'Volition' by Lily Paradis - SPOILER FREE REVIEW

I have been excited for the release of 'Volition' since I was involved in the cover reveal all the way back in December, so when it released at the start of this week I knew I needed to get it read as soon as I possibly could. I just didn't know it was going to have such an earth-shattering effect on me. 

'Volition' is a story of two halves: the 'Then' and the 'Now'. Tate McKenna is a woman on the run, escaping from her tortured past in Charleston with a one way ticket to New York, a fresh start with no men in her life. This quickly goes out of the window when a handsome stranger starts talking to her on the plane, but Tate's flight risk attitude isn't going to go away that easily, and she flees, leaving nothing but a postcard behind to help him find her.

I really don't want to go into the story of this book too much, or really review it that closely, because there's nothing I can say apart from the fact that I am sat here in a dazed, tear-stained mess, and it's been the most brilliant reading experience I've undertaken in the last year or two. Lily Paradis has a way of cultivating her words to portray everything I've ever wanted to express, but just haven't had the means to do so. As Tate debates between whether you can ever have two soul mates, whether your soul mate and the love-of-your-life can be two different things, and whether you can ever truly let go of the past and move on and be happy, I was hooked with every sentence. 

If you've ever been in love, you will relate to this book.

If you've ever had your heart broken, you will relate to this book. 

If you've ever had the soul-crushing realisation that the person who makes you feel more at home than you've ever felt in your life is not 'the one', you will relate to this book.

I generally try to keep my emotions out of my reviews, to make them less biased and more informative, but I'm throwing everything out of the window with this book.

In all honesty, I stopped believing in soul mates, because I grew apart from mine. Sometimes life just happens that way - it's not fair, but it's the way it happens, the way it's meant to be. But because of that situation I started kidding myself into believing that soul mates couldn't exist and it was all a lot of bull. At the start of this novel, I was rolling my eyes at the implication of soul mates, because the eternal cynic in me was being completely rubbed up the wrong way. Recently I've just wanted to dismiss all young love, because it won't last so it's pointless to watch it develop. But after going through Tate's story of love, loss and learning to live again, I've felt myself come to terms with a lot of the things that have happened in my life over the last year. 

This book was utterly cathartic. If you're grieving for a relationship that you've lost, a friend that you've lost, a 'what if' that you'll never close the door on - this is the book for you. I haven't cried while reading a book since 'Looking For Alaska' by John Green, and that was such a revolutionary experience for me that I didn't think it would ever be matched again. However, I think Lily's book has completely surpassed the depth that it moved me. 

I don't want to give too much away about this book, because it really is a lot better to watch the story unwind, but just trust me when I say bare with it. The beginning of the book was a little bit sticky, because of the jumping between the past and present, but it doesn't take long to get into the rhythm of the book and connect the dotted timeline of the flashbacks we're presented with. If you find yourself getting confused, just trust me when I say that everything is unwound and linked up by the end of the novel, and you will not regret it if you just stick with it and power through.