GRR Review: Ten Below Zero by Whitney Barbetti

Ten Below Zero by Whitney Barbetti is a deeply emotional journey about two wounded people who had given up on life and love, meeting each other... and maybe, come to heal each other. The journey is full of ups and downs, about learning how to feel after tremendous trauma, and learning how to live again.
Parker was slogging through life, barely performing in her waitressing job, withdrawn from society, after surviving a serial killer attack with no memory of the incident. Her only reminder was the scars on her face and arm, and general aversion to people. One night, with nothing else to do, she took a chance to meet a stranger in a bar due to the wrong text sent to her phone, and met Everett, a kindred wounded soul, who always wear black as if going to a funeral, because in a sense, he was, as he's dying from a brain tumor. He had been operated on since he was a teenager, and he had given up on life. When he saw Parker, he recognized a similar wounded soul. And he made her feel... something, his lack of tact and pretense, and his wish to live his final days traveling the US, helped Parker to relearn how to feel, how to love, in order to heal and save herself. But can Parker convince Everett to do the same?
Both characters are so damaged in different ways that they need each other to heal. It is a very emotional love story filled with harsh language and self-realization about how not all love stories need to be sweet and romantic, but sometimes, about how to love oneself in order to love others. The title refers to Everett's comment about Parker, about how her life had come to a halt after the attack, about how her heart had frozen to ten below zero. It was an apt metaphor about her life... and his.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Two damaged people came to together, one forgot how to live and love, the other had not long to live and no reason to love. Can they heal each other?

NOTE: Harsh language, deep emotional turmoil

Tropes: scars, road trip, blind date (sort of)

Overall rating: 5/5

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