Great and Precious Things by Rebecca Yarros

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Title: Great and Precious Things
Author: Rebecca Yarros
Published by: Entangled: Amara
Release Date: February 25, 2020
Format: eARC
Pages: 400
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Source: the author
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2020 New Release Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER With Friends
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

How do you define yourself when others have already decided who you are?

Six years ago, when Camden Daniels came back from war without his younger brother, no one in the small town of Alba, Colorado, would forgive him—especially his father. He left, swearing never to return.

But a desperate message from his father brings it all back. The betrayal. The pain. And the need to go home again. But home is where the one person he still loves is waiting. Willow. The one woman he can never have. Because there are secrets buried in Alba that are best left in the dark.

If only he could tell his heart to stay locked away when she whispers she’s always loved him, and always will…

Great and Precious Things is a heart-wrenching story about family, betrayal, and ultimately how far we're willing to go on behalf of those who need us most.

My Review:

I received a free copy through the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4.5 stars — This story legitimately had so many layers, and they all wove together just masterfully.  I was invested in all of them too — not just the romance, but how our characters were going to grow and develop, what was going to happen with Cam’s family, would the jerks in the town ever pull their heads out of their butts, etc.  It was so much more than just a romance, but it was also the best romance.

The thing that I always love about Ms. Yarros’s characters is that they are legitimately flawed, but also legitimately lovable despite those flaws.  And they grow as the story goes on.  And they don’t get rid of all their flaws, making them, you know, actually human.  Cam epitomizes these qualities.  His temper can be scary.  And while he does develop control over the course of the book, it doesn’t magically go away.

I didn’t expect to love Cam as much as I did.  He’s so closed off and angry and resigned to his fate.  But you could always see glimpses of the rest of his character underneath all that, and it made my heart ache for him.  He pulled me right in and made me love him, I couldn’t not.

I had a lot of theories, and while some were way off, I definitely had some good instincts about other aspects.  The problem with predicting some things is that you still have to sit there and watch everyone treat Cam like a piece of shit and never give him the benefit of the doubt, and even if my theories had been false, that was still super hard to take.  But it made it that much harder having that feeling about events that I had…because then the injustices just became untenable.

Willow.  Willow was sort of this every heroine type of character.  She had so many vulnerabilities, but she had a core of strength as well.  And she wasn’t superwoman, but she didn’t let people walk all over her either.  I really appreciated the way her story with her father shaped out in the end…it was satisfying and believable.  I loved the relationship she had with her sister, and the solidarity there.  I appreciated that she loved this small town and had some great relationships, but she wasn’t blind to its faults either.

Cam’s was definitely the stronger story of the two — he had so much to grow and learn from.  But I did love how Willow grew in the story too, and that she learned what was important, what was worth standing up for.

I really loved the way Cam and Willow connected and loved one another.  You could feel how they just got each other, even from such a young age.  I loved that they had stumbling blocks, but in the end they fought for each other and came to each other first.

Lots of great secondary characters, surprisingly even Art.  I appreciated that he didn’t change that much over the course of the book, and that things weren’t magically amazing at the end…but that they did shift just enough.  And Rosie was adorable.  I loved her hypothesis and how she tested it out.

The ending was seriously satisfying…at least to me it was.  And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Basically, I’m tired, and want to say things so much better than I feel I am, but I loved it.

So yeah, basically another hit from Ms. Yarros.  My heart both loves and hates her stories, because they make me feel so much, and I invest myself…and I just feel like she’s getting better and better.