This Is Not a Love Story (Love Story Universe, #1) [Romeo & Julian] by Suki Fleet

The tears haven't even dried yet but I feel somehow I have to write my feelings now before my mundane life snatches the storm of emotions I have right now. This book was so heart breakingly beautiful. It was a HORRIBLE ride of cold, wet and heartless London with kids who should have had a home and yet they don't. On their own, trying to live with barely hope they can survive the next night. This is not a love story, yet it is. Romeo and Julian means the WORLD to one another, but the world needs to give them a break so they can actually build a life together. One that promises more than hungry, sick, penniless roaming the streets.

The whole story is told from Romeo Danilov's POV. He is 15 years old, living on the street after being left by his mother. He has nothing and no one until Julian Lavelle jumps to his rescue from tugs who enjoyed tormenting a mute who can't even scream for help. From that moment Romeo and Julian become almost inseparable. Yet there is very little they can actually DO to survive which is why Julian keeps selling his body to buy them food and a little shelter from the cold. They have a friend in the owner of a cafe - Cassey. She helps as best as she can, but she too has her limits. They also have Gem - Julian's friend but she too has her own problems to deal with. They can barely make it, truly, but together they find little glimpses of light mostly in each other.

Yet things starts to go south when Julian realizes he is at the end of his rope. He doesn't know what to do anymore. He is broken physically and mentally and though he vowed to care for his Romeo he realizes he is quite helpless and hopeless. He has nothing to offer the world so when there's an offer for Romeo to find a foster home (since he, unlike Julian is still a minor) he tries to walk away, yet that's exactly when Romeo truly grows up and realizes he needs to FIGHT to keep Julian by his side. His new family looks nice, mostly the other foster kid - Crash (the MC in the next book), yet even though he won't accept them as his family when he already has one with Julian they somehow offer a sort of stable place for Romeo to dream a future he can visualize in his head and enough strength to make Julian follow HIM for once.

There's much more to say. About love, acceptance, friendship, loss, hope and the lack of it. There are secrets and unknown truths, but in the end mostly there is a heart crushing story of two kids struggling to build a home together, and though the name of the book my suggest they don't - I promise you they do.

A MUST READ (with a pack of Kleenex by your side..) !!!

Rating: ★★★★★

E-Book Edition

273 pages

Read on: 10-12 October 2018