Title: The Third Best Thing
Author: Maya Huges
Series: Fulton U Book 3
Release Date: January 31, 2020
** Kindle Unlimited
★★★★★
Dear Letter Girl, I need to see you. When can we meet?
There's only one problem--I'm falling for her. The tortoise shell glasses, out of this world curves and delicious treats are making the search for The Letter Girl even harder.
My notes were supposed to be a one time thing.
A little too much wine and naughty thoughts on a winter's night. I never thought Berk would write back. I wanted to tell him it was me, but the fear of rejection kept my lips sealed.
Now he’s enlisted my help to track down The Letter Girl and our search has him hot on my, ahem, her trail.
She's the girl next door.
He's my secret pen pal.
Truth is on a collision course with their hearts and it’s only a matter of time before one of them gets wrecked...
La la la! I loved this book!!
I have to admit, I haven't read the first two books in this series and decided to read this one on a whim because... the boy in the cover art was very cute and floppy haired, wasn't he? I mean, also, I really liked the premise of the secret letters and the fear of rejection and the friends to lovers thing. I don't know, I think I just sort of decided to take a chance on it and I AM SO GLAD I DID because there was so much to love here.
Can we just take a minute to talk about Jules? Because I love Jules. I love her to little tiny squinchy bits, I swear. The cute, insecure girl who loves baking could have gone to a real stereotypical place real quick, but instead she really felt like a whole character whose feelings and reactions to things were genuine and well crafted by the author. I also love that I had no idea based on the blurb that this was going to a plus sized heroine going on a bit of a journey with how she felt about her body, because it was a pleasant surprise. Of course, the reason that it was a pleasant surprise was because I think it was handled really, really well and the arc of it felt authentic. I just love her so much and I found myself rooting for her a lot.
Annnnnd Berk. Oh, Berk, how I did not see you coming at all. Like with Jules' weight, I didn't see Berk's backstory coming from the blurb and I really loved how he was written. I think that particular background can end up also being written in a really stereotypical, one dimensional way, but Berk really did feel like a fully fleshed out character who behaved like a human - one with a pretty heavy history that had informed who he became. Also, he managed to be really sweet and caring without going to a soggy place. Soggy's a weird word for that, but I feel like sometimes more sensitive, emotionally open male characters can feel just... yeah, soggy, limp, bland, etc. on the page because they're handled in a weird way. Berk was just swoony to me and I loved him.
The way that the relationship unfolded in this story is pretty much pitch perfect for me. I loved the pacing and the way that the tension built and the uncertainty on both sides that was present but didn't drag on further than it needed to. Even coming into this without the context of the first two books in the series and whatever happened between these two characters before, everything just clicked in this book and I feel grinny even writing about it.
I think that it probably would have been pretty easy to go in a really stereotypical direction with the conflict between these two characters, defaulting to misunderstanding or insecurity driven retreat, and I loved that Maya Hughes didn't do that with this book. I think that the way that things played out and the fact that we as the reader could see if, but there were very real reasons that the characters couldn't necessarily was really well done. And it didn't play out in an overdramatic way, it just felt really human and true to the characters.
As I was reading there was onelittlething that sort of bothered me - a decision made by one of the characters - because I didn't necessarily think that it made sense for the character and I also felt a little bit of dread on how it was going to be handled... but I think it played out alright. I could have done without that part, but it didn't impact my overall enjoyment at all and I completely understand why it was there.
Honestly, I think I'm gonna have to go back and read the first two books in this series now, though I have a sneaking suspicion that this one will be my favorite either way. Still, it was so good and I highly, highly recommend it!
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