I liked this book well-enough, it was a unique set up, and for the right audiences, it should be a compelling, offbeat coming-of-age or "finding one's self" kinda story. A quick read and solid writing.

I found this book SO HARD to get into. The only word I can think of to describe the first section of this book is pure CHAOS. It feels like so much was thrown in for shock value. I think overall, what I felt while reading this book was sadness.

I don’t think I’m at all a judgemental person; people who know me would agree to that statement. But it was hard to see these four young people drowning their trauma with drugs and alcohol almost constantly. They continued to make decisions that were not consistent with positive living. BUT, even as I say that, I wonder, “Who am I to judge what positive living is??”

So I do have to say, while I didn’t love this book, it has challenged me to truly examine my own beliefs about other people and their life choices. Growing up is all about making decisions, whether they’re “good” or “bad,” and learning from them to become better, more whole versions of ourselves. I do have to say that by the end of this book, all the main characters did learn and grow from their choices and experiences.

The one part of the story that I couldn’t get over, though, is when there was a conflict/relationship trouble in one of the couples, (trying to keep it spoiler-free!) one of the partners moved on immediately to another partner. It made me sad, even though it eventually turned out ok.

Bravo to Kay Stephens on her debut story! She appears to live her life boldly and unapologetically! The writing in this book really was good! Even if I didn’t love this particular story, it is obvious that she is a great writer!! I would definitely read her next book!!

Well… all I can say is it was interesting to say the least. I didn’t really care for any of the characters and some parts of the plot had holes/missing parts. I get that everyone has messed up parts of life but this just was not it for me. Thanks so much for letting me ARC!

We're all messed up in some way, aren't we? The sooner we learn to grasp our authenticity, we can find our tribe and live life to the fullest!

I started this book out not really enjoying the characters and the screwed up lives they led. But towards the end, I realized that was the point! We all lead screwed up lives; some of us hide it better than others, and some accept who they are and live authentic lives.

While I loved the girl-power aspect of this book, I didn't love the excuse for being an asshole. It seems like the author was the exact person I hated in college. The one throwing loud wild parties that I could hear through headphones and exploding kiddie pools on my floor, flooding it. And the author's attempt at excusing that behavior distracted from what could have been a great story about a girl coming to terms with her own strength.

I picked up this book because the title sounded interesting, but it fell flat for me. Some of the characters' relationships didn't make a lot of sense, and while this was supposed to be set in college, a lot of the "drama" that occurred felt very immature, more like high school than college to me. I liked the found family aspect of their little friend group, even if it didn't make sense sometimes.

I'm afraid this book was not my 'cuppa'. I have the impression the author thinks airports are dirty, full of drunk tourists, zombi-like people. Tali, the heroine is the 18 year old daughter of a porn star and has just flown in to New Orleans from LA to start college. (In my experience you just walk off a domestic flight into the mainstream domestic terminal; aren't warnings to not go back only for international flights? Maybe I'm wrong.) She trips over a drunk man in baggage handling, (James), then later drinks from his dubious whiskey bottle when he offers it to her - even though she's afraid of 'vomit germs'. If she was so ashamed of her porn star mother and that life, then why accept a boob job for her 18th birthday? After that, I was pretty much over it, but struggled through to give my thoughts.

The writing didn't flow as well as it could have and I had to keep going back to re-read sentences. Polishing and simplifying would do this ARC a world of good and I understand this is the author's debut novel. Told via third person narration from both the H/h's points of view. This romance is aimed at the YA/NA market and whilst I've read plenty of this genre over the years, I couldn't pretend to like this story much at all. A younger person may think differently. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in return for my opinion.

Reminds me of an early 2000's Romcom. But that's about all it has going for it. Overall decent book but the characters were all superficial. The relationships developed didn't make sense and there were a few loose ends with no resolution. The book was also very choppy it wasn't smooth and the version of received to read had many typos. Overall it was ok, not my genre.

I thought the story was cute and entertaining. Tali is going through what most young adults do, the idea of figuring out who they are and how to deal with it. Personally I really enjoyed it!

