This was so good, when I tell you l highlighted nearly 100 times I am not joking, l've got 92 highlights.💕
If you've ever lost yourself in someone, if you have ever had a toxic relationship, if you have ever been in love, been played, or even just went against your better judgment and fell into situations that hurt you and you couldn't stop yourself and get out, this is for you. A lot of us have had an Ethan and a lot of us haven't but, there are so many ways to relate to this book and I just want to say that if reading this was a healing experience for you, girl same🖤

I have been seeing this book all over social media and was so excited to finally read it! Author Alissa DeRogatis truly understands what it is like to be a young girl in love. In this book, we meet Sloane Hart, a college student living her best life with her roommates. Sloane meets her neighbor Ethan, and her whole world changes. The book takes us through the ups and downs of young love. I was rooting for Sloane the whole time and saw parts of myself in her. This was a great debut novel and I look forward to reading more from this author!!

I really struggled to get into this book. I loved the premise--the idea of that person in your life who you're romantically linked to but isn't quite a significant other--but the execution didn't work. A few more revision drafts and some stronger editing could've given this book a much needed boost.

Amazing! It was a book i needed to read. Going through a situationship is really hard and the author gave us her story in such a beautiful way. I cried, i laughed and everything in between. Every single page i relate to so much. Such a quick read and i loved every minute of it!

This book stirred personal memories and evoked feelings about my near-something experiences. While it delves into the complexities of certain relationships, it sometimes suffers from repetitive elements, a common pitfall in tales of this nature.

The portrayal of communication issues is realistic, mirroring what often happens in such relationships. However, the characters could have avoided further hurt, both to themselves and others, if they had stepped away from their egocentric attitudes even for a moment. From the beginning, Ethan doesn't harbor ill intentions, but his inability to offer explicit and beneficial opinions to him and Sloane is a failure.

Sloane's relationship with alcohol was troubling. Understanding that she is young and exploring new territories doesn't excuse that a significant part of her earnings went towards wine, vodka, or beer. Regardless of the quality, the intent was concerning. It was disheartening that Ethan only voiced his discomfort at 90% into the story yet still chose to remain silent.

Lauren and Graham were the book's highlights for me. They demonstrated sensibility towards their feelings and offered sound advice. Everyone deserves to have such individuals in their lives, and we owe it to ourselves to heed their insights. After all, they have the protagonists' best interests at heart. I hope anyone entangled in a similar relationship finds their Lauren or Graham—someone who respects and loves them as they deserve.

My feelings towards the book are mixed, with several areas needing improvement. For instance, Ethan's point of view could benefit from unique scenes instead of rehashing previously narrated events. While it succeeds in conveying moments of nostalgia and anxiety, much about his character was a significant no for me.

As I read it, I could only think about the concept of soulmates and twin flames.

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Este libro removió memorias personales y evocó sentimientos relacionados con mis propias experiencias cercanas a algo. Aunque profundiza en las complejidades de ciertas relaciones, a veces sufre de elementos repetitivos, una trampa común en historias de esta naturaleza.

La representación de los problemas de comunicación es realista, reflejando lo que a menudo sucede en tales relaciones. Sin embargo, los personajes podrían haber evitado más daño, tanto a sí mismos como a otros, si hubieran dejado de lado su actitud egocéntrica aunque solo fuera por un momento. Ethan, desde el principio, no tiene malas intenciones, pero su incapacidad para ofrecer opiniones claras y beneficiosas para ambos, él y Sloane, es una falla.

La relación de Sloane con el alcohol fue problemática. Entender que es joven y está explorando nuevos territorios no excusa que una parte significativa de sus ingresos se destinara a vino, vodka o cerveza – independientemente de la calidad, la intención era preocupante. Fue desalentador que Ethan solo expresara su incomodidad al 90% del libro, y aún así eligiera permanecer en silencio.

Lauren y Graham fueron los puntos destacados del libro para mí, demostrando sensibilidad hacia sus sentimientos y ofreciendo consejos sólidos. Todos merecen tener a individuos así en sus vidas, y de igual manera, nos debemos a nosotros mismos escuchar sus percepciones. Después de todo, tienen el mejor interés de los protagonistas en mente. Espero que cualquiera enredado en una relación similar encuentre a su Lauren o Graham – alguien que los respete y los ame como se merecen.

Mis sentimientos hacia el libro son mixtos, con varias áreas necesitando mejora. Por ejemplo, el punto de vista de Ethan podría beneficiarse de escenas únicas en lugar de reiterar eventos previamente narrados. Aunque logra transmitir momentos de nostalgia y ansiedad, mucho sobre su personaje fue un gran NO para mí.

Mientras lo leