Title: For You & No One Else (Say Everything #1)
Author: Roni Loren
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication date: July 5th, 2022
336 pages
4/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis
Eliza Catalano has the perfect life. So what if it actually looks nothing like the story she tells online? As a therapist, it’s part of her job to look like she has all the answers, right? But when Eliza ends up as a viral “Worst Date Ever” meme, everything in her Instagram-filtered world begins to crumble.
Enter the most obnoxiously attractive man she’s ever met, and a bet she can’t resist: if she swears off social media for six months, Beck Carter’ll teach her the wonders of surviving the “real world.” No technology, no dating apps, no pretty filters, no BS.
It seems like the perfect deal – she can lay low until her sudden infamy passes, meet some interesting new people, and maybe even curate this experience into a how I quit the online dating racket book along the way. But something about Beck’s raw honesty speaks to Eliza in ways she never expected. She knows he’s supposed to be completely hands-off… but as complex feelings grow and walls come tumbling down, rough-around-the-edges Beck may be exactly what Eliza needs to finally, truly face herself-and decide who she really wants to be.
A woman struggling to find her place in the world. A man with a secret inner life. An unexpected friendship with sizzling benefits. And an emotional turning point that changes everything.
Review
The third installment in the Say Everything series did not disappoint, just like I expected. I love each and every bit of these books and Eliza’s story was no different. Loren has a talent for combining sweet and spicy romance with very serious topics regarding mental health and trauma backgrounds – so please check the trigger warnings before reading this book, as well as the first two in the series. Eliza is a psychologist looking for love, but after an unfortunate internet date where she ended up going viral online – her confidence is shaken and needs a new strategy. Enter Beck, the hottest man she has ever met who signs up to teach her how to disconnect from the world.
This book is definitely more on the heavier side than the first two, I’d say each one got more heavy as the series continued. Beck’s story was so incredibly sad and his journey was so compelling. At first blush you would think it was Eliza who was helping Beck but when you think about it harder you see how much Beck helped Eliza too, which was just so special. The spice was top notch for a traditionally pubbed book, again much like the first two. It is not necessary to read the first two books, it can definitely exist as a standalone but the characters do make appearances.
I will absolutely read everything Roni Loren writes from now on, I highly recommend this whole series for people who like to have mental health rep and some heavy topics discussed in their romance novels.
Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
Happy reading, folks!
Baltimore Bibliophile 