Me & Milo the great || turned out to be way better than I expected

Title: Me & Milo the great

Author: Michelle Schlicher

Genre: Contemporary

Status: Standalone

Goodreads

---

Synopsis:

My name is Holiday Sanchez. I carry a heavy burden.

But I’m not the only one.

There are others who know what it feels like to remember. Maybe they are the answer. Maybe we can help each other. Maybe I’ll finally get past it.

Maybe it just takes time—and a little bit of magic.

Note: I got a free e-copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much!

Going into this book, I hardly knew anything on what it’s about. As you can see, the synopsis is VERY vague. It doesn’t tell anything about the story. And I thought there would be an actual magic element in it? (There isn’t.) I really wish there was a better synopsis written.

The Plot

Holiday Sanchez lives a reclusive life. She hardly goes out and avoids speaking to people. The only proper contacts she has is with her aunt and uncle, and that’s because her aunt barges in to check up on her and make sure she’s doing okay (in the relative sense).

Holiday witnessed her father bombing a train that her mother, the intended target, was in. That has been a shadow on her life ever since and she still hasn’t gotten over it.

On the anniversary of that day, she heads over to the train station where it happened and is grieving. There, she meets Milo, who is a comedic magician. In other words, he doesn’t get all of his tricks right but he DOES manage to make his audience laugh.

Throughout the book, we see Holiday on the process of FINALLY moving on. This isn’t a romance, although it might seem like that in the beginning. And this isn’t a book where the guy shows up and the girl miraculously gets over everything bad. No. This is a book about recovery, about how it takes sometimes YEARS to get over something and how our lives are shaped from a tragic event.

The Characters

• Holiday was so well written. All the flashbacks and present events were shown so well, and we understand really well on how everything has shaped her. It’s not that she’s so scared and doesn’t want to reach out. She DOES want to move on and be normal but she keeps having fallbacks. I love that she tries to heal and come to terms with things, and not hole up in the past. And she does it slowly, taking her time. I really liked reading from her POV.
• Milo is the perfect guy for Holiday. He’s supportive, understanding and doesn’t crowd into her space. He has a day job but is a magician on the side, and all he wants to do is perform tricks and make people laugh. It was so adorable to watch him stress over a show in a school. He’s trying to follow his dreams and do what he wants to do.
• Aunt Alice is the family member everyone needs. She’s a little overbearing and pushes Holiday to do things, but she’s also always there for her and is ever supportive. If only everyone with a past such as Holiday’s had an Aunt Alice. Legit, I was grateful that Holiday had her. She’s the best.
• Chad is also a family member everyone needs, but in a different way. Unlike Alice who would push into your space, he took his time and bonded with Holiday. He’s understanding, supportive, quiet and just generally a very chill guy. He’s PERFECT for Alice.

Honestly, the thing that BLOWED ME AWAY in this book were all the supportive characters. They were actually SUPPORTIVE. Milo, Alice and Chad are exactly how people should be. Not gossipy, careless or ignorant. All of them never made Holiday uncomfortable and were always there. I loved that! We need more people like this in the world!

Overall

I loved this book, and I kind of want EVERYONE to read it. The only thing I couldn’t get along with in the book was the “magic” element. It was a teeny bit overdone. Other than that, it was perf.

This book surprised me, maybe because I knew hardly anything about it going in and wasn’t expecting to like it this much? I really wish there was a better synopsis written for the book, or a better pitch, because such a good book is not going to be read without giving any clue on what the book is about. But then, I guess that’s what the reviews are for.