ARC Review: A Sweet Love Story

The Incredible Kindness of Paper by Evelyn Skye

Publication Date: August 12, 2025

Summary from Netgalley:

Can one random act of kindness change the trajectory of a life?

In elementary school, Chloe Hanako Quinn is assigned Oliver Jones as her pen pal partner. Before sending her letter, she also whispers a note into it…and he hears her. Little does she know it would be the beginning of a friendship that would bloom into something more. That is, until disaster strikes, and Oliver and his family disappear without a trace.

Now over twenty years later, Chloe is a high school guidance counselor in New York City. But life in the Big Apple is not what she dreamed it would be as she faces a layoff, rising rent, a situationship, and loneliness. Desperate for encouragement, she gives herself a pep talk via uplifting messages written on yellow origami paper that she folds into roses. When one of the roses unexpectedly finds its way to a neighbor in need of cheering up, a desire to spread kindness and optimism is sparked in Chloe, who begins folding more roses and leaving them around town.

Across the city, Oliver has picked himself up from the rough circumstances that forced him to leave everything behind as a teenager—including Chloe. Now a successful financial analyst, Oliver’s past continues to haunt him. But when the city is suddenly inundated with yellow origami roses, a specific one finds its way into his hands and changes his life forever…

ARC provided by Atria Books via Netgalley for an honest review.

Confession:

This was the sweetest, nicest, cleanest contemporary romance I have read in a long time. I loved the two main characters and thought the story was very sweet. I did want a tiny bit more from the ending, but otherwise I just loved this story.

Chloe is such a sweet and endearing character. She is at times maybe a little on the naive side, but I kind of liked that about her. She always saw the best in people, which is something many people can’t do these days. Her idea of spreading joy and kindness through her origami roses was also a very fun part of the story. I loved the few little stories we got from some of the people that the flowers found their way to at just the right moment, and then that some of those people found their way back to Chloe. It was such a nice addition to this romance.

Oliver was a little harder to love at first, but eventually as you get to know him you start to really understand him. His gruff no nonsense exterior is just a facade that he developed to protect himself. I so get that. I also loved how numbers made more sense to him then people. I loved his relationship with his brother and father. That was a really nice side to his personality.

The story is just such a good one. Both Chloe’s and Oliver’s story is told, with flashbacks to their childhoods and how much they meant to each other. They truly were meant to find each other again when they were both ready. There is a little bit of a love triangle, as Chloe has just started a relationship with someone, before running into Oliver, but it didn’t bother me that much. I loved how the story developed and the secondary characters were almost as much fun as Chloe and Oliver. There is some magical realism, as Chloe and Oliver write to each other through the paper roses, but it was nicely done and worked with this story. The end was the only thing that I wanted more of. The airport scene is beautiful, but I just wanted to know what happened afterwards.

I think that my favorite part of this story has to be the origami roses. I really loved the messages and the idea that any acts of kindness, no matter how small they are, have that ripple effect and eventually impact many lives. It would be nice to see something like this happen in real life. It might make the world a bit kinder.

If you are looking for a sweet and warm hearted romance, with some magical realism thrown in, this is a story you should give a chance.