wrong to me, it wasn’t. It all starts with John “Opie”, who rocked my world with his awesomeness, but there are others over the years. It is natural and beautiful, and I loved seeing Daisy start living again, trying to move on, and experiencing life. It was beautifully written, and an important part of her story, and I lapped up every moment.

But, of course, it all comes back to Erik. His desertion scarred Daisy just as much as the shooting itself. Her journey to rock bottom is painful to read, and her heartache is palpable as she drowns in guilt and tries to figure out life without her soulmate.

“I can’t breathe without you.”

It broke my heart, but I was so proud of her, and even though I knew when and how it was coming, I was still eagerly anticipating the heart-pounding moment when they find each other once again.

“Part of you still feels him. Because you never detached. You never fell out of love.”

And now that I’m back in this world, I’m not ready to let go. I’m going straight on to the next book to see the next chapter in the lives of these characters, and I cannot freaking wait.

An incredible story, and a must-read for anyone who loved the first book.

5 stars.

Note – I listened to this as an audiobook, and it is amazing. Vanessa De Silvio does an incredible job capturing all of the emotion and bringing this story to life. I recommend giving this one a listen if you have the chance. And it’s probably the only thing saving this review from being the absolute quote-fest it would have been had I had a kindle in front of me while reading!

 

The Fish Tales