Book Review: You, With a View

I’ve heard amazing things about You, With a View by Jessica Joyce since last summer so I’ve had it on my tbr since then. I finally read it this past week and it was just as good as everyone said it was. Honestly, it may just be my favorite book this month!

This isn’t a typical romcom, although there are some laughs along the way. It is emotional and may make you cry (I did!), but also make you feel good and hopeful too.

The novel follows Noelle, a young woman in her late 20s who is struggling at the moment. She’s currently unemployed after being very successful in high school, she struggled post-college when her dream job of pursuing photography didn’t work out the way she wanted. Then she worked a string of corporate jobs that she didn’t love and now she’s back living at her parents’ house while she figures out what to do next. At the same time, her grandmother who she was extremely close with passed away the year before and she has missed her immensely.

When going through some of her grandmother’s things one day she finds old photographs from the late 1950s and letters. Love letters. They are from a man named Paul who according to the letters her grandmother had planned to elope with! Of course, this was all prior to Noelle’s grandmother marrying her grandfather a couple years later. Noelle is curious as to who this mysterious Paul is and what happened between him and her grandmother, but also hurt that her grandmother never told her about him because they always told each other secrets.

Noelle takes to TIkTok and posts some of the photos and asks if anyone can help her identify the man. The post goes viral and someone comments that it is his grandfather! They all happen to live in the Bay Area and set up a time to meet. Noelle goes to meet Paul and his grandson only to find that the grandson is none other than Noelle’s high school rival and super successful, Forbes 30 under 30, Theo Spencer.

Paul tells Noelle some stories about his past relationship with her grandmother and how they were young and in love. Noelle finds a map her grandmother had marked up with a road trip plotted out for their honeymoon they would’ve taken if they had eloped. Noelle decides she wants to take the road trip and before she knows it Paul and Theo are going with her.

As the three embark on this 2 week road trip together, Noelle learns about her grandmother’s first love, learns more about herself, and she and Theo realize their rivalry for all these years actually made them better.

I loved this book so much! The love Noelle kept talking about between her and her grandmother felt so real that I felt like I was experiencing it. The friendship and love she develops with Paul was so heartwarming and lovely and I loved that she felt she had gained a grandparent back with him. And the rivalry turned friendship turned love between her and Theo was amazing and beautiful. I loved how they were both struggling quietly and learned to trust each other and want to be there for one another. It was truly just from start to finish an amazing book. I read this on my Kindle and I think I love it so much that I might buy the paperback!

Read this if you want a spicy contemporary romance with the enemies/rivals to lovers trope with a road trip twist.

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