LOVE HER OR LOSE HER - Tessa Bailey

4.5 stars

A marriage on the brink. A last chance effort to improve their communication before it snaps. Tension so thicc. Angst. Fluff. Humor. This romance was HOT, complex, and made me cry from happiness more than once.

Writing: ★★★★
Romance: ★★★★★
Sexy times: oh mama
Character arcs: ★★★★

Oh oh oh, Tessa Bailey, this was so good. Thank you so much for writing this. The romance between these two characters was so perfect, so sweet—ok, also seriously intense and sexy—that now I don't know how to read other contemporary romances.

Maybe I'll just avoid the genre until the next one in this series comes out.

Y'all think I'm kidding, but I'm not--Love Her or Lose Her was absolutely jaw-dropping.

If you weren't a huge fan of Fix Her Up, I'd really encourage you to check this one out anyway. A lot of the things Fix Her Up did that polarized readers (ahem, the pet name being a big one, I believe) are fixed (pun intended) in this one. This isn't about two characters with undiscovered compatibility, and it doesn't feature an age gap, wage gap, or experience gap.

In fact, there are NO gaps--this is about a 10-year established relationship between two high school sweethearts who never, ever thought they'd get to this point: they're on the brink of a separation.

Years of dwindling open communication and misunderstood desires have lead Rosie and Dominic Vega to a marriage of silences. They're both unhappy, but afraid of broaching the subject because they're both worried of the conversation they'll have if they do. Will their marriage crack? Will they break it if they acknowledge the elephant in the room?

Love Her or Lose Her follows Rosie and Dominic in alternating chapters, giving us the full, 360 perspective on their feelings while they decide to pull the plug on the silence and figure out how to fix their marriage, or whether to call it quits.

I could not get enough of this story. Given the tough emotional opening, Love Her or Lose Her was surprisingly funny, uplifting, and happy. Rosie and Dominic are one of my favorite fictional romantic couples—mainly because they're so singular. I don't think I've read a duo with this much personality, and their love for each other made my heart ache in the best way.

A casual warning: This book is SEXY. If you're not a fan of graphic sexual content, I would give this a library try before taking the plunge. I loved it a lot and the plot definitely balances out the romantic/sexual moments, but when we arrive, we ARRIVE.

Thank you so much to Avon via NetGalley for an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.