For twenty-six-year-old Adelaide Williams, an American living in dreamy London, meeting Rory Hughes was like a lightning bolt out of the blue: this charming Englishman was The One she wasn’t even looking for. In Adelaide, mental health is an integral part of the narrative. How does Adelaide’s relationship with her own mental health transform over the course of the novel? Which relationships are most important to supporting Adelaide’s mental health throughout? How did your understanding of mental health change (or not) after reading the novel? Wheeler does such a good job of discussing heavy themes like mental health, death at a young age, toxic relationships and more, while portraying how hard it can be to navigate and communicate the emotions that come with these things. I really appreciated the ending, it did a great job of closing the chapter on this era of Adelaide’s life. Update: The blurb and description for this book has changed since I wrote my review, and I feel it suits the book much better. I would still caution others to seek CW’s as this is a heavy read. This review was published aug24/22 and reflects the review copy and synopsis I was given at the time (which included: "With wonderful friends and fierce ambitions, Adelaide has little interest in finding "The One" right now. But when she meets Rory Hughes on a dating app—a charming Englishman who's been placed there by fate, she swears—that all changes. All of a sudden, Adelaide finds herself completely in love [...] Adelaide is convinced that if she just tries and fights and loves a little harder, he'll fall for her as deeply as she's fallen for him. (He has to... right?) Because it's clear to Adelaide that their fate was written in the stars [...] A millennial love story [...]) however since then, there have been changes across all retailers. I still stand by what I said below.

I found myself physically rolling my eyes at Rory because his character was so believable. I have come across many versions of Rory in real life. I’ve seen friends date Rory, I’ve dated a Rory. Though there were times I sympathized with him (as these sorts of people are good at manipulating those feelings in others), I really hated him. I wanted to hug empathetic, lovely Adelaide as if she were one of my own friends. I felt like it was ME getting gaslighted by Rory, Wheeler is THAT skilled at writing dimensional characters and putting us in their shoes. The prose is gorgeous but unpretentious. The timeline flows seemlessly, and I loved that we occasionally got POVs other than Adelaide. Every bit of it added to the building of this novel.

About Genevieve Wheeler

I think where this lost me was when Rory's ex, Natalie, died, at about the 50% mark, and Adelaide was so fixated on how upset she was about it. I thought it was strange, I don't know; it wasn't just one chapter of her going on about it, it was a few. It became really frustrating but I was rooting for her soo hard to let this guy go, and for her friends to give her better advice from the beginning.

It’s set in the UK and is mainly told from the pov of the main character Adelaide, but has a few parts featuring Rory.I decided to settle on almost four stars here as I did think about this book a bit in the days after reading it. I find myself with not all that much to say about it though, which is odd. So we shall see how this goes...

first of all— adelaide has been my#1future baby girl name since i was a kid, so i instantly loved this one purely for the title.I’ll admit, at first, I wasn’t sure if I liked the writing style (it’s different than anything I have read before), but after a few chapters, I began to really enjoy the combination of external dialogue and internal thoughts. Honestly I loved it ALL. It’s been a long time since I’ve read something that I felt could really happen.. romance is my jam but a lot of it leans towards the fantastical. My heart broke for Adelaide. She gave all the bits of herself to love and it wasn’t reciprocated equally. I felt that to my core. Does he respond to texts? Honor his commitments? Make advanced plans? Sometimes, rarely, and no, not at all. But Adelaide is convinced that if she just tries and fights and loves a little harder, he’ll fall for her as deeply as she’s fallen for him. (He has to… right?) Because it’s clear to Adelaide that their fate was written in the stars. Why else would they have attended the same play last fall, or that Yankees game in 2016? Their paths never crossing until just the right moment.