Melissa

Yeah, unfortunately I enjoyed this about as much as I expected to. In fairness, this is not a favorite trope of mine, so it was always going to be an uphill battle. But I’m a completionist, so here we are.

I come away from this book feeling mostly bummed out. They struggled so hard, and for so long, and then the whole thing wrapped up in five pages. Sabrina’s stubbornness really started to get on my nerves, and Tucker’s business came out of nowhere. I fully expected him to open a peewee hockey rink because he mentioned more than once that there wasn’t one where he grew up. Foreshadowing, right? Nope, he opens a bar. And he only found the place by accident, it wasn’t even a conscious choice. It just felt messy and disconnected, which is not something I usually get from this author.

I liked the characters, and I liked seeing the rest of the guys from the series, but that’s really about it. Disappointing finish.

A really cute, fun read! There are a lot of meta jokes and ironic fourth-wall-nudging jokes, so if that's not for you be warned. I got some real chuckles out of it though and although Juniper made me want to kick him sometimes, I also adored him and all the other characters in this whimsical little world.

I'm kind of shocked to find out people didn't like this book - or the FMC in particular! I loved it. The FMC is definitely prickly, snarky, and sarcastic, but it's not just mean for meanness sake and it's only one facet of a full personality. Plus, the MMC loves it, which makes me love it more! And let's not forget she had good reason to feel the way she did.

I'll absolutely read this again. It was funny, the romance moves at a good pace, and the MMC is absolutely adorable.

The entire time I was reading this book I had the vague impression that I didn’t fully grasp what was going on.

Then I finished it, and it turns out there really just wasn’t much going on. An interesting premise but the execution was lackluster.

Better than I expected! I really felt and believed the chemistry between the MC’s; seeing their connection grow and strengthen was really fun. Very insta-lovey but it felt appropriate for the story.

Marked down slightly because the MMC made choices against her will, “for her own good,” way too many times. I know the guy’s got issues but that was getting really annoying.

Looking forward to book 2!

This book felt so much younger than I expected. Obviously it takes place at a college, but they’re all early to mid twenties for crying out loud. He MMC mostly grunts and broods his way through the book, and FMC’s family is WAY too perfect, and the stakes never felt all that high.

And the book cover definitely gave me spooky gothic vibes - which this was…not. At all.

I don’t know how much of my disappointment with this book is due to my own expectations, so I’ll give the next book a try. Hopefully I’ll enjoy it more now that I know what I’m getting.

I knocked this down a half star because the third-act conflict felt like a complete betrayal of the character. In no universe would the character we got to know through the rest of the book have made those choices.

A really beautiful story about love, and grief, and leaning that both of those journeys are better undertaken with a friend at your side.