SCORE

Reunited more than 10 years after their college romance ended in devastation, a couple realizes their connection is as strong as ever even as their wounds remain unhealed.

Before Verity Hill became an award-winning screenwriter and musical prodigy Wright “Monk” Bellamy became a household name, they met at a Georgia HBCU and fell in a deeper love than they ever thought possible, considering what they had each witnessed from their parents. Their relationship only lasted a few months, but it left a lasting impact. Now they find themselves in Los Angeles working on the same film, a Harlem Renaissance biopic that was also featured in Ryan’s Reel (2024), a romance following the movie’s director and star. This story begins in the present day but flashes back to when Verity and Monk first met and follows their college relationship through its apex to its crushing end, the result of a manic episode Verity experienced before she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder—something she never explained to Monk. Now working together and with intense attraction again firing up, Verity has to decide whether she can trust Monk with her whole truth and whether a relationship would be worth the risk. Ryan knows how to put her readers’ emotions through the wringer while staying true to her characters, so the story feels realistic and never manipulative. Every moment of heartbreak rings true. Deliciously sexy scenes are deftly integrated and vital to the characters’ development, and poetic descriptions of yearning are worthy of highlighting. Verity lives at the intersection of Black, bisexual, and bipolar, and Ryan never underplays resulting hardships while also celebrating and affirming these identities. She shows that Verity deserves, and is capable of having, a serious, passionate, committed love.

Incredibly romantic and deeply human.