A review by bookish_leslie
You, with a View by Jessica Joyce

4.5

What To Expect:
  • M/F
  • MC's in their late 20s
  • Enemies to lovers
  • Old high school rivals
  • Road trip
  • Forced proximity
  • One bed
  • Single POV
  • Social media references (TikTok)

Themes: secrets, relationships with grandparents, grief, healing, trust, enoughness, self-discovery and self-belief, the impermanence of good/bad and making the most of the here and now

Spice: 3/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️(several open door scenes with detailed descriptions and explicit language) 

Overall, I had a good time with this book and would be interested in reading more from this author. The premise was interesting, if a little weird. I’m not entirely sure why you’d want to go on a road trip inspired by your grandma’s broken engagement with a man 50-60 years ago, least of all with a perfect stranger and your old high school nemesis, especially when the grandmother had clearly and happily moved on from that relationship. But also, road trip! Plus it got the main characters together, and they did have great chemistry.

I’m feeling a little salty about the use of setting though. These characters were traveling to some iconic Western US spots, like Yosemite, Death Valley, Vegas, Zion NP, and the Grand Canyon. I so badly wanted an armchair travel experience alongside this romance, but for the most part, these settings were barely mentioned for the most part, let alone featured, and that not only felt like a big letdown, but also a missed opportunity.

That aside, I have to say that I really enjoyed the characters. Paul, Theo’s granddad, was such a sweetheart and probably my fav, but I also loved Noelle’s relationship with her brother and his girlfriend, and I could really feel the weight of her love, loss, and grief regarding her Gram.

“It’s so silent. It infuriates me that she can just be gone. That she left me like this, floundering for answers, talking to the sky.”

Noelle lying to everyone was off-putting, but I enjoyed the chemistry she shared with Theo, as I’ve already mentioned, and I liked that their connection wasn’t only physical, but sometimes had moments of emotional vulnerability sprinkled in, too.

“What’s that game called?’ he murmurs. ‘From last night?’
‘Tell Me a Secret,’ I manage, my heart in my throat.
His jaw ticks. ‘So, tell me one.’
I don’t want to admit it, but it’s the elephant in the room. His thumbs are inches from the spot throbbing worse than my knee.
‘I wouldn’t stop you if you kissed me right now.’ I say it quietly in case he changes his mind, but his eyes darken, pupils dilating. He doesn’t move, though his mouth parts like he can already taste it. ‘Now you.’
His breath dances over my lips. ‘If I kissed you right now, I wouldn’t stop.”

I thought the writing was solid; the dialogue/banter was especially well done. And I appreciated that there was depth in this otherwise light-hearted story, in the way Noelle grieved for her Gram. I really wish we’d had Theo’s POV alongside Noelle’s, though. 
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