Reviews with content warning for Medical trauma - Say You Swear

It was such a fantastic read, but I felt such physical heartache throughout the entirety of this book. Because of the slow-burn relationship between Arianna and Noah, I felt things so deeply between them. In some sort of way, as Ari was falling in love with Noah, so was I? Both of them are amazing characters. In fact, all of them are amazing, so well thought out and so well articulated - even Chase, who I despise! He’s lower than a bit of shit on my shoe, but that’s enough about him. Every time they had an argument, or a disagreement, or something went wrong for them, a little bit of my died inside. I genuinely felt sick at multiple points. I know I’m not really selling the book by saying this, but if you want a really emotional, really encompassing type of read, one that may or may not take over your life for a bit, then this is definitely a fantastic recommendation. I must say, even as I’m writing this review, I wish I could go back and read it again.

For me, the worst part of this book was the amnesia - I think that’s a fate, arguably, quite possibly worse than death. The thought of being so in love with someone, and they were with you, but then they forget everything, even if through no fault of their own, it must be so awfully heartbreaking. Well, I was heartbroken, and it didn’t even happen to me. The fact she thought she was still in love with Chase, is even more upsetting.

This book is quite a long read, but it’s such a good slow burn, from strangers to friends to lovers, and it’s filled with so much love, but so much heartbreak also. Encompassing is the only way I can describe it. It has amazing friendships throughout, really tight relationships between families, which you don’t see a lot of in the books I normally read, personally, and I’m definitely going to read the next book in the series as soon as I can!

BTW: Noah is *the* ultimate book boyfriend, omg????

Book Summary:

We follow Arianna, the main character but not the only POV in this book. Arianna has had the same group of friends for ages, consisting of; Cam, the only other girl, and her best friend in the whole world; Mason, her over-protective twin brother; Brady, an overly flirtatious big guy; and Chase, the person whom she has loved for years. She had a crush on him all throughout her childhood, as he was so gentle and had smiles reserved for her. However, because of Mason, who wouldn’t let anyone touch his ‘baby’ sister, he never made a move on her, even though she was in love with him. She has to endure him sleeping with lots of other girls during their friendship, and she just has to bite the bullet, just to keep the peace.

It was their dream to go off to college together, so they end up going to Avix, at Avix U. They get drunk, and so other things that college students love, like partying, before their semester starts. Unfortunately, she gets drunk one night, just like everyone else, and she loses her virginity to Chase. Immediately afterwards, he regrets it, just like she knew he would, and he says that nothing can happen from it. She knew this would happen, so tries to let him off the hook, but it becomes too difficult.

She starts to distance herself from him, and, therefore, the friendship group. She misses out on lots of things her friends are doing, because she doesn’t want to be around Chase. She keeps everyone at a distance, just so as not to see him. She doesn’t let anyone know what’s going on, because she doesn’t want their entire friendship dynamic to change. But when she’s hit by a ball at one of their parties, she doesn’t expect her whole life to change around.

She meets Noah, who is also on the team with Mason, Brady and Chase. Immediately, he is smitten with her. It takes her a while to get over Chase, someone who she’s loved for ages, but Noah is so patient with her. He listens to her, he doesn’t push her, he stands up for her, both with his words and his silence, and he’s exactly what she needs. Well, she’s also exactly what he needs, also. They both need each other. Noah, who grew up mostly alone, trying to work hard to give his mother, who’s in hospital after a couple of strokes, everything, finally has a friend, and Arianna finally has someone that can give her all the love she needs. Chase couldn’t give her that; he was too worried about upsetting Mason, when he should have known that getting with her and then leaving her would have hurt him more.

Slowly, Arianna starts to get over Chase, and she falls for Noah, and he’s besotted with her. They meet each other’s parents - and Noah’s mum is very smitten - and start spending every minute they can with each other. However, it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, unfortunately; one night, when Chase is wasted, he confesses his love for Ari. He wanted to do it for a while, and was always angry when her and Noah would hang out, but it’s then that he chooses to say something. She goes after Chase when he runs off, and Chase kisses her. She quickly realises it isn’t something that she wants. Noah understands, although is hurt by it, but forgives her.

Everything is better after that. They spend more time with each other, become closer, and, again, everything is going well until Ari decides to use a moment with Noah as a way to hurt Chase. Noah tells her to think about Chase, really think about him, and see whether he’s something that she wants.

