Review: The Way of Us

The Way of Us by Claudia Y. Burgoa
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Note: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Note 2: This is a series. All of these are interconnected, so please read in order.

Triggers: heart attack, infidelity, abuse, adoption mentioned, death in car accident, abandonment, grief camps, pregnancy difficulties, heroine who has a tendency to lie to save situations, harassing hero to have children.

This was one heavy book, the latest heavy book after all the heavy books of Claudia I've read before. You can clearly see a pattern here.

This time it's Heathcliff and Atzi's turn in this story (Yes I still find the name Atzi weird as hell, and yes Atzi's a woman).

Now everyone knows the Bronte story of Heathcliff, and how much of a tortured hero he was.

Well Claudia makes this one no exception either. The amount of emotions and character development he goes through to be a far better version than his stone, robotic nature around everyone, oof I suffered a lot of internal emotional heartbreak and then happy for all of it.

Plus his friendship and then eventual relationship with Atzi - so tumultuous. I mean, not their friendship. But relationship, yes. And the one fact that irked me a lot - the push for him to have children. I felt Atzi was at times a little too selfish and conceited about everyone having a family.
Newsflash girl. Some of us don't want children, whether we're traumatised by life or not. I just hated this fact too much, all this pressure on heath to have children, or to like a family. Like no, let the man breathe. Some of us survive well without obnoxious children and huge af families (trust me personally). And then the ending..falling into the same cliche...brings me back to this point. I would've preferred if things ended differently rather than forcing him to think like others on that ending. Hence why I took one star out. I deserved a slight better ending.
But I did love their friendship and relationship without that one hateful fact too - how close, caring, personal and just upfront they were (about most things) with each other. I ended up desperately craving a friendship like theirs. OOf, the feels were hard in this one.

And the rest of the family - ah so adorable, it was good to see so many returning faces back, and so many more stories to read - I loved colliding and joining in with their family. And their myriad of dramas - it was one hell of a ride knowing all of them and their opinions. I couldn't love them enough.

I loved Atzi and Heath's issues of the past - I loved them both as individuals and together. But what stood out to me was their own individual stories as well - I loved being able to explore in detail in quick and deep writing, what they were like as children and as time went on - I enjoyed my time with them, and the emotions spent. I think emotionally heavy books take much out of you than s**. Just saying.

And the issues explored in general - ah I still want more story on them. Obviously some cliffhangers do come about their own dramas, which I hope are resolved soon. But I thrilled in the sneak peeks shown about their families, and ooh, it was so much like ross and rachel, and dynasty, I was all there for it.

Plus a nonwhite heroine?! What could I want more, than a relatable woman of color to hear thoughts of?

This book was a total gem, and almost paid homage in some ways to the original tortured story of Heathcliff.

I cannot wait to read more by Claudia. I just cannot.

Until the next read,
TMR

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