Book Log

No Perfect Places - Steven Salvatore - 1/31/24

Not a Wattpad published book

The only thing Alex and Olly Brucke can count on is each other.

When their father went to prison for embezzlement, the twins lost everything: their house, their college funds, most of their friends, and even their mother, who's so focused on making ends meet that she's never around.

But after their father dies unexpectedly in prison, the twins' relationship fractures. Alex is spiraling, skipping classes to spend all her time drunk or high. And Olly is struggling with a secret his dad ordered him to keep: they have a half brother named Tyler.

When Tyler shows up in their lakeside town for the summer, hoping to get to know his siblings, Olly hides the truth from Alex. But as Alex and Tyler start to form a friendship, the lies become harder to juggle. If they can't confront their father's past and fix their relationship, Alex and Olly each risk losing two siblings forever.

No Perfect Places is a thought-provoking novel about grief, family secrets, and figuring out how to belong against the odds.

~*~

All I have to say is that Steven Salvatore has done it again. This is yet another one of his books that I will love to the ends of the Earth. I'm probably still biased here, but the story told was absolutely beautiful. Across the last two days, yes you heard me, two days, I fell absolutely and endlessly in love with Olly and Alex. I was devouring this book from the second I read the first page, constantly hungry for more.

This novel shares the beauty in family, and how to piece yourself back together again when everything falls apart. Never before has my vision been so clear of how two people can experience the same situation so differently. Highly recommend, I can't wait to see where else Salvatore's words lead him.

I'd rate this novel 5/5 stars. There is absolutely nothing I would change; the entire story structure is beautiful. This is one of those books that I will definitely be coming back to for another read, again and again and again.