This book was interesting! I liked the idea of the book with having the main character try to run away from her past. Although, I did find the timeline to be very jumpy and I was not aware of how much time has past during certain moments in the book.

I also was not a huge fan of the POV. I was confused on who we were focusing on. At first I thought it was 3rd person POV with a focus on Tali but then it would switch to 3rd person POV on James. I wish this book was a dual POV book because it would have been easier to comprehend in my opinion.

Other than those two thing I thought the book was pretty decent.

Definitely feared toward the younger crowd, this new adult romance genre isn't my favorite but I was willing to give this one a try. It fell flat for me, from the get go, just disjointed without much "meat to it"

This book was entertaining to say the least, in the same way watching trashy tv would be. The story follows Tali as she leaves her porn star, porn production company owning mother behind in L.A. to start a new life at college, while trying to hide who she is and what she thinks it says about her as a person. She does however, show up at school dressed like a high end stripper (in her own words) but doesn't want people looking at her for her body and wants them to take her seriously. She tries to be a straight and narrow student, but also is a part of massive parties thrown in her dorm room, goes out drinking in the middle of the day and partakes in doing drugs. Makes sense, right?

It also follows the relationships she forms with those around her and she struggles between feeling like she fits in with them, and feeling like they don't match her new image as if there's something wrong with them. By the end, Tali realizes it's okay to be who she is and be friends with whoever she wants and that her mother is nothing to be ashamed of.

I got really into the story because I felt like I was on the outside looking in on a trainwreck of a girl who's just trying to find her way. I also liked the characters in the story and wish the author would have delved a little deeper into their circumstances, especially Tali's roommate Coventry. I also would have appreciated a little more depth to the conflict facing the main character because it all seemed so superficial and kind of like who really cares? The book was approximately 280 pages and I think there definitely could have been room for expansion but overall it was a quick, entertaining read.

Oh wow! What a college life😆. There was a lot of fun, silliness and sadness. I'm happy with Tali's character development and I like the friendship in this story, it's weird but strong💪 and most of all I love this two lines😊
"Most people in the world spend most of their time judging you. And the only way to get over it is to embrace it. To seek out the haters, listen to what they have to say to you, and love it.”
“You use it to fuel your fire. You love it for making you stronger.”❤️

3 stars

This one was only ok

It felt kind of juvenile to me (I’m way out of the target audience though, so that’s a me problem). I just couldn’t relate to these characters or situations very much.

I can definitely see how the “new adult” or target audience will love this though.

It wasn’t so bad. It was definitely very sexual in the terms used and situations the characters found themselves into, which was expected.

I loved the first quarter of the book. James and Tali’s first meeting and the subsequent ones were really nice. They came from complicated backgrounds which helped them both understand each other better!

However, I feel like the last quarter of the book was written on steroids, like something or the other happens but it doesn’t make sense. The characters appeared so shallow when the opposite should be true towards the ending.

I feel like the story should also have been more focused on the mother-daughter side too. Interactions between Missy and Talu would have definitely been nice to read about and would add so much more to Tali’s feelings regarding her mother in the end.

I think for a debut, this author wrote so well and articulately. The plot line was sketched well for the first half and the characters had quite distinguished personalities. I actually would go to read more of the authors work in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC!

This was a very good starting point for Kay Stephens. The writing was good, I could mostly follow what was happening and I overall did enjoy the book.

With a 3 star review though, does come heavy criticisms. Every single character was shallow at best and overall awful at worst (Coventry). The story followed a three month long bender in New Orleans aka the first semester in college; it really seemed like every major plot point was happening while everyone was too plastered to even realize. It would’ve been a lot more realistic, if anything, for at least some of the menial stuff to be included like a single conversation with Coventry where she wasn’t being plain weird or even just dealing with the aftermath of the dorm room seemingly always being a disaster to rival Katrina.

When I first opened the book, I got the vibe that there was going to be at least some soul searching and self acceptance in store for Taglia. It was disappointing to see that it was 95% accepting her mom’s role and doing nothing for herself.