And that description was completely and utterly accurate. As I read it, I felt this warm bubble of happiness release inside me. Everything about the book evoked all the emotions in me and I enjoyed every page Everything about this book stuck with me. How Linus fully came into his own personality and realized that he was somebody. The slow burn romance between Linus and Arthur. And the development of the relationship between the kids and him. It warms my heart on so many levels when kids instinctively hold my hand when they’re scared. Linus being so protective of the kids before he even fully realized it was inspiring to read; this is one of the best found family books I’ve ever read. After reading the book, I got to thinking about what can constitute a comfort read. Since this is dependent on the person, the definition can be fluid. For example, one of my closest friends uses horror for their comfort reads while I use them to be scared. So, it’s very much to each their own. For me, comfort reads are the books that sit with me for a really long time. Not all of them are one hundred percent happy. In fact, most have some tinge of bittersweetness. That tends to make it more real, though, which only serves to add to my love for them, which is why one of my go-to recommended YA comfort reads is The Field Guide to the North American Teenager. Below are a few more books that come to mind when I think of a comfort read. These books are ones that stayed with me for a considerable amount of time after I closed them for the last time. They’re spread across a variety of genres and there is no real rhyme or reason to them; they just made me smile at the time and still do when I think on them. Those are just a few of the books that I read that I would classify as comfort reads. Are any of these on your list or ones you would want to add? At the time I read it I had experienced three back-to-back deaths in my family: my aunt in November of 2019, my father-in-law in January of 2020, and my brother at the beginning of March. So, I was dealing with a lot of grief. Reading how travel blogger Lena was going through that as well and how she was processing it helped me. I also enjoyed the well-written desire between her and Tony. While it was always present, it never fully took over the story since it seemed to be more about the exploration of her grief. And they had a very pleasant HFN. I will always recommend this book. While I’m not a huge fan of Rowell’s other YA books, this one was different. It is likely due to it taking place in college — books like that are like catnip to me. I felt like Cath when I went to college, especially during the period of time I fell out with my roommate. Awkward. Alone. An outcast. And seeing Cath slowly come out of her self-made cocoon and find her place was inspiring to read. Plus, I would have loved to have met a Levi my freshmen year of college.
