Good afternoon, my bibliophiles! Gosh, it’s been forever since I’ve shared a bookish post in the middle of the afternoon because life at the office has been insanity and I just don’t get any free time. However, today is a snow day and I couldn’t be out on the roads, so why not stay safe indoors and bring you guys a new blog post?

The book I’m going to talk about today is one I finished over the weekend and just couldn’t get enough of from beginning to end. It was one of those unique stories that I wanted to live and breathe, but also, shut and walk away from so that I didn’t rush the process. I’m talking about Yours To Bare by Jessica Hawkins.

I adore an offbeat story, and this one was no exception. Everything in this story revolves around a journal. A lost and discarded book of secret thoughts and desires that causes two unlikely and passionate souls to cross paths and change their futures forever.

It’s over a week since I closed this story and I am still completely obsessed. I swooned over the intrigue of these characters, even if I didn’t always like them. Well… her. Halston Fox.

Let’s get real, I was an absolute goner for Finn the minute I met his artistic and tormented soul. I identified with his situation and his desire to start over in his thirties and find the true passion in his life. I loved how he loved Halston… first, for her words, and then for everything she is… even if I didn’t always understand or trust her myself.

Halston has spent her whole life on medication and mood stabilizers. After having lost her mother at a young age, her father thought it was best. What happened to Halston is heartbreaking, I get that completely, but how she was handled by those who cared for her a decade after the loss of her mom wound up turning her into this quirky and depressed being I couldn’t always get on board with. Maybe it’s my fault because I couldn’t completely identify with her personality. I promise, I sympathized with her loss. We’ve all felt a loss of some kind at some point, and it’s always awful. What I couldn’t adore or trust about her was her seemingly addictive personality, because I feel like it crossed over from things to people, and I didn’t her addicted to and using Finn.

I wanted to support her and I wanted her to find her inner peace and happiness, but I knew everything she was doing thus far was destructive or distracting in some way. I didn’t want Finn to fall into her messy web. I became a bit protective of him, despite how much her truly loved her and wanted to help out.

Finn was going through his own battles. He was changing professions, he had a messy relationship with his ex-wife, and he was trying to build his relationship with his young daughter. Halston made his life better, but she also made it a bit chaotic, and not always in the best way. He was a beautiful soul in his need to heal her, but there were times he needed to tread carefully.

This couple may have had flaws to work through, but the overall story was gorgeous and wickedly sensual and I just couldn’t get enough. The sultry photos, the erotic, poetic words, and the dark underbelly of the social media persona this pair created bordered on sensory overload and I just never got enough.

While this story didn’t end with the flowery perfection of most romance novels, I think I appreciated it more for how it did end. It was gritty and real and left me with a feeling of promise for a blissful future. I believe in #HalstonandFinn forever!

My Final Rating: five out of five stars