The Book Nest: 180 Seconds by Jessica Park

genre: new-adult fiction

Allison’s walls are amazing. She has built them over a lifetime of being shuffled from foster home to foster home. When she starts her junior year in college, she knows exactly how to live her life so that she will feel safe. It mostly involves being alone and not investing in people. Because people always leave. Allison’s only true friend is at school in California and her adoptive father, Simon, is trying. He really is. But she knows the truth about “parents."

Then one momentary lapse of judgement, one bizarre circumstance and Allison is introduced to Ebsen. And instead of walls, Ebsen is like a beautiful open gateway, a believer in human good, a major player of social media amazingness. And as opposite as they are, Allison can’t help but be aware of him and the freedom he seems to have. A freedom she thought she’d never find.

I was in a serious funk. I asked my sister to recommend something that was fluffy, romantic, and that I could read quick. This was her recommendation and even with my crazy life, I read it in a day. I cared about Allison by the end. Her anxiety and trauma felt very real. The romance is fun and lovely but also poignant as Allison figures her stuff out. I liked how this book dealt with mental illness and attachment problems, straight on and with compassion. Several of the characters are too good to be true and there is a bit of a cheesiness factor but it turns out that was exactly what I needed right now. It’s a feel-good story, very contemporary with the social-media piece, but I certainly had a lot of feelings at the end. Maybe a couple tears when things were particularly tragic. This book was just what my reading funk needed.