You, With a View Book Review
Check out my review of You, with a View by Jessica Joyce, a road trip romance you'll want to pack in your bag for your next vacation.
What do you enjoy reading on vacation? For me, I love travel fiction books featuring characters having adventures in fun destinations.
You, with a View by Jessica Joyce is a road trip romance with surprising depth. Not only is there love and a heavy dash of spice, but the book features plenty of insight into healing from grief and the importance of family.
Curious if this book is for you? Check out my full review below.
Summary of You, with a View
Noelle Shepard is unemployed, living with her parents, and grieving the loss of her beloved grandmother when she discovers decades-old photos of Gram and a smitten man, tucked alongside a love letter. She creates a TikTok to search for the mystery man, which goes viral, and she’s shocked when his grandson responds—a man who happens to be her high school nemesis, Theo Spencer.
Noelle refuses to let Theo’s annoying accomplishments in adulthood—or his sexy smirk—stand in the way of meeting his grandfather and unlocking the secrets he knew about her gram as a young woman. When she learns that their plans to elope were thwarted, Noelle decides to take the honeymoon road trip they planned but never got to carry out. There’s a catch, though: Paul, Theo's grandfather, asks to come with her, and he insists that Theo join them.
It’ll be a miracle if they make it through the trip without Noelle throwing Theo out of the moving car—or the bed they end up sharing. As the miles tick by, the tension simmers hotter between them...until she discovers that Theo’s hiding a secret that could cause their tenuous relationship to end before it can restart.
What I Liked
Here's what I would tell my best friend about the book:
- Travel Themed: I think it is super fun to read a book about characters who travel when I'm also on vacation. This would be a great summer read to pack in your bag for a trip.
- TikTok Influencer: As a blogger, social media is part of my work. It's always fun to "commiserate" with characters who understand how hard it actually is to create content. I particularly enjoyed the photography mentions.
- Witty Banter: I love sarcasm and the two main characters are extremely competitive. I enjoyed the dialogue between them as their romance builds.
- Generational Love Stories: I think this book can appeal to readers of a broad spectrum of ages. While the main plot centers on the two younger romantic leads, there's a sweet arc featuring Grandma's past love, too.
- Healing from Grief: The story delves into what it takes to heal from deep grief. I love a book that can touch on a difficult subject without being a heartbreaking tearjerker. This added depth to the story without being overly heavy.
What I Didn't Like
Every reader needs something different from a book. What I may not have preferred may be your favorite part so take this with a grain of salt.
I had a hard time getting invested in the main characters for the first half of the book. The start of their romance felt jarring to me and the set-up of the plot felt unrealistic.
I'm usually happy to suspend belief for a fun book and I try not to take things too seriously. I'm glad I stuck with it despite a rough start because the ending paid off for me.
How Spicy Is It?
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️: You, with a View gets 4 chili peppers on my spicy books rating scale.
Open door romance that spans several scenes but is not the entire point of the book.
Overall Score
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I give You, with a View 4 stars.
It took me about 60% of the book to be truly invested in the characters but the second half of the book made up for that slow lead-in for me. I enjoyed the ending so much, I would have given this book a full 5 stars based on how I felt after I read the last page, but if it hadn't been a book club pick there's a small chance I may have abandoned it before I got that far.
I'm still thinking about the story the next day and I think this would make an excellent poolside read this summer!
If this is your first time reading one of my reviews, you may want to check out how I score my reads with this scale guide here.
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