「“𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒔. 
     𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉 
     𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇. 
     𝑰 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒓. 
     𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒔.”」

Have you ever read a story that destroyed you thoroughly, to the point where you sobbed uncontrollably for hours, and were unable to even think clearly afterwards and just stared at a wall? This was the most recent one for me. I honestly do not know how I will ever recover from this feeling. 

╰┈➤𝖳𝗁𝖾 𝗌𝗍𝗈𝗋𝗒. Shannon Lynch, 15 years old (soon to be 16), is transferring to Tommen. A fancy private school that her mom is barely able to afford. But she has no choice, as Shannon has been being bullied for the majority of her life and recently, it has been getting progressively worse. On her first day an accident occurs with Johnny Kavanagh, 17 years old and local rugby star, which sends her to the A&E (hospital). He feels horrible and immediately feels he needs to protect her at all costs. She was worried the bullying was continuing there as well until Johnny makes a promise to her. And suddenly she feels safe for the first time in her life. He is her safe, she is his calm. But they are both scared to admit it as they have secrets that could unravel everything in their lives, including each other. 

「“𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒈𝒐, 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆, 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒂. 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒎, 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒎, 𝒇𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒎. 
     𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆.”」

╰┈➤𝖬𝗒 𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗅𝗅 𝗍𝗁𝗈𝗎𝗀𝗁𝗍𝗌. I loved almost every single thing about this story. I felt so much for these characters, it is insane. 99% of the story, I just wanted to jump in to this book and hug little Shannon and protect her from everybody who was hurting her. I laughed, I cried, I threw my Kindle three times. I am sending my therapy bills to Chloe immediately, because my therapist is hearing about this one. Johnny and Shannon together? The slowest slow burn in history and I am here for it. Shannon deserves the entire world. The plot is mainly character driven for the most part, so not much to say about it. But I have been a mood reader, and normally can not read straight through a series, I have to take breaks so I don't get bored. NOT. WITH. THIS. STORY. I added the next one to my Kindle library immediately after finishing last night and I ordered Keeping 13 off of Amazon so I can start the next one ASAP. After the ending? No, I am not waiting. So thank you Chloe, for creating my new roman empire. 

「“𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒔. 
     𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕. 
     𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌, 𝒈𝒐𝒅 𝒔𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒔𝒂𝒖𝒓𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒏. 
     𝑯𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈.”」

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷|𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲:
- The characters. Mainly Claire, Gibs, Joey, Shannon, Johnny, and Johnny's parents.
- The slow burn romance that was not the main focus of this book.
- Shannon's strength, especially with everything she is still facing.
- Claire and Shannon's friendship. 
- Johnny & Gibs, they are hilarious.
- The hospital scene. 😂
- The pronunciation guide and definitions.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲:
- Lizzie, she is an absolute ice queen, and while I love her for being there for Shannon, I hope we get her story eventually so I can actually understand why she is so frigid all of the time.
- The fact that we had to hear about small Shannon is every other chapter. Maybe 3 times max would have sufficed. The way this girl was described at times, I pictured a tiny little doll. 
- Johnny's size and how we also had to continue hearing about how much of a giant he was. Again, a few times would have sufficed. The author is obsessed with size. 

「“𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆, 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒂 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒖𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎. 
     𝑰 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆. 𝑰𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆. 
     𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅. 
     𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆.”」

╰┈➤𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬:
🎧NA/YA contemporary romance
💿High school setting
🎧1st person pov
💿dual pov (Shannon & Johnny)
🎧Set in Ireland
💿Trauma
🎧Rugby
💿Slowest slow burn of all time
🎧Look at her & ☠️

ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : She will be loved by Maroon 5 ❤️

「“𝑹𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒙,” 𝑱𝒐𝒉𝒏𝒏𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒆𝒂𝒓, 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒎𝒚 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔. 
   “𝒀𝒐𝒖’𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒆.”」

Overall, this story is EVERYTHING and is my new roman empire! 
Happy reading babes! 🫶

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Finished my first re-read on 11/12/24
Just as traumatized as the first time but I did annotate this time and also created my own playlist on Spotify as I was reading. 🩷