The Girl and Her Ren

I don’t write reviews, but Pepper is brilliant. I fell in love with both Della and Ren. Their story was painful, so raw, so good. So beautiful, and heartbreaking at once. I finished the duet in two days. Some books you read stick with you, and I have no doubt their story will stick with me forever.

This was my second time reading this book, so I went in forewarned. I’m not going to give any spoilers, just a warning that this is the kind of story that makes you ugly cry. It was a little easier in a second reading, but all the more real when listening to the story as a dual narrator audiobook. The audiobook was excellent. The narrators truly did justice to this story. I believe that this trilogy is the best thing that Pepper Winters has ever written, and I have been reviewing Advanced Complementary Copies of books for several years. In this second novel, the characters Ren and Della continue to grow as individuals as well as together. Neither are presented as paragons on a pedestal, each having strengths, flaws, fears, and petty foibles. As a reader, I was drawn into the highs of their joyous moments and into the lows of their tragedies. I really felt the emotions of each of them when the book was being narrated from their individual perspectives. I could gush about this indefinitely , but I would basically keep repeating the same thing in different words. Everyone should read this book. It is not a typical Pepper Winters story, and is all the more fantastic for how she stretched herself as an author. If I was to make any comments about something that could have been improved, it would be to caution the author to be careful about word choice when writing a book about people who live in a different part of the world. She refers to “sticky tape” (scotch tape or just tape) and “doing a creative writing course” (majoring in or studying creative writing, or just enrolling in college - we don’t have to pick a specific course of study when first enrolling in post-secondary education) as two examples. This would not be the phrasing used by Americans who were born and grew up in the US. Your Anglo roots are showing in this book. Many people may not have picked this up, but having roots both in the US and Australia I noticed the discrepancies. But I digress. I highly recommend listening to this audiobook, it makes an excellent novel even better! I am voluntarily submitting this review after listening to an advanced complementary copy.

Oh gosh what a tale. Pepper Winters definitely knows how to write a story. Although I did feel like the story dragged on in the beginning, Pepper turned it around and was able to hold my attention captive until the very end. Della and Ren’s ending was not what I was expecting. Oh my goodness did they wreak havoc on my emotions. So much passion, chemistry and angst in this book.

Will M Watt and Hayden Bishop did a phenomenal job portraying Ren and Della. They put so much emotion into these characters.