She’s miserable without him. Morbidly depressed, won’t leave her house, barely eats, barely washes. Avoids everyone. Desperately tries to call him, but he doesn’t answer. She goes everywhere, trying to search for him. Then, at another party, she decides to get really drunk. And that’s when Chase tries to get handsy with her, telling her he always loved her. Naturally, everyone finds out that he hurt her and took her virginity, and, naturally, Mason beats him up. She messages Noah, who immediately comes to collect her, but as they are about to meet up and he is going to confess his love for her, she is knocked down by a car.

Days go by, and she loses a lot of blood, has to be put in a medically-induced coma whilst they wait for her brain to stop swelling, and when she wakes up, everyone is so thankful. Her friends have barely left her side since the start, and Noah hasn’t even bothered to go home. They think that Mason - Mr. Johnson - is Arianna’s husband, and that’s when they find out that she was pregnant. But, because of the blood loss, she lost her baby.

And that’s not all. With comas like hers, it normally ends with a certain type of amnesia.

She wakes up, not knowing that she’s in love with Noah, and thinking she’s in love with Chase. And that he’s the father of her child.

Noah has to escape. He drives out of town, and he gets black-out drunk. No one knows where he is. And then his mum dies, so, essentially, he’s lost the two most important people in his life. He’s depressed, and sees no point in continuing. He tries not to give up on Ari, but she’s pursuing Chase, and he has to sit back and watch it happen.

She gets snippets of her memories back, and it’s only when she receives a message from Noah’s deceased mother that she realises why. And then she sees her calendar, all the things she was supposed to do with Noah, and all the things she did, and she knows all along that this feeling of safety she gets with Noah and the feeling of apprehension that comes with Chase, she knows exactly where she has gone wrong.

She had a recipe book made for Noah, who’s a fabulous cook - thanks to his mum - and he has all the recipes inside from her that he loves.

They manage to make it up, as now Ari has her memories back there’s no chance they won’t make it, and soon after, Noah asks Ari to marry him. They are doing all the holidays that they missed, Christmas and New Years, and suddenly, it has been a year since they met each other. Ari, of course, says yes. And they live happily ever after - corny ending, but it’s needed!

Content Warnings

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I wanted to read this book because I have seen it all over booktok and the book community. The last time it was in The Works, this was part of the 3 for £6 deal and I jumped at the chance.

This book is a college romance based on Arianna Johnson and for years, she has dreamt of what college life could bring and while some things changed, there was always one constant. It didn’t matter how wild she allowed her imagination to run, it always led her to the same place in the end. It led her to Noah Riley. Her future was clear, and he was it. Until suddenly . . . he wasn’t. Now she is a shell of who she was, on a path too blurry to follow, and she sees no way out. No way up. They say that first loves last forever. That's exactly what she’s afraid of.

I enjoyed the college romance aspect and how the girls were trying to live their lives and the found family and their actual families. I loved the friendship group (besides Chase, he is a complete asshole and can go and fuck himself) and how they were all so protective, but they all love each other and would fight for each other. I love that each of these boys have their own personality and I hope that each of them (again besides Chase) gets their own story and Cam and Trey get their own story. I love Cam and Brady and I hope we see more of them. I really do love how they are so fun and flirty but would also kick ass if needed.

Arianna took a bit of time to warm up to me, mainly because of the innocent girl, I can’t make decision bullshit. I also deeply, and I mean deeply, HATEEEEE love triangles. They are the worst thing in the world and sometimes ruin a story more than miscommunication and this book had love triangles and miscommunication due to her memory loss. I also didn’t really love the memory loss and was seriously thinking that Arianna was going to end up with Chase, who didn’t get the kick in the balls that he deserved.

This book didn’t need to be so long, it could have been cut maybe like 100 pages, but I loved Noah and Arianna together and hopefully they will appear in the second book.

Content Warnings

tingelinda91's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

hjb_128's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Content Warnings

escapeoffreality's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book was soooo sweet, cute, funny, emotional and I loved it soooo much!!! Like it has everything you are looking for in a romance book, I mean there are some characters you might don’t like buttt the main couple is just it. They show how a real, honest and healthy relationship is supposed to be. All in all I love this book and I can definitely say it’s one of my favourites, especially the main characters Noah (who is basically a perfect boyfriend and person) and Ari (who is just amazing and so relatable) and also Cam (who is the perfect bestie and such a girls girl), I mean the other characters are also amazing but these three were my favourites!!

Content Warnings