Echoes of Us

This is a very complicated story with brutal realism. The author should really be commended. It’s a story about love, addiction, codependency, obsession and recovery. Atticus is a young man who is attending his first year of college. He’s socially awkward and lives for volleyball and video games. He’s serious in his studies and isn’t into the typical party scene. However his friends eventually get him to go to one and he meets Noah. Noah is a social butterfly with a huge personality. I think of him as a party in a box. At first it seems like the typical boy-meets-boy, boy-crushes-hard, boys-date. But it’s not that simple. Not by a long shot. Noah has a lot of vices. Atticus’s naivety causes him to not see how seriously messed up Noah is. When they should go slow in their relationship, they go fast. They become so enmeshed in each other, Atticus cannot breathe without Noah. Noah is like a freight train running amok with Atticus’s heart. Atticus takes on two roles: boyfriend and caregiver. He becomes obsessed with living for Noah, from watching his every move, to going through his stuff to see if he’s using. He pulls away from his friends, skips classes, and starts to screw up in volleyball. The story is in first person; it’s Atticus’s story to tell. It was heart wrenching to see him going through hell. The emotional ups and downs were difficult to read at some points and I would just cry. I won’t tell you how it ends. You have to read it for yourself. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND…

📖 Echoes of Us by Alex Cross Rating: ★4.5 This book is a raw and unflinching look at how love can become intertwined with addiction, and how sometimes the person you love most is the one you hurt the deepest. It’s a story about breaking, and the faint, fragile hope of putting the pieces back together. *Echoes of Us* is an incredibly authentic representation of what happens when addiction sinks its teeth into a relationship. The story of Atticus and Noah is told from Atticus’s point of view, and you feel every ounce of his love, confusion, and eventual heartbreak. Watching Noah, a character so full of charisma and life, get caught in the web of his addiction and cause so much pain to the quiet, loving Atticus was devastating. The author does a masterful job of demonstrating the insidious nature of codependency, manipulation, and the lies that spiral out of control, all without ever feeling preachy. It just feels real. I’ll be honest, the dual timeline structure, which jumps between the “Before” of their intoxicating early days and the “After” of their reunion two years later, took some getting used to. It required me to pay closer attention as a reader. However, by the end, I understood how brilliantly this choice served the story. Juxtaposing the beautiful, hopeful beginning with the painful, fractured present creates a powerful sense of dramatic irony and deepens the emotional impact. You’re not just told what was lost, you feel it on every page. Through Atticus’s…

5.0 ⭐ Genre: M/M Romance Format: eBook Series: Us # 1 Character Development: 4/5 Plot: 3.5/5 Writing Style: 3/5 Spice Level: 2/5 Overall Rating: 5/5 Okay... I had to marinate on this book for a few days before I could write this. This book was hard to read. It was manipulation, gaslighting, addiction (not just drugs) and tons of pining. I knew all of this going in but was not expecting it to hit me this hard. The dual timeline, I believe added to these feelings. Noah, I disliked you so much in the beginning. I didn't understand how you could be so selfish, so arrogant but yet so freaking endearing. Your growth was bittersweet. I am so glad you go there in the end. "𝑵𝒐𝒂𝒉 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒆, 𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅." Atticus, Atty. Gentle giant of a man. I knew I was going to love you from the beginning. HOWEVER, you also made me dislike you so many times. Feelings are hard, and I get that. BUT man did I just want you to talk to Noah in the after. I wanted you to realize that you could be together. Change is possible!! "𝑰 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒐 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒂 𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒑𝒊𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒔. 𝑰 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒎. 𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝑰 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒎. 𝑺𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍, 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅…

I loved this book right up until the prologue. I needed more good! This book put me through the emotional ringer so I needed more happy times at the end. Was it captivating? Yes! Did I love them? Yes! But the best part of a tragic romance is fixing it. I needed more than a prologue of happy. I wanted to see them relearn each other and develop trust with proper boundaries.

I’m torn on this being 3.5⭐️s or 4. That hinges mainly on the fact that by the end of the book I really wasn’t sure if I wanted our MMCs to end up together. May contain spoilers: This is probably one of the most true to life depictions of addiction and what it’s like to love an addict that I’ve read in the genre so far. It was painful to read, tbh. And for some, that is going to be a good thing. For me, it made me really have to consider whether this relationship was just too toxic for both main characters, and whether it would’ve been a happier ending if they could’ve healed from their trauma and moved on from each other. Lessons learned, first love, heartache and all that. I also never truly felt like they were a good pairing to begin with. Their personalities don’t seem to complement each other. And other than their mutual love-at-first-sight I didn’t feel like they had anything in common that would keep them happy and together in the long run. I truly got the feeling that they were each other’s “shooting stars.” They burst into your life, have a profound and lasting impact and then move on. All in all, if they didn’t end up together I would’ve been just as happy. That said, would I read other books by this author? 100%. Read it. It’s a story worth knowing. Spice: 🌶️