Synopsis:
Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah’s story to tell. The later years are Jude’s. What the twins don’t realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.
Favorite Lines:
“His soul might be a sun. I’ve never met anyone who had the sun for a soul.”
“When people fall in love, they burst into flames.”
My Opinion:
Being stuck in quarantine has limited my book options to the ones I have on my Nook when I traveled home from school (since classes are online) and the books that I left at home when I moved away for school in the first place. My sister and I did a book swap, I let her borrow some of my books in exchange for this book; which happens to be her favorite stand alone book. I’ll admit, I was a little hesitant, but I was pleasantly surprised.
This book follows twins Jude and Noah as we follow them through major moments in their childhoods that shape them. Both twins are artists but where one is very outgoing, the other is very shy. As the story progresses, we see a flash-forward in time. We see one point of view from a young Noah and another point of view from an older Jude. While these different events are taking place past and present, the story is moving everything together to converge as one. I love story telling like this; that weaves a story so creatively and perfectly.
Nelson does an amazing job at putting everything together and using the different points in time and points of view to tell a beautiful story full of real human emotions. I will admit, I preferred Jude’s PoV but only because I was a sucker for the ship that took place in there. Don’t worry though, Noah has a ship of his own; you’ll see.
Nelson also has a unique writing style. It was unlike anything else I have ever read before and really added to the creativity of the story. I don’t know how to explain it in any way than Nelson adding more emotion to the story through her descriptions and writing methods (which is still a terrible explanation).
Summary:
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was captivating how Nelson told it and I am kind of sad that it is a standalone. I would love to see the characters in another 10 years but that is just me being selfish and wanting more. Until next time guys, happy reading!
Likely Story 