⭐️ 5 stars

its lynn painter. if its not 5 stars its not her.

tropes:
> fake dating
> enemies to friends to (half) lovers to enemies to lovers (confusing, right?)
> enemies to lovers
> forced proximity

mr nothing (charlie) and glasses (bailey) meet on a flight 3 years ago. charlie deems bailey a rule-follower, while bailey deems charlie to be an annoying prick.
its been 3 years and.. theyre both trainees at a job training, working in the same unit. sparks fly between them, so will they become friends.. or something more?
so, this book was really fast paced, but also kinda slow burn. this book has the MOST SWOON WORTHY MOMENTS, like this love between them is something that could never happen to me, not even in my wildest dreams 😭
when bailey had the internal 'you are in love' moment and was screaming and going crazy, i was just screaming GET TOGETHER ALREADY!
it reminded me of a 'gold rush' by taylor swift kinda theme. they both like each other but dont know.. idk how to explain. but yeah thats what was in my head for some time.
also this also had some realism in it, which i enjoyed. i liked seeing how bailey and charlies lives became different as both their parents split, and they bonded over it.

i loved scott as well. he was so nice and caring.. and my heart melted when he proposed to emily. i was so happy for emily and how understanding bailey became in the end when she realised that scott wasn't all that bad. well, he wasnt all too well either.. but.. all's well that ends well, right?
and for charlie, all he was thinking (probably) was today was a fairytale.

i have a confession. i didnt like three things in this book. I KNOW, I KNOW! its lynn painter. but its only three things.
first: bailey kept 'tucking her hair behind her ears'. i swear in the first 45% it was every page, and then after that, it was less frequent, but nevertheless it was still recurring a lot.
second, AND DONT FREAK OUT!, but.. too MANY taylor references. i know, i know.. but there actually is something as too many.
third: they kept saying 'Ohmigawd' instead of oh my god, and that shouldnt have been annoying but.. it was

speaking of.. time for the taylor swift references! most of these were direct, but some were subtle hints to her.

Karma was supposed to be a cat, dammit, not this.

Maybe karma was a girl in glasses.

The Man?"

still couldn't listen to the Taylor Swift album that'd been popular at the time because it made me cry.

Charlie: At least I got custody of Scarf.
I climbed back onto my bed and texted: Please tell me you didn't pull a Gyllenhaal.
Charlie: She tried pulling a Jake on ME, but I went over and reclaimed it. Not gonna have her being reminded of innocence and thinking it smells like me.
I sat straight up. Holy shit, Chuckles⎯are you a Swiftie?
Charlie: Settle your ass down. I just thought the Red rerelease was really good.
Me: I'm speechless. Christmas and Taylor Swift. You're an enigma, Charlie.

'All Too Well.' The ten-minute version."

You almost ran the red 'cause you were looking over at me.

"Fuck the patriarchy" keychain on the ground,

singing along to "All Too Well"

"You just missed 'All Too Well,'"

invisible string

She was wearing her I'm the problem T-shirt, the one she'd bought the day after Midnights came out.

I am packing my Evermore shirt and Docs as we speak.

cardigan

Swear to God I heard Taylor Swift's voice say, "Are you ready for it?".
Let the games begin.

Lover?

There was a whole Taylor Swift vibe to the way she dressed,

happiness,

mean

ME,

epiphany

gorgeous,"

"The Last Time,"

The entire Red rerelease reminded me of Charlie,



see.. too many now?


and finally, some bonus things that are so me:

And by "prefer lighter reading", she meant that she read five or six romance novels. A week.

Lksjflskjfksljfklsdjfklsd, I thought,


so, this was a sweet, fun rom-com/romance read! for me, it was a four to five hour read, so only a day or two of reading. plus it was the weekend so.. extra time to read😻!
highly recommend if you love lynn painter and just want to have a fun, cute read!