Last month, I was introduced to an incredible debut author, Annie Emerson. Her debut book, Thirteen Hours From Here (Sometimes Goodbye Duet #1) was mind blowing. It was everything I wanted it to be and more. This month we are presented with the conclusion to her debut duet.
Let me start by saying, sometimes we are presented with different books in our life that we never knew we needed. We may have fallen 100% in love with them, because it filled a certain part within us. We read to escape, to laugh, to fall in love, to avenge the downtrodden, among other reasons. Something that I did not expect while reading FWYA is the cerebral component (I will get to that in a little bit). Ms. Emerson has a way of mixing all these components exceptionally well. Radley and Meekai gave me the fate, love and avenging I was searching for. Gamma, holy Toledo, Gamma gave me the hilarious, knock me on my butt and the sage advice that I longed to hear, and Annie, Annie gave me the cerebral component. What Cerebral means to me is the ‘make you genuinely think’ about certain topics, whether good or bad and explore them. How do you really feel? Does that component take away from a story? The ‘keep me on my toes’ that sometimes is missing in a book. This is not a fluff story, but a true, heartwarming and life-altering read.
“Me: You do know that 1 in5 pregnancies occur over FaceTime, right? Please be safe and Lysol your cell!”
Kai and Radley are put to the test in this second half. Is their love strong enough to face whatever obstacles come their way? Who will stand with them? Who will be opposed? All topics, sensitive or otherwise, were handled with the delicacy that would not offend the reader, yet gave you ALL the thoughts, emotions and feelings attributed with them.
“Never broken, only bent.”
There was a roller coaster of emotions that Radley and Meekai went through which also reverberated through me. The push/pull and angst ridden was front and center. The perfect combination of back and forth, while continuing to trudge on forward.
“Anyone can let go, but not just anyone can hang on.”
Radley and Meekai, along with their secondary cast of characters are all fleshed out and give you the true familial feeling, whether they are true family or not. Overall, I am 100% in love with this duet and cannot wait for more from Annie Emerson. This duet will definitely be on my top of 2021 list.
“Just you, me, and the rest of our forevers.”
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