book review : the things we leave unfinished

Genre: Romance

Reading age: 16+

Rating: 8/10

You’ll like this if you’ve read: Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover, Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

If I could describe this book in one word it would be… poetic.

If you have watched moonlight or avatar, it’s knowing you’re watching a movie, or in this case, reading a book but feeling like you’re staring at a piece of moving art. Rebecca Yarros does a great job of describing the indescribable and although it may not be realistic for a character to break out into ballad-like form during everyday conversation, you understand because this book isn’t about realism, it’s about explaining the human emotions our hearts cannot articulate.

The book is split into two story’s, the story of Scarlett Stanton and the story of Georgia Stanton, two generations apart but connected by love… and a book that was left unfinished. Between the alternating chapters and eras it can become tempting to read one story over the other at times but by the end of it all you understand why the real love story exist between the pages of both. For what it is worth, it's a beautiful and satisfying ending.

Due to the wartime context of the story, the constant shift between the past and present and the random order of letters at the beginning of each chapter, it becomes clear very quickly that we already know what the ending of this story is. It’s the journey along the way that’s important. This might be much more of an ominous take than Yarros intended but at the same time it focuses the reader on what’s important - not the what or when but the how.

For me, it starts and ends with the sisterhood between Scarlett and Constance. It is definitely a story about the love of Scarlett and Jameson but it is so much more than just their romance. It’s about family, it’s about friendship, it’s about sacrifice. Ultimately. it’s about finding the one, in more than one person.

Learning that Yarros was a military wife, made the pieces of this story fall in place just that little more. she poured herself into each character that she wrote about and although the context may be different, the feelings are the same. I was really happy to learn that her husband has since retired and they now live the fairytale ending we would’ve wanted for so many characters in this book.
Sometimes when reading a good romance we get so hung up on wanting to feel a sense of tragedy, because tragedy seems realistic… but as seen in Yarros’ real life, it can also be realistic to live happily ever after.

Buy it here: bit.ly/3IT3r8Z