Journey Back to You had potential, especially as a debut. The idea of a second-chance romance between Kathleen and Jase was promising, and the short chapters made it a quick, easy read. I could tell there was careful research behind the story, and the book touched on meaningful topics like addiction, grief, and healing.

However, where it stumbled was in the execution. The writing leaned heavily on telling rather than showing, which made it hard to emotionally connect with the characters. Kathleen’s voice often felt detached, and her privileged lifestyle clashed with the story’s attempts at empathy. Jase, didn’t quite balance charm with depth, and his actions felt self-righteous rather than romantic.

📝 What stood out:
-Interesting premise with emotional weight
-Quick pacing thanks to short chapters
-Thoughtful portrayal of trauma and recovery

💬 What didn’t land:
-Romance felt rushed
-Lacked chemistry
-Flat character development
-Cliché family tropes
-Missed opportunities for emotional immersion and stronger dialogue

Overall, it’s a good debut with strong intentions, but the uneven writing and frustrating character choices made it hard to stay engaged.

3.5 rounded up.

While not perfect, this story surprised me.

This New Adult book follow's Kathleen as she heads to college and yearns for independence from her family. Unfortunately, she is hiding from her true feelings and falls into a familiar overbearing situation. When she heads back to the town and the people she misses, her reality is spun upside down.

It was a quick read full of raw emotion. I was intrigued by Kathleen and her journey. There are some shortcoming. I feel like there were some pacing issues, too much detail in certain spots and not enough depth in others. I feel like if the story was told in three parts it would have flowed better. The ending felt rushed and sort of chopped off. I feel this book needed to be longer.

I really did enjoy Kathleen on her journey and can see where this author could go in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley, Koehler Books and Leigh Shalloway for this ARC.

I adored Kathleen and Jase’s story, and thought it was absolutely beautiful. I felt a couple of the events in the book could have been explained with a bit more detail, as one event was quite extreme and there didn’t seem to be any closure on why it happened/how the perpetrators were connected to the survivor- unless I was just tired and missed that on Mama brain. I also felt the ending was a little terse and could have had a little more added to it: But otherwise I absolutely adored it. 🥰

This book was definitely unique. The chapters were short, which led me to read the story more quickly than I'd anticipated. I could definitely see how much research went into writing the novel. It was just a lot of telling and not showing. I wanted to feel more emotion and not just read about it (maybe stronger word choices?). I also wasn't really connecting with Kathleen and Jase's romance. They fell in love very quickly and I think it could have worked better with a slow-burn romance (especially while Kathleen was in college and then returns).

For the author's debut novel, it was pretty good - the book dealt with important topics that the author conveyed well throughout this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!

i was trying to finish it but ended up DNF’ing less than halfway through. I didn’t feel a connection to the characters and felt more like i was just reading words in paper.

I received a free eARC from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is my own honest opinion about the book.

Book Review: Journey Back to You
Release Date: August 26, 2025

(These opinions are mine, if you don't agree, talk about that on your page)

*Spoilers Ahead*

DNF’d at 8%. In the third chapter and I have no connection to the main character. The repetitive use of I did this and I did that drove me nuts. Calling out Z-2 in a B-I-N-G-O game was the last straw for me.

This book was dense, moved fast and had a lot of layers. In the first chapter or two there was a huge info dump of who everyone is and family dynamics that I think a lot would have spoke for themselves if we just got into the story. I kept thinking this book could have been really fun if done as a flash back style potentially. The end of the book really just got info dump-y with all of the drug stuff again. While this book was based around a relationship, this felt more like a story of Kat finding herself than a romance novel. I felt like there was a lot of missed resolutions and the ending felt lacking. The book was moderately engaging but fell flat for me.

I would definitely read the trigger warnings prior to beginning as this is not Cinderella or Snow White story. This story is so real and full of emotion. The author put lots of emphasis into the raw feelings of love and the nitty gritty rather than the fairytale love story. This is an open door romance as well with 1 POV. I would have liked to see some of Jase's feelings on the page as Leigh did such an amazing job expressing Kathleen's yearning and need for love. Overall rating is 3.5 stars (rounded to 4).
Thank you so much to NetGalley, Köehler Books, and Leigh for this ARC!

