This was my first B. Celeste story, and I can't say it really made me want to pick up another one. It wasn't really bad, I just did not feel anything for the romance, so the whole book felt very one note to me. While I didn't really love the age gap (7 years - now 18 and 25, with flashbacks to 12 and 19 (purely platonic)) or the they're half-siblings, just kidding they aren't related tropes, they didn't really influence my enjoyment, because I could just hand wave them away. I felt like a lot of the relationship development between Leighton and Kyler just didn't work. I felt like we saw more in the growth of their relationship in the flashbacks when they thought they were related. Because a lot of their interactions in the present was Kyler being overprotective, jealous, and treating Leighton like she was a kid. Which leads to my biggest complaint- Leighton was was so frustrating and naïve it was really hard for me to care about what was happening or fell anything toward her at all.

Thank you Booksparks for sending me a link to this audiobook, it was my first every audiobook experience and it was....interesting. All opinions are my own.

I just....I cannot start this review without stating that the age gap was weird (like 7 years is okay, but not when someone is barely 18), and the whole "might have been half siblings but actually weren't" was very strange too. I know that it ended up not being true, but the way Kyler treated her like a little sister but then tried making moved on her....just did not sit right.

Despite the weird age gap and almost-taboo setup, I think I would have enjoyed this more as a hardcover book. Listening to audio I had a hard time focusing at times and I really cannot recall parts of the story. Yes I get the overarching themes, but the plot itself? In my mind it's all about Kyler and Leightons 'forbidden love' toward each other.

Yes there is some steam in this, but its mostly toward the end of the book. And then it gets super steamy out of nowhere! Other than that, there is a family dynamic and lots of time spent with this family, as well as trying to figure herself out too.

I guess, this book just did not impress me. I really could not get past the age gap. I think that Chase was treated wrongly, he really should not have been strung along like that. It felt like there was a lot going on at times and it was hard to keep track of (again, might not have been an issue with a physical copy) and at times I found myself not caring about what happened.

The people narrating were good though, they made the story easier to listen to and the alternating genders for voices made it easy to tell who was speaking. I'm glad this ended with a happy ending, but the rest i just feel pretty meh about.