Super cute book with a wonderful main character. I loved Red and her joy for life! Definitely one to check out.

Firstly, let me get my singular - yep, I really had one major issue with this book! - issue with this book out of the way. It is the year 2023, there really is no reason why we need two references to a certain children's book series. Seeing these references of the page, especially when I was otherwise ADORING this book was like a stab in the gut and stopped me in my tracks.

Now that the negative is out of the way, let me talk about the positive and, let me just say, this book had so much positive going for it. It was sweet, it was funny, it was addictive, it was magical. It was just chef's kiss. This book beautiful combined a story akin to The Prince and the Pauper with the fake dating trope and the resultant story was an absolute joy to read.

I will admit that I found the Brooklish translations a little much when we initially met the character of Zay-Zay but there were not something that continued throughout the story and I fully understand why they were included to really paint a picture of the character.

Once I started reading this book, I was so hooked that I was compelled to sit in a single spot and read the whole book in one sitting. Whilst there were clear places that the story seemed to be going it, it never felt as though those destinations were telegraphed in a heavy-handed way. I also found that there were a lot of surprises in the narratives because ultimately, whilst this story asks the reader to suspend their disbelief around some of the events, the characters behaved in a way that is to be expected from real human beings.

There were many emotional points in the story which brought tears to my eyes; some of those years were happy, some were for utterly heartbreaking moments.

I am not completely sure what age demographic this book is intended for however I would likely categorize it as NA because of the way the characters felt on the page and some of the story beats but this book contains zero smut, the spiciest thing anyone does is kiss. I mention the lack of spice not out of disappointment but rather to set expectations as I understand that labelled something as NA implies a certain degree of spiciness.

This book was the third title that I have read from Davis and it has firmly solidified that she is one of my favourite authors. I look forward to seeing what she writes next as I feel certain it will be a delight to read.