I liked this book I will give my updated feedback when done! Like to say that this is my first book by author Leigh Shalloway.

DNF on PG. 34.

The premise of this book caught my attention. Kathleen and Jase meet right before she is set to leave town for college and forge a connection. But when she goes off to college, she meets someone else who sweeps her off her feet. Returning home, she sees the town she grew up in had drastically changed, and the biggest change of all, was that Jase was missing. Listen, I am a sucker for second chance romances, but this one just didn’t make the cut.

For one, this book is told in first person POV, but I never felt fully immersed or connected to Kathleen. The writing was a lot of telling, and not showing. Kathleen would tell us who said what and how she felt, but we didn’t actually experience these things. There is also not much dialogue, or not enough to offset Kathleen’s musings about her everyday life. I also didn’t care for Kathleen very much as a character. She says that she grew up with a father only concerned with having more money, and that he doesn’t really care about people. He is the CEO of the Mill in town which employs a lot of people, and doesn’t even offer them health insurance. Kathleen is different though, let her tell it. She wants to grow up to be a psychologist and she works in a nursing home because she’s just so good of a person and genuinely wants to help people. And yet, she can’t stop mentioning how all her clothes are designer; Tiffany bracelet, Chanel purse, Kate Spade sandals, etc. And then, she complains about the fact that she got a brand new red Audi for her graduation present to replace her old BMW, and I lost it! Are we seriously supposed to feel bad for her? Nevermind the fact that, she was about to get the lady at the flower shop fired because she didn’t have her requisite white roses ready like usual. I couldn’t stand her.

Secondly, I felt that the angry overbearing father, and the pill popping alcoholic mother trope is entirely overdone. I have read so many books where the parents are this exact way, and I’m honestly just annoyed. Can we have some originality please? The dad is just known as bad, so everything he says or does is just bad or mean with no background as to why he is this way. And then the mother pops pills and drinks her life away, because the dad is mean to her. Why is he mean to her? Oh just because he’s a mean guy. That’s his only personality trait. The parents just felt so unoriginal and one dimensional.

The love interest, Jase? Yea couldn’t stand him either. They initially meet at the florist, when Jase gives up his white roses to Kathleen who was about to throw a fit. They meet again at the nursing home, Kathleen as she calls out Bingo numbers to the residents, and Jase as he visits the residents who don’t have anyone to visit. (because he’s just so kind). Quick side note here: Kathleen is calling Bingo for the residents, but she’s using letters like Q, Z, and J. The letters used in BINGO are the letters in the name. Where the hell did these other letters come from? I was like did chaptGPT write this…? Anyway, Jase is just so attractive that Kathleen is unable to resist. He didn’t seem like a terrible guy, but any guy who starts a conversation by insulting someone’s father to their face, is not my type of guy. In at least two of the interactions he had with Kathleen, he insults her father. I get her father was an ass; her father fired Jase’s father for being drunk on the job. (which hello, is a valid reason. Be mad at your dad and not Kathleen’s). But I just didn’t find it attractive that he was always ragging on her dad. He also was written as this sensitive guy, who visits nursing homes, and dropped out of college to take care of his family, and also lost his girlfriend because of it. But he didn’t feel real. He felt one-dimensional, and there was something about him that was a tad bit aggressive. He calls Kathleen rude for making a joke and I was like seriously, what is your problem?

Anyway, I just couldn’t stomach reading anymore of the story. I know it can take time for a reader to warm up to a story, but I was starting to pause and just document everything about the book that annoyed me while reading and realized I wasn’t enjoying the book.

I really enjoyed this story for it being the author's debut work. It was so real, raw and honest. You can definitely tell that Leigh writes from a background of psychology with the amount of heart and thought provoking content she puts into her stories. I feel like I would go into this checking the trigger warnings and not expecting a lovey dovey romance but more of a story of perseverance, and the effects of darkness on one's life. I would give it 3.5 stars rounded up!

Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the E-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.