GREAT and PRECIOUS THINGS by REBECCA YARROS

‘I wanted to paint this moment, to capture this exact feeling as I watched him at peace. A peace I knew would vanish the moment he opened his eyes and the world beat its way in. ‘

Great and Precious Things is our second book by Rebecca Yarros and once again, we were moved by her stellar writing in a heart wrenching, sincere and beautifully emotional story of family secrets, deep love, choices and second chances. Our hearts broke and soared in equal measure.

Camden Daniels, 28 returns home the prodigal son years after leaving his small hometown to join the army. Whilst he may have been a hero in the military, his past indiscretions see his return home met with mixed feelings from the town’s residents. Cam forgoes a lucrative career in Civil Engineering and faces the wrath of his Dad and others to return home to Alba Colorado to fulfil a request made by his father.

“You have to love your choices, Camden, no matter what they are because you have the freedom to choose.”

Coming face to face with 25-year-old Willow Bradley elicits memories for both, and Rebecca Yarros slowly, delicately and passionately uncovers their history, letting us in on their hopes, dreams and heartaches, and it’s a truly beautiful relationship built on the foundation of pain and loss.

“There is no me without you.”

We are guided through the intense relationship with Camden and his brothers, Sullivan and Alexander, and the difficult relationship between Cam and his Dad, culminating in the reasons for Cam’s departure and his reasons for not wanting to return in the last ten years.

Rebecca Yarros really does delve deep with her characters ensuring we connect and really care about them and we certainly cared about Willow and Camden, two beautiful souls who had always put others wants ahead of their own. Their love story was sad, passionate, sweet and was felt with every beat of our hearts.

“I’ll never not want you. Wanting you is all I’ve ever known. You’re in my blood, my bones, my soul.”

Great and Precious Things is a beautiful story, it’s a story that’s poignant, topical and told with so much heart. We can always feel when an author pours so much of themselves into a story, it jumps off the pages into our hearts and that certainly happened with this story. Told with a smattering of drama and family intrigue, we were present for every moment.

Our rating is such because, as we came to the end of the book we were desperately looking forward to an epilogue. After everything Willow and Cam had gone through, an epilogue was crucial for us, and as readers, we were a little disappointed the book concluded without one. Whilst it didn’t detract from the actual story, it did leave us wanting a little more at the end.