I read romance novels for a lot of different reasons. To feel less alone, to feel that surging bubble of joy in my chest, to feel connected to new and exciting lives. This book ticked all those boxes and more for me. I fell asleep reading it. Woke up, and carried on reading.

I write reviews for lots of different reasons, too. In this particular case, I’m writing this review because I want to keep that bubble of joy going for just a bit longer. And sometimes that bubble of joy is paired with a tinge of melancholy, or perhaps an awareness at how fragile and beautiful happiness is. Anyone else get that feeling?

Anyway, Peter and Daphne are engaged. Peter’s lifelong best friend is Petra, who is in a relationship with Miles. Something happens at Peter’s bachelor party and Peter and Petra break off their respective relationships/engagements in favor of a romantic relationship of their own.

Daphne had moved to Peter’s hometown and didn’t really know many people despite being there for a year already. So when both relationships fracture, Daphne has nowhere to go. A chance conversation has her moving in with Miles.

The two are heartbroken, for sure, and are also very different individuals connected by their former relationships with other people. Miles loves Celine Dion ballads and smokes the occasional joint. Daphne stuffs her wedding dress and decor in the hall cupboard and just wants the whole business to go away.

Within their forced proximity, Miles and Daphne strike up a friendship of sorts. Things are turned up a notch when Daphne lies to Peter and says that she is in a relationship with Miles. Miles goes along with it in the hopes of making Petra jealous. But this isn’t a classic fake relationship book. Or even a forced proximity book. This is a book in which two people have to face a reckoning with their pasts as they figure out their present and future. While this is primarily a story of two people healing in their own ways (and together), there is a lovely backdrop of Miles introducing Daphne to the town that she’s called home for a year but hasn’t really gotten to know. Every Sunday, Miles takes her to new and interesting places around town. Daphne works as a children’s librarian and is building up to a readathon at the end of the summer. At work, she strikes up a friendship with a coworker – a major accomplishment for her.

Daphne’s dad was hardly ever around and never showed up to things that he said he would so she’s grown up to be a closed book. She doesn’t think of herself as worthy of love. Miles had an abusive childhood and desperately needs to be ‘okay’. I won’t say more about that here, but they both need to do a lot of processing before they’re in a position to love again. They do this through their increasingly powerful friendship. If this book is any trope at all, it is friends-to-lovers. Not usually something that I enjoy but this friendship felt so real and important to me that I felt a little sad when they added romance to the equation as though they were inviting in potential for disaster. Even though I know it is a romance and there’s a beautiful HEA, the friendship was so real to me that for a moment I was sad. Of course then the swoony romance of it started and I was in raptures. Realistically the romance was there the whole time (certainly the sexual tension was present), but this friendship felt to me like I feel about my best friend: compulsory for continued living. In my reading, it is a rare and beautiful thing when there is such a wonderfully strong bond of friendship before things become romantic. Perhaps I should reconsider my stance of avoiding friends-to-lovers romances.

Both Miles and Daphne do so much growing separately and together. I have a book hangover because this book turned me inside out. No, I didn’t cry. It wasn’t like that. But its impact was nonetheless powerful and I can heartily recommend it. Be prepared for Daphne and Miles to feel so real that you want to reach into the book-world and be their friend in truth. Get ready to love the friendship between the two as much as you’ll love the romance. In truth, this book will feel so real, that you might need a little help reentering the real world afterwards. My emotions had a workout feeling all those big beautiful feelings: the power of true friendship, the unbelievable courage of being totally vulnerable with someone and the heart-filled glory of being truly known. If you’re sensitive like me, have a treat with your best friend lined up for after you read the last page. A gentle reentry to the world is something a best friend specialises in. Just ask Daphne and Miles.