This book was incredible. The writing, plot, characters, and spice was all amazing. I think I just found a new favorite author. I cannot wait to read more books by K.M. Gavin!

This book gave me all the feels. I was happy, angry, and in tears at certain parts. I became so invested in Glory and Killian's story, needing to see their happy ending. I loved that Glory made Killian work for her forgiveness and didn't just hand it to him.

I only wish there was a bit more about their reunion at the end. After suffering so long with them apart and sad, I wanted more of the happy reunion and seeing them together.

I forget how much I like books set in high school until I read another one. I loved this book so much. A friends to enemies to lovers story that is full with not only relationship development, but also self evolution and family struggles. I just love Killian so much, post jerk phase of course. I could also really relate to Glory and her struggle with migraines as I too live with them and it was nice to see it depicted as it relates to her personally, but also to the relationships she had with friends and her partner. It’s not something you come across often so that was really nice to see.

I did not like this book. It read like a YA book with some mature themes. I was bored nothing really stood out to me. I didn't really feel a connection between the characters. I thought the writing was bad. This book sounded like it was going to be good. But it just missed the mark for me.

My main conclusion from this book is that the author has potential. I believe she has a great perspective about relationships and the complexity of feelings, and I feel like she could have written a completely different (and better) book but somehow tried to shape/modify it so that it would fit into the current trends (enemies to lovers, forced proximity, etc), and the result is something in no man's land.

My main problem was that, even though I understood the premise in the book description, the execution was very confusing. During their first scenes, I couldn't understand if Glory and Killian hated each other, ignored each other or... I don't know, I get there was a conflict between them but from the beginning he seems to want to be close to her all the time while, at the same time, being her bully?? The descriptions of Glory's feelings were well written, and when you read that, you could understand her ambiguity and her pain because of the "friend break-up", but you couldn't see that in her or his actions.

That made me more interested in the other parts of the book (soccer, friendship, family conflict) than in the romance itself. I dreaded any scene where Killian appeared because I couldn't care less about him. But again, I think that was a result of some choices to fit the current trends or usual clichés in romance novels.

I would love to see a book by this author with more focus on friendship and family, or even romance, but without so much drama or shock effect.

That said, in that are, I believe there are two areas of potential improvement:
- The author "overexplains" a bit. Not the feelings, but details about the actions or descriptions, or the argumentation behind minor choices, like Glory's diet because of her migraines. I understand (and like!) that the author wants to include representation but I think its integration with the narration can be improved.
- The main character is a bit too much of a victim, like she was Katniss Everdeen or something: "I have been through so many bad things in my life, I have to support my whole family". Girl, chill, your life is pretty decent actually and besides you and your father could have moved away in these years?? But maybe that's just part of being a teenager, and some readers like that kind of characters, so in this case it's probably just my personal preference.

Apart from all of that, I did like the side characters. That's also why I think the author could write a good book with a slightly different tone, something more like "Perfect on Paper" maybe? I believe she has the ability to understand complex emotions, healthy relationships and good character development (even for teenagers), and I feel that she'd be better at it than at writing by-the-book/trendy romantic novels.

I will keep an eye on her following books

(this review was posted on gus.reads Goodreads profile too)