Overall, this was a decently paced, beautifully bittersweet read. While I was intrigued by the premise of this book at first glance, I was slightly concerned that it would be sort of a slow, heavy read. Once I made it a few chapters in however, this story drew me in completely and absolutely breezed by.

Hanna Halperin pulls off an amazing character study; the entire time I could feel myself in Leah's shoes, in her heart, in her head. When she saw the world a certain way, I saw it too. When she got too in her head about things I never resented her (which I sometimes find myself doing with some MCs). When she found Charlie sweet, I thought he was adorable; when she found him charming, so did I; when she hated him, I despised him; when she ached for him, I ached for them both.
And the narrative went beyond love in just the romantic sense, and really culminated in a raw, touching portrait of the transient yet sweeping nature of love in any lifetime.

The one drawback of this being such a visceral read is that it made me feel entirely too many sucky feelings in conjunction with the tender ones to be sure what/ how much I even enjoyed, so as I'm typing this I'm not even sure what my rating is going to be. Also, I did want more from the ending, which left it feeling a bit lackluster.

I would recommend this book to anyone who's into desperately messy, literary love stories. This book genuinely read like watching an indie flick, and I can't wait to share my favourite quotes & see others' once it's out.

Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Viking/ Viking & NetGalley for access to the DRC! ( )

Grab your journal and tissues for this introspective heartbreaker. You’ll definitely cry and also have the need to journal—if not for therapeutic reasons (because, again, there will be tears) then for creative inspiration since our main character, Leah, is a somewhat shy writer going through an MFA program with other writers. Besides being a book about writers, I Could Live Here Forever—one of my favorites of the year—is a really honest and intimate glimpse inside life and love with an addict, highlighting the line between truth and lies, reality and delusions. It’s a poignant portrayal of the tragedy of abandonment and addiction paired with the euphoria of love and belonging.

The characters in this book, especially Leah and Charlie who meet by chance in a grocery store checkout line, are also unforgettable. In fact, there are certain characters that leave a lasting impression long after the final page has been turned. They become embedded, etching themselves into our minds and hearts in such a way that they’re no longer fictional. Charlie, with his tenderness and vulnerability and intensity, is such a character.

This entire book is beautiful and melancholic and enduring, a read I’d highly recommend if you enjoy character-driven novels where gritty personal and family drama dominate the pages. ( )

I’m so tired of books that expect me to just accept that the main characters are in love without ever actually demonstrating how or why. The romance in this was so hollow. The portrayal of drug addiction was so surface level. I didn’t care for the pacing, the main character was insufferable, the whole “I’m in school to be a writer” plot was super corny. The audiobook was so painfully melodramatic for no reason. This whole book just didn’t work for me at all. ( )