There are very few books I can think of that have, in my opinion, the perfect first chapter. The Ex Vows opens in a flashback, but as a memory rather than dropping us into the exact time. The narrating character (Georgia) misremembers, corrects herself, and even rewrites history to be more in line with what eventually happens between her and her love interest (Eli). It leaves you with a need to know more, to find out what happens to these people after their incredibly charming first meeting.
I love second chance romances in theory but rarely find one that hits. When I randomly picked up this book from an author I had never read from before, I did admittedly have some hope, but really not that much. This book really took me by surprise. Its tender and the yearning jumps off the page. I actually hate describing romances as ‘realistic’ as a compliment because I think a big reason the genre works is because of the suspension of disbelief and the unrealistic, grandiose aspects of it, but I really did appreciate the realistic depiction of the initial breakdown of Georgia and Eli’s relationship.
Jessica Joyce has, at the very least in this book, an uncanny ability to make me feel so deeply for a pair of characters that she has me seeking out their history, seeing it coming from a mile away, and still being slightly devastated by it (was it because I related too hard? maybe.). I also really felt the hurt of losing a friend and the way that loss is the what shapes a lot of how Georgia perceives the lack of Eli in her life. Truly, not enough is made about being friends with the person you love.
Despite already praising the realism in the book, I also really enjoyed the insane unrealistic aspect of how everything in Adam’s wedding was going horribly wrong. I don’t know what it says about me that I found the disaster infinitely amusing.
Anyway, I just really love this book and not enough people are talking about it!! Please read this!! This review was prompted by the book not even making it into the first round of the Goodreads Choice Awards. I don’t really care about them I mostly think they’re meaningless fun, but I was really looking forward to voting for a book in the romance category that wasn’t written by Emily Henry because who else is doing it like her. Well, Jessica Joyce apparently.
