With and Without You follows Siena and Patrick, ultimate high school sweethearts who’ve been dating for three years. Everyone in their lives knows these two are meant to stay together forever. However, Siena has been feeling stuck in their relationship for a while and that it’s keeping her from finding herself, so she’s about to break up with Patrick when he tells her he’s moving away for his senior year. Suddenly, the two find themselves in a long-distance relationship, which neither anticipated for different reasons. At first, Siena stays with Patrick because she thinks his feelings for her will fade and they’ll break up in a few months “naturally,” but over a series of visits throughout their senior year, Siena finds herself falling in love with Patrick all over again.
The story and the premise of Patrick and Siena is so promising and such a refreshing concept in YA where established relationships are most often only meant to break early on in novels to make room for new ones. To have two characters instead manage a long-distance relationship (with its up and downs, of course) felt super validating to read about.
Siena is a fascinating character to follow. Everyone in her life acts like it’s a foregone conclusion that she and Patrick will stay together forever, marry and have kids and the picket white fence. I loved how we got to see Siena wanting to break out of that rut and questioning whether she was participating in things because she wanted to or because she did it because Patrick also enjoyed these things. Siena eventually gets to explore different facets of her personality and learn what makes her happy outside of being with Patrick. Speaking of Patrick, there is a lot of wavering, uncertainty and anxiety that comes with Siena wanting to break up with Patrick yet still having strong feelings for him. It was enlightening to see her gradually realise that Patrick had the ability to change and evolve, and that their relationship could do the same without breaking apart. It was honestly such a refreshing read about what it means to define yourself through your relationship but also what it means to find what makes you happy outside of it. Watching Patrick and Siena try to get the spark of romance and novelty back into their relationship and them gradually finding ways to work on themselves was so lovely. While Siena learns that she might not want to have it all figured out and that that’s okay, Patrick learns to implement change in his life and not being so stuck on the way things used to work. Patrick was also such an incredible sweetheart. I felt so bad for him for most of the story because he didn’t know what was going on inside Siena’s head and yet he tried to make everything work out and the commitment this man has for Siena was so heartwarming. It really made me believe that they could make it work and when they started communicating openly, you really get to see Patrick’s personality shine. We also get to see them mature quite a bit during their separated senior year and I think readers in that age group will feel seen by that.
My only caveat, honestly, is the fact that we only get Siena’s POV in this novel. It felt like a missed opportunity to not have Patrick’s POV included. We do get to see Patrick’s emotions and his actions often speak more than words but to have a second-chance romance without the couple ever breaking up would have been more impactful if we got to see how both were dealing with the distance between them. And while I obviously understand that this was a very conscious choice because this novel was supposed to focus on and the ways in which Siena is impacted by her relationship with Patrick and how she just wants to be her own person beyond her romantic involvement, it made a few of the emotional scenes less impactful because we only ever got to see Patrick’s reactions filtered through Siena‘s gaze. Nevertheless, this was a really engaging read that I recommend to anyone who’s ever had—or currently is—in a long-time relationship with someone and just wants to get that initial spark back again.
Offering a second-chance romance for an already established couple facing a long-distance relationship, With and Without You explores the struggle of defining yourself outside of your romantic relationship yet reclaiming the spark of romance at the same time. Perfect for fans of Kasie West and Jenn Bennett!
With and Without You is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of April 19th 2022.
Will you be picking up With and Without You? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
#Wibbroka is back with another swoony YA–this time tackling long-distance relationships, in a novel based on their own romantic history.
If high school seniors Siena and Patrick were a superlative, they’d be the Couple Most Likely to Marry. They’ve been dating for three solid years, and everyone agrees they’re perfect for each other. But with college on the horizon, Siena begins to wonder whether staying together is the best idea. Does she really want to be tied down during possibly the most transformative years of her life? So she makes a decision to break up with Patrick, convincing herself it’s for the best. Before she can say the words, though, he beats her to the punch: his family is moving out of state. Caught off guard by the news, Siena agrees to stay with Patrick, believing their relationship will naturally fizzle out with time and distance. But over a series of visits throughout the school year, Siena begins to see a different side of Patrick–one that has her falling in love with him all over again.
Typically, I’m not a huge fan of romance but there are some that catches my attention. I always like YA books that kind of have a somewhat positive outlook when it comes to relationships especially since so many books have them break up almost as soon as the book starts!