Friday, March 13, 2020

This Adventure Ends - Emma Mills

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Sloane isn't expecting to fall in with a group of friends when she moves from New York to Florida - especially not a group of friends so intense, so layered with private tragedies and secret codes, and so all-consuming. Yet that's exactly what happens.

Sloane becomes closest to Vera, a social-media star who lights up any room, and Gabe, Vera's twin brother and the most serious person Sloane has ever met. When a beloved painting by the twins' late mother goes missing, Sloane takes on the responsibility of tracking it down, a journey that crosses state lines -  and pulls her ever deeper into the twins' lives.

Filled with powerful and important friendships, a wonderful warts-and-all family, shiveringly good romance, and sharp, witty dialogue, this story is about finding the people you never knew you needed."

Sloane has never really had close friends...people she hung out with when convenient, sure. But people you spent all day texting, slept over at each other's houses, and developed inside jokes with? Never. Then she moves to Florida, meets Gabe and Vera at a party, and finds herself immediately incorporated into their world. Their friends become her friends, their jokes become her jokes, and before she knows it...there are people she cares about. People who care about her.

She isn't sure what to make of it, but they're important to her. So when she sleeps over at Vera's one night and discovers that Gabe's step-mom accidentally gave the painting his mother specifically painted for him and Vera right before she died to a gallery to be sold, she makes it her life's mission to get it back. This quest stirs up some rumors, drama, and speculation, and eventually even some heartache, and at times this leaves Sloane wondering if she's making a mistake. Maybe going through life solo, keeping things at a distance, is the way to go.

Obviously that's not the way to go, and no spoilies, but I'm sure Sloane will eventually come to recognize that. 😉 On the way, she'll have some great adventures with her new friends, often featuring the laugh-out-loud dialogue I have come to appreciate from Emma Mills (sweaty babies. They got me over and over). This book, and most of her others (I have to qualify that with "most" because I haven't read all of them yet) are the perfect light read when you want to dive into some fiction for a break from the doom and gloom of real life (hellooooo, pandemic!). It might make you a little emotional, but it will also crack you up, and by the end of the book, if you're anything like me, you'll have a strong case of the warm fuzzies. Need to press pause on all the Covid panic? Grab this book!

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