Do you know what hearing loss sounds like? I do.
All my life I've tried to be like you. I've failed.
So I keep it hidden.
But on the day my world crashed down around me, Reed was there.
He showed me just how loud and vibrant silence can be, even when I struggled to understand.
He's unlike anyone I've ever known. His soulful eyes and strong hands pulled me in before I knew what was happening.
And as I saw those hands sign, felt them sparking on me, I knew: imperfect could be perfect.
Reed makes me feel things I've never felt. It's exciting...and terrifying.
Because he sees me like no one else has, and I'm afraid of what he'll find if he looks too closely.
The only thing that scares me more than being with him? Letting him go.
She looked at me, and I didn't know what to do. What could I possibly do to make up for what she'd been through? I kissed her, soft and sweet, doing my damnedest to let her know she was loved, care for.
I had no idea this was gonna be one of those books.
You know the ones I mean. The one that slowly creeps up on you and suddenly you're sobbing and then smiling on a loop. Yes, you're an emotional mess. I started this book with absolutely no expectations. Firstly let me explain that I love this kind trope: I've read a few books where the main character has a disability. But I've never read one when both the main characters have a disability. In this case an auditory one. Carli is hard of hearing and Reed is deaf.
As with every book I've read you get to a point in the book where you think you know what's happening regardless and all that's left is watching it all play out. So that was me, I had it all figured out. I'm tempted to add spoilers but I know how tempting it can be to click on them and I honestly feel like that would ruin the entire book but lets just say... I was surprised.
Carli wears hearing aids, she's self conscious about them so she hides them behide her hair. She basically hides her hearing problem from everyone around her. This was a bit of an eye opener for me because my dad has hearing aids and by no means is this the same scenario but I always thought that hearing aids were a perfect fix, that they helped you hear like everyone else. Which is not the case. But I'm moving away from the story here.
Reed is that guy for Carli, the one that shows up just when you needed him. The one who's there for you when you feel as if you're alone. Carli's hearing loss is her dirty little secret, in fact Carli's entire life is a secret. Her family who have never shown her love is also part of that secret and when Reed steps into her life she sees and begins to feel an entirely new side to life.
This book was so touching and sweet yet so heartbreaking at the same time. Carli and Reed's relationship was full of ups and downs, there was angst and steam but this was mostly a story about self acceptance and letting go of the past.
Carli wasn't instantaneous, but she wasn't slow and cautious either. She was fire, burning through my resolve.
ARC kindly provided by publisher in return for an honest review
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