Lisa
3.5⭐️
I really liked Cam and Brady, but I don't think we needed Alister's POV.
As with the first two books in this series, I still have a big issue with the men in this “family friend group” thinking the two girls need constant protection or chaperone. They are juniors in college and can't go to a party by themselves. The parents are also fine with this behavior bringing up when the girls went on a trip without the guys while they were at a football camp and how they would have never been allowed. Why is that ok? I will never understand who would like that kind of relationship.
3.5 ⭐️
To start this probably would have been 4 ⭐️ but I really hated the third-act breakup in this one. It was so mean and then so sad.
Other than that, I really loved Julia Song (full name mentioned 26 times in this book) and Tae (who doesn't need to be last named because everyone knows the ONE AND ONLY Tae). It was such a cute story and as someone born and raised in Southern California the little call outs made my heart happy. Susan Lee is from Irvine herself and so her mentioning an Angels game (instead of the Dodgers - Go Halos Always) and “the 10” freeway (instead of whatever other people say) just made me feel seen in a small way.
I think the first time I read The Phantom Tollbooth was when I was in 6th Grade. I remember it being such a fun experience and a book that I thought about a lot. I have been wanting to reread it and I'm glad I finally did. It's still such a good time and actually brought me right back to the enjoyment I had in grade school. Such a fun adventure.
I'm in the firm belief that the more Ali Hazelwood books you read, the more you enjoy Ali Hazelwood books.
Mate was soooooo good and Koen is easily a top 5 AH book boyfriend! (Don't ask me to rate Ali men, I simply cannot!)
I loved this book as much as I loved Bride and I very much enjoyed seeing more of Misery (“Acknowledge me as your Alpha!” - Misery, Chapter 6).
3.5 ⭐️
I make exceptions for insta-love when it's a novella because there aren't enough pages to make it anything else. It's going to be quick. I really like Aiden and Maggie and the entire story. The only thing I would have changed was the photoshoot. The idea was perfect and I've seen the stranger photoshoots before but I feel like the warehouse and assistants and it being a set felt cold. I also felt like the times the photographer should have been capturing were the times he wasn't! Especially when they were taking off their clothes - trust me those are the photos!!!! I know it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of the novella but my photographer brain was dying a little at missed opportunities for fictional photographs of fictional people.
I really liked this book, but it felt so unfinished at the end. I know it's book one of a series, but since we likely will not be following Brady and Collins - their story just doesn't feel wrapped up. I know we will see them but they won't be the main characters.
I loved all of the characters we met and seeing some Rebel Blue favorites too, I just wanted a little bit more from this book. Ernest's resolution, for example. Like then what happened??? It seemed like such a big moment for him and then we didn't get anything else. I needed/wanted more there.
Big shout out to Samantha Brentmoor and Jason Clarke - narration was amazing as always from these two.
3.5⭐️
I loved Hayden and I loved the analytics representation. I loved Darcy at first but I think this book could have been 100 pages shorter without her repetitive inner narration about Hayden and playboys and whatever else she kept talking about. I liked her with Hayden but it got tiring and I was ready for it to end. Still better than Behind The Net (and the wedding for Jamie and Piper was just as boring as their book).
“I like you so much and you smell so good and I like it when you're mean to me.”
Listen, I was so uninterested in reading this book after Behind The Net (book 1 in the series). However, this book had one thing that kept it on my TBR: it's narrated by my absolute favorite Connor Crais. This is a book that deserves to be listened to. Connor Crais and Kit Swann knocked it out of the park with their performances as Rory Miller and Hazel Hartley.
I think if you are going to recommend this series to people you should tell them to skip book one, because it felt like a completely different experience from that book to this book.
4.5 ⭐️
I don't know if I can put into words how much I loved this book (especially in comparison to the first book which was just eh, fine). Charlie needed a HEA and redemption. God, I loved him so much in this book and Alice was amazing! She was familiar to me. I know her and I like her. And next to Charlie she was just equal. They needed each other and this book was needed to heal my feelings about the whole Sam-Percy-Charlie incident. I even didn't mind when Charlie brought it up because it made so much sense how and why he was telling Alice.
This was a great book and I'm really glad I read it because I after Every Summer After I wasn't sure I wanted to read more by Carley, but this book might have kept her books on the TBR.
