Title: ⟫ Only You (‘90s Coming of Age #3)
Author: ⟫ Leta Blake
Rating: ⟫ 5/5
Blurb: ⟫ Join Peter Mandel on his final steps to love in Only You, the highly-anticipated final book of Leta Blake's ’90s Coming of Age series.
Despite the lingering wounds of his past relationship, Peter is ready to take a chance on finding a faithful love and embracing his true self.
Peter and Daniel explore their connection despite Daniel's complicated home life. But when Adam resurfaces, desperate to win Peter back, Peter must confront his complicated feelings and the painful ghosts of their shared past.
Only You is a powerful and emotional conclusion to the series and a must-read for fans of New Adult Romance and Coming-of-Age fiction.
Review: ⟫ Book hangover ahoy! I stayed up all night reading the final part of Peter’s story and I don’t regret it in the slightest.
It begins immediately after the end of ‘You Are Not Me’ and we find Peter facing a life where he has made (hopefully) his final decision regarding Adam and facing his future. He’s unsure if he has lost his opportunity with Daniel AND lost the new friends he made over the summer, yet he is determined that he wants to move forward as his honest, authentic self and I found myself feeling incredibly proud of him.
There were so many moments in this book where I feared for him, was proud of him, wanted to shake him and cried for him. This ending to his story – or where we leave him – was absolutely brilliant.
He’s in college and figuring out who is he as a photographer, a young gay man, a friend and potentially a lover of someone who can wholly belong to him, and he takes you along on this journey. Leta Blake manages to portray the fears, confusion, highs and lows incredibly well and I was swept away by the idea that they managed to do this throughout Peter’s story without losing his voice in all of it. I can only applaud them for it.
This was a rollercoaster of a read, with some moments making me fear for Peter’s safety, for secrets being exposed, and for chances being taken. The reality of AIDS/HIV was brought to the forefront in painful and realistic ways without fearmongering and I appreciated the sensitivity displayed towards the subject throughout the series. The consequences of actions finally came out into the open, and I appreciated how the two sides were shown – Peter faced his head-on, with as much dignity as possible whilst showing humility and understanding for the part he played; others did not act the same way. I would go so far as to say that we see one character completely unravel beneath the weight of his actions and I know many readers will be glad to see it happen. It’s only due to the writing that you feel any sympathy for this character at all – he’s not a cardboard villain, he’s just a young man who doesn’t know how to be who he is and that was heartbreaking.
It’s difficult to review this without inadvertently spoiling aspects of the story so I will simply say that I put the book down and picked up my laptop to write my review immediately because I wanted to at least try to get down how I was feeling. This was quite possibly the best book by Leta Blake that I have read and I can’t recommend it enough.
I received an ARC from GRR.
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