What do you do when the one you’re in love with is incapable of loving you back. Not because you’re unlovable or they’re unloving, but because they’re just not wired that way?
That’s the challenge Drew faces as he fills notebooks with all of the reasons he loves his favorite person, Bianca, while fully accepting that she’s both aromantic and asexual. Drew is himself autustic, and struggles with some of the same issues. Bianca clearly adores Drew in return, but doesn’t see herself as capable of love in the traditional sense.
In less skilled hands, this book could have been a train wreck, but Ms. Evergreen does what she does best, she gave these two a soft place to land without every denying their neurodivergence.
Watching Drew defend Bianca in ways he clearly has never defended himself was so powerful and said as much about his feelings for her as anything else in the entire story. Not only did Bianca absolutely need saving this time, because even the strongest of us need help sometimes, but Drew needed to be the one to do it. It was such a powerful moment because you just know that he wouldn’t and couldn’t do it for himself, but he would for the woman he loved.
Throughout the book, you never doubt Drew’s devotion to Bianca, and I love that Bianca finally sees that, while not romantic in the traditional sense, her affection for Drew is much deeper than she thought herself capable of. The author never denies Bianca’s reality to force a happy ending. Instead, she lets these two wonderfully weird people find love in their own way and in their own time.
I was holding my breath all throughout the book, hoping Ms. Evergreen wouldn’t wave away Bianca’s identity in the name of romance while still trying to see how there could be a happy ending in a romance without love. What she does instead is redefines what love can be and makes room for Bianca and Drew to be each other’s person, full stop.
This is not a by-the-numbers romance, and thank goodness for that. Of course, with Ms. Evergreen at the wheel, you always know you’re going to get a few detours, but you’ll come back from the trip happy to have seen the world’s largest ball of cat hair or whatever and glad you took the ride.
4.5 Wondering-where-my-Drew-is-hiding stars
