The Paths We Choose is a wonderful novella that celebrates supportive friendships, taking chances, and surprising ourselves.
Summary
Set in the same world as The Melody of You and Me, this book deals with Lily who needs control and works at the same bookshop from the first book. It is the summer before she goes off to university, and what starts out as ordinary takes two drastic turns: a summer fling and an unannounced visit from her brother. Not only does this bring up memories from her past, but the chance to open her heart.
How’d I Find it?
This book was recommended to me by Laura from Green Tea and Paperbacks and if there’s one thing I know about this book, then you should always follow her recs, because this was FANTASTIC. Here’s her review. As soon as she tweeted about it, I knew I had to get it, so I went and picked it up.
Review
I was so pleased to see that this novella deals with Lily, who was one of my favorite side characters from the first one. What Hollis does best is giving us characters that are compelling and have a fantastic backstory. I am always amazed at how much she manages to achieve, character-wise, during a short amount of time. Lily is my type of person, from her desire for control all the way to her incessant bullet journaling. And it made this book even better. Take into the fact that she is diverse in many ways and you’ve already broken through the gates to my heart.
I cannot figure out if I loved the backstory, the romance, or the diversity more. It is such a fantastic thing to see lesbian sex portrayed in a beautiful way, I should have mentioned this in the other book review too. Additionally, the conversation about generalizations about Latinx people was spot on and amazing to read.
Even though you can see the end coming, in terms of happy or sad, it is beyond precious to watch it unfold, like when you settle into the couch to watch your favorite movie. Furthermore, (can this list of awesomeness ever end? probably not) the acknowledgements are touching. If I thought the story was emotional enough, these made me tear up. Hollis speaks about the knowledge that we need to put ourselves first and create our own family. Pure gold.
Please please go pick this up if you’re okay with romance, diverse characters, and characters who find their own family (and why wouldn’t you be??). You can buy The Paths We Choose on Amazon (US) and add it to Goodreads.
Discussion
What’s your favorite novella?
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