Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group for this ARC.

Samantha works in marketing for a mustard brand in Minnesota and tall and frowny Xavier is a vet with his own practice. They meet over an impossibly cute stray cat that has an unusual and costly medical problem. They have one perfect date that mainly takes place in a locked escape room and then Sam is forced to move miles away. Their relationship has no future - and yet they both can't forget each other.

The story is told in alternating dual POV, so both Samantha and Xavier get their say. Both have baggage due to their parents. Xavier's parents are abusers, emotionally as well as physically, and Samantha has to move back home to California due to her mother's deteriorating health condition.

This book nearly broke me. There are two big topics that I have personal experience with: dementia and long-distance relationships. Both are described incredibly realistically and both suck. Especially caring for someone with dementia is exhausting and heartbreaking and you can only really appreciate it once you've done it yourself and you realise it's not just about memory loss. For some people, just reading about it will be too much, as well as learning about those caricature villains that are Xavier's parents. The relationships within Samantha's family are a bit more complex and revolve around how to best care for her mother.

Abby Jimenez' books seem to have many similarities to each other. They all deal with difficult topics, there is always a cute pet or two with a ridiculous name, a bearded man, the desire to have children, big feelings that border on obsession, and a couple of mentions of Nadia Cakes, the author's own business. There is always one apparent reason why two people who are incredibly perfect for each other can't be together. This time it is "we live too far from each other and we can't move, at all, ever". I get it, long distance is frustrating, tiring and expensive, but it usually has an end date.

The book is eminently readable and the big feelings will have many readers swoon, although everyone's problems seem to get solved a little too neatly and quickly at the end, but I adored lovely Dr Hank and his selflessness. Abby Jimenez means quality, and even though I would have liked a little less dementia drama I thoroughly enjoyed this and read it in one sitting. Also, the cover is utterly gorgeous.

"Love is the brightest color in a gray world."