We Were Beautiful (Spoiler-Free)

A big thank you to TLC Book Tours and Blink YA for sending me a free copy of We Were Beautiful by Heather Hepler to read and review! This was a coming of age story about tragedy, grief, love, trust, and forgiveness. Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Genre

Fiction, YA, Contemporary, Coming of Age, Romance

Intended Audience

Teens, Young Adults, and all those who love YA coming of age stories

Overview (From TLC Book Tours)

“It’s been a year since fifteen-year-old Mia Hopkins was in the car crash that killed her older sister and left her terribly scarred. The doctors tell her she was lucky to survive. Her therapist says it will take time to heal. The police reports claim there were trace amounts of alcohol in her bloodstream. But no matter how much she tries to reconstruct the events of that fateful night, Mia’s memory is spotty at best. She’s left with accusations, rumors, and guilt so powerful it could consume her.

As the rest of Mia’s family struggles with their own grief, Mia is sent to New York City to spend the summer with a grandmother she’s never met. All Mia wants to do is hide from the world, but instead she’s stuck with a summer job in the bustling kitchens of the cafe down the street. There she meets Fig—blue-haired, friendly, and vivacious—who takes Mia under her wing. As Mia gets to know Fig and her friends—including Cooper, the artistic boy who is always on Mia’s mind—she realizes that she’s not the only one with a painful past.

Over the summer, Mia begins to learn that redemption isn’t as impossible as she once thought, but her scars inside run deep and aren’t nearly so simple to heal… especially when Mia finally pieces together her memories of the night Rachel died.”

Setting

New York City

Characters

We Were Beautiful follows Mia and a host of wonderful side characters (who I absolutely adored!). I loved Mia’s development (as well as the development of a few other key characters) throughout the story—a few of them surprised me in the best of ways.

What I Liked

As mentioned above, I loved the characters—all of them, but really Fig in particular. In fact, I loved her almost immediately, which for me was surprising. She provided a lot of laughs and I really just wanted to hug her. But besides Fig, I enjoyed getting to know each and every character as the story unfolded and I wish there was more of everyone. 

I also thought the story progressed at a good pace. It was told in a way that alternated between flash backs and present day, but never felt too rushed or too slow.

Plus I really enjoyed the art aspect of this book.

What I Liked a Little Less

I would have liked even more backstory for the side characters. It felt like we just got snippets (which is better than nothing at all), but it would have been nice to have additional info to flesh them out even more.

Score

4/5 stars! We Were Beautiful had me laughing and crying (fortunately I was at home when I read it 🙈). It touched upon a lot of difficult and poignant topics (as you might imagine, given the synopsis) and I felt like it was done in a real way and also served as a reminder that everyone has something—some kind of story and background that you can’t know about just by looking at them.