#TBRTrending: With and Without You by #Wibbroka

Heading into November, a lot of us are looking back at the books we’ve enjoyed this year. One book I haven’t heard much about is With and Without You by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka.

For those who don’t know, Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka are an author duo who are also husband and wife. The two got their start, writing YA books before eventually writing adult romance books together. Since they released YA first, they’re more well-known for their YA stories.

Looking at their YA catalog, the two have collaborated on five books thus far including their 2022 release which is With and Without You. Despite being their newest release, it’s a low number of ratings on Goodreads.

With such a small number of ratings, With and Without You was an easy pick for this week’s #TBRTrending. I’d also like to thank the publisher for sending along a copy of this book for me to read and review.

With and Without You by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka is this week’s #TBRTrending.

This book is frankly unlike anything this author duo has written as far as their YA releases. The book follows Siena and Patrick, the “ideal” high school couple. The catch is that at the beginning of the book, Siena is ready to dump Patrick until he confesses that he’s moving and the two embark on a long-distance relationship.

With and Without You does focus a lot on Siena and Patrick’s romance. However, the story is also a coming-of-age story for both Siena and Patrick. As the story is told from Siena’s POV, we find out more about her, her thought process, and her feelings. As she is 17 years old, she does make some pretty off-the-wall decisions.

Regardless, this story feels like a realistic portrayal of teenagers and the problems/issues they’d have especially in a long-distance relationship. While it did feel a bit cynical in Siena’s head, it was clear she was dealing with a lot amidst her senior year. No doubt a lot of young readers could relate to that versus someone who is a bit older.

While I do think this book could frustrate readers who aren’t teens (myself included,) it was sweet to watch their romance develop and shift while trying to be long-distance. The only qualm I really had with this book was the third-act conflict. It was understandable but it just annoyed me and made me sad.

If you’ve enjoyed this author duo’s other books, then this one should be another solid one for you. Plus this one is semi-autobiographical as it follows parallels to their own relationship. All in all, I thought that With and Without You was delightful and a good one to end your reading year with.

Have you read anything by #Wibbroka and will you be picking up With and Without You? Share with us in the comments.