Title: Aggro
Author: Coralee June and Carrie Gray
Genre: Romance
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Coralee June is always satisfying. She’s pizza. I could happily one-click any of her books and come away from the experience without regret. And while Aggro is my introduction to Carrie Gray, it’s a happy one.

Breeze Shirley is understated, and she likes it that way. She doesn’t need to command the room, she lets her bestie, Violet, sparkle, and shine. Breeze is happy being in the ocean on her surfboard, riding waves. She’s loyal. Breeze loves honestly and true. She’s the best, best friend, a best friend could want. And Violet is her true blue. The two are deep in one another’s pockets and never too far apart. This is why when Violet is murdered, it shatters Breeze’s entire world–but worse it shows her all the shadows that existed in Violet’s that Breeze never knew existed.

This book is categorized as a romance, but really it’s much more of a coming-of-age story and a real heartbreaker, so bring your tissues because there are lots of times you are going to tear up. Breeze is an incredibly sympathetic character, and relating to her is so easy to do. She is written so beautifully vulnerable, and so full of graceful strength that you root for her to choose good things. I kept telling Breeze to choose healing instead of grief while tears were running down my face, and my nose was sniffling pathetically.

The crux of the plot is that there are two dudes: Chase, Violet’s twin brother, and Breeze’s childhood crush, and Kai, Violet’s on again-off again boyfriend. Chase the embodiment of crushing grief and Kai symbolic of growth and healing. Her choosing one guy will destroy all of them, and the other guy is going to pull them all out of hell. It’s all about seeing further than right now, and sometimes seeing the future is impossible when the one you planned for is obliterated. Very Veronica Mars.

This book is heavy. If you enjoy Penelope Ward and L.J. Shen this book is for you. I will say that I found that it was easy for me to see the who-did-it part of the whodunit? from the start. But I think it might just have been because I would have written it that way, so it made sense. Outside of that predictability, there were many other things I did not see coming, and I wanted to flip to the end to resolve the love triangle many times.

Aggro is a gorgeous story of heartbreak and healing. It’s one of my favorites of the entire year.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary advance copy of this book.

---

Title: Aggro
Author: CoraLee June and Carrie Gray
Genre: Romance
Release Date: 24 June 2020

Two boys.
One tragedy.
Grief bonds us.
The mystery of this murder will break us.

My best friend was brutally ripped from this world, but her brother and boyfriend are still here.

One of them wants to use me.
The other wants to forget me.

Both of them make me feel alive.

We’ll find Violet’s murderer, no matter the cost.

Two boys.
One tragedy.
Grief bonds us.
Love will tear us apart.

---

---