Dear Ava: Enemies-to-lovers Standalone Romance Paperback – February 2, 2020

I really wish I read this sooner! Dear Ava is definitely one of the best reads I’ve had in 2022. Do not miss out. If you haven’t read it yet, you need to… now now now!This love story will dig its claws into your heart from the beginning until the very end. Like seriously, take it from me… I just spent the last 2 nights reading IMM instead of sleeping. I’m pretty beat, but it was totally worth it. Finishing Dear Ava in one sitting, while the kids and hubby slept was pretty spectacular.Ava and Knox have that soulmate connection in spades. Both characters are beautiful people with flaws, emotional scars and struggles. But the pull they have towards each other is undeniable.But like any good love story, Ava and Knox have a lot to lose and fight for. They come from completely different worlds. A world that destroyed Ava, and left her irrevocably changed. Ava is formidable, kind, hard working, she’s pretty much just a beautiful soul. I am so team Ava! It’s always a treat to read a strong female lead. She knew when to fight, to push boundaries, and when to walk away to protect herself and the people she loves most.Knox is just so swoony. Gah his poetry alone could melt the ice around a frozen heart. Dude is legit. He’s fiercely loyal, a protector, a love with his whole being kind of man. Book boyfriend doesn’t do him any justice, he’s a book husband to the hundredth degree.The banter between the two is perfection. The angst and tension between them is palpable. And while I read with tears in my eyes many times throughout the book, they were all worth it to get that ending. What an incredible HEA for them and us as readers. It was such complete perfection it made me downright giddy!! This book broke me down and put my heart back together just the way I like.FAVORITE QUOTESCome on, little Ava. Come closer to me, fierce girl.One more step.Let me touch you. On the arm. Your hand. Anything.Please.My fingers twitch.She walked in here like she owns the place, but she doesn’t. I do. Still… The very air around her seems lit with an aura of expectancy. Emotion, something unnamed, rare and beautiful, brushes down my spine. I tense. Rein it in.Love dies. Then you’re at the end of my kaleidoscope, Broken, bright shiny pieces. Obviously, you can’t love me. And neither should I.

“I can’t breathe, beautiful girl. Give me a minute. To catch up to you. Wait for me.”"Dear Ava" doesn’t break new ground in the high school bully milieu and stirs up all the usual suspects, but the relationship between Knox and Ava made me realize why I love “first love” stories so much. No surprise that jocks and cheerleaders rule the roost at Camden Prep – otherwise known as Ava’s personal nightmare. Before IT happened, dating a jock made Ava one of the cool kids. Afterwards, she was the brunt of a vicious rumor and left school for the rest of the year. Bye-bye cool kids. Now it’s senior year and she’s baaaaack! But Ava isn’t the same girl that went away. Nothing has changed with her mean classmates, but plenty has changed with Ava, starting with her looks and a take-no-prisoners attitude. Ava 2.0 now dishes it back even harder than she gets, and no one will make her cower ever again. Even King of the jocks Knox takes notice, but he actually noticed her before. Add in a new secret admirer leaving notes in her locker, and what’s a girl to do?It’s not all the high school drama surrounding Knox and Ava that got me invested. It was the slow burn of their friendship blossoming into more. Threading through the romance and bullying is the mystery of figuring out what really happened to Ava last year, who’s responsible, and what’s to be done about it. I could have cared less, not that it wasn’t a significant issue, because it was. It just wasn’t the focal point. And, not that I’m clairvoyant, but the whodunit was a no-brainer because it wasn’t the best plotted mystery. I mean there are only so many suspects in front of us, making it easy to whittle down the real culprit. A blind detective could have sniffed out this one. So, the revelation bombshell barely caused a powder burn.The meat on these bones was the home lives of this pair, how they navigate their unpopular relationship in a hostile environment, and where graduation and a series of events will lead them. I empathized with Ava’s physical transformation to become someone completely opposite of herself. It’s no flowery rose bed, that’s for sure, and no smooth sailing for this couple when Knox turns from her biggest hater to her most ardent supporter. There was angst, and heartache, uncertainty, and disappointment in spades. I’m pretty sure I could have crushed my Kindle with my bare hands a time or two. I loved their growth together, and separately, as they figure out who they are, but hated the choices forced on them by circumstances.With each scene, I breathed in this couple and felt every beat of their hearts. What brings them together also tears them apart. A girl who came back for vengeance finds something much stronger than hate … LOVE. This was a true love story and reminded me that sad goodbyes lead to hellos made that much sweeter. Great epilogues.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I first started this book. But I have read previous stories by this author so I thought I would give it a try. It was griping, moving, emotional and exceptionally well written. I loved every chapter, page, sentence, word. It was so very well written about a sensitive topic. But it brought this reader on a wonderful journey of love, healing and bad asserary. Would 1000% recommend you read this moving emotional wonderful story. You won't regret it. I know these characters will stay with me for a long time.

Essa avaliação contém spoilers.A leitura é uma montanha russa. Tem cara de clichê, mas não é NADA disso.Considerei que não daria 5 estrelas nesse livro, não cheguei a pensar em abandonar, mas tive momentos em que considerei que era um livro meio sem graça.No final de tudo, não é.É um livro muito bom, acho até que o melhor da autora que eu já li (não li todos, acho que além desse uns 4 ou 5).Não sei o que eu esperava com a premissa do bilhete, o problema da festa e tudo mais, mas as coisas foram se desenrolando de um jeito bem único.Irônico bem o livro com personagens mais novos da autora ter me prendido tanto. Knox ter 17 anos me pegou demais — e eu só descobri isso depois de 50% do livro, porque se soubesse desde o começo provavelmente não teria sequer iniciado a leitura.Única coisa que me incomoda — e que talvez, se fosse possível, me faria dar uma nota 4.8 para esse livro, — é o fato do Knox ser bem rodado antes de enfim esperar pela Ava. Principalmente lembrando da idade dele. Será que adolescentes ricos realmente só fazem essas coisas da vida? Bom, talvez. Eu não fui uma adolescente rica e realmente tive meus momentos, enfim…O fato dele ter pego a queen bee da escola, depois ter pego mais algumas meninas e a Ava ter presenciado inclusive me irritou. O começo do livro, de maneira geral, me irrita porque flerta com o bully romance.Mas depois que Knox mostra quem ele é, todas as nuances e o celibato (sim, eu me importo muito com isso), eu realmente comecei a olhar com mais carinho pra todo o desenvolvimento do livro.O final me ganhou demais. Lee fez absolutamente TUDO certo. O esbarrão, a ida ao bar, ficar esperando o turno acabar, chamar ela pra morar com ele, a construção da família e eu simplesmente AMEIIIII ele ter virado um cara do corporativo ao invés de uma grande estrela do futebol americano porque ele só queria ser um cara família enquanto a Ava realizava seu sonho em se tornar uma médica..Então é uma grande montanha russa. No começo, com todo o jeito do Knox de achar que não merece amor, ficar retraído, falar coisas que realmente não pensa e sente ou simplesmente não falar/agir me irritou, porque odeio falta de diálogo e tenho preguiça dessa desculpa de bad boy do tipo “não é você, sou eu”. Mas ainda bem que o arco de maturidade dele é ENORME e ele melhora demais nesse quesito. Eles dialogam, ele amadurece, fala as coisas que sente, age nas coisas que sente. Sério, é perfeito.É preciso ressaltar que o celibato dele depois que ela vai embora… é a cereja do bolo pra mim.Eu teria achado perfeito se ele tivesse 18 anos e não fosse tão rodado antes (sim, vou falar disso de novo), mas ainda assim eu consigo quase ver perfeição nesse livro. Quase. Faltou muito muito muito pouco.Mas, no final, terminei feliz e com saudade desse casal.A sorte de ter o que Knox e Ava tem é única. E eu amei. Quem diria que Knox seria tão… tudo.Enfim, foi uma leitura maravilhosa e eu recomendo bastante.

I practically ate the book, I couldn't stop reading it. I'm more eager to know more about Ava and Knox.My first book of the month and I don’t regret choosing this one. Definitely checking more books from Ilsa.

I loved this book. It was emotive and gripping right from the start. I read it in one day as I couldn’t put it down.I don’t know that I’d say they were ever really enemies. Ava was the poor scholarship girl at the private school and not generally accepted by the popular kids but there is no bullying by the main characters in this book.It does start based on the immediate aftermath of sexual assault so although it’s not seen on page if this is a trigger for you then this isn’t the book for you.If it’s not a trigger then you will love this book the main characters are well written and there is lots of development within the book. Loved the ending too.

This book is so beautifully written that it nearly turns the love-story genre on its head. I have to say, Ava and Knox's story is going to stay inside me a long, long time. It took my breath away, a lot like another of my favorite writers, Emily Henry. Every word counts in Madden-Mills' writing: she makes it easy, thrilling and heart-wrenching to savor each one.