Pit Stop gets 4.75 stars from me. It is a sweet yet heavy book with lighthearted elements and heartbreaking topics. It deals with some seriously heavy themes, but it also shows how honest and supportive friends and family can be.

The book features two young men, Isa and John. They both struggle in their own way. Isa comes back from the military with a prosthesis and a service animal and just tries to find his place in the world again and live his dreams. John has his own heavy burden, caring from his alcoholic dad who's sober but struggles with illness while also trying to stay on top of his studies and his activism for trans rights.
Their friends, Gonzales and Aaliyha, who are a couple, also take an important place within the story.

I wouldn't say this book is strictly a romance, at least not by the mainstream definition. This story is so much more.
It delves deep into themes of cultural differences and difficulties, PTSD, needing a service animal, being Black and trans, caring for an alcoholic father, growing up with an alcoholic father and others. It's definitely a heavy read. However, these themes are plated as part of a funny and lighthearted story.

Isa is a sunshine-y character even if he went through a lot. His effortless caring is his best quality. I loved him and John getting to know each other through transforming a van for travel. They somehow shared an invisible bond that let them be honest with each other.
John's reality was the most heartbreaking, and I have to admit I cried quite a lot. But I admired his strength and understood his beaker moment.

The characters all felt like real people with real-peaple burdens in the real world. Yes, there is quite a lot of rhetoric about recent political issues in the US, but I am glad they were mentioned. Often, in books, we tend to brighten the reality we live in, but it's also necessary not to forget about it.

The storytelling and prose in this book is beautiful and quite full of beautiful pictures (literally and figuratively). I loved the little illustration at the beginning of every chapter. But I also loved how the author writes with symbols and depicts beautiful pictures.

My only slightly negative feeling is that the story felt more like snippets of the characters' lives with no clear transitions between the chapters/scenes.

All in all, I am very happy I read this book, and I think it's a great romance featuring diverse characters. The heavier themes hit hard, but the sweet moments make you hopeful.