This is hands down one of my top reads of 2025! I wish I could give it 5000 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ /5. Just a heads up, this review will be a lengthy one, so bare with me…or don’t 😂
While the title might make you pick up this book immediately to see what exactly goes down like I did, I was in for a surprise that not even my own curiosity could have prepared me for. I was blown away by the strong, veryyyy relatable emotions this book evoked in me. I am talking TEARSS, real tears. Laughing tears, sad tears, happy tears, all the damn tears chileee. Point is, I was in my bed, in the hair salon chair, crying crying 😭 The author touched on personal and sensitive themes such as strength, loneliness, grief, healing, sexual empowerment and the stigma surrounding women who embrace their desires, body autonomy, and love, especially black love, and the cost of it that many of us have paid just by trusting the wrong person, and she wrote about it soooooo well, while showing us it is possible to be done correctly THE FIRST TIME, in a HEALTHY way! Whether it’s due to past experiences with heartbreak or not, she wrote about love and healing in such a profound way that will leave me remembering this book for a very long time, and hell, I can’t tell you what I had for breakfast yesterday, let alone remember a book for too long. This book touched my heart in ways I honestly did not expect, I went from cracking up in the first half, to clutching my damn chest like wth, and when the hell did all of this happen?! Rivah and Kross had an undeniable connection, and I’ll never get over how their story was shared in such a beautiful way. No cheating, no mind games, no gaslighting, not having to take a man back 5011 times and get dragged through hell just to prove that you’re a good woman and worthy of respect because you stayed. Not the glorified version of love that we’re guilted into by unfaithful men, and even sometimes society as a whole. That entire trajectory is garbage, and Ms. Netra Antionette said nuh uhhhh, not Ms. Banks and Mr. Givelle, hunnie! ❤️❤️🔥🥹🤏🏾
Rivah could finally breathe and feel loved, valued, respected, soft. She is a wildcard, and Kross never once tried to change her, only love her exactly how she is, and show up for her wholeheartedly, without judgment, a reprieve from the life she endured. I loved that for my girl! 🫶🏾
Lastly, I absolutely loved the message of it all. It almost felt like I was reading an ode to women like myself, who have felt all the emotions Rivah felt, feeling like you’re too much for a man, for the world, for family, feeling undeserving and constantly needing to live a life rooted in survival mode so much, that you shut yourself out to the possibility of happiness in it’s purest form. 100000000000000/10 would highly recommend this book to anyone 🥹💓🥰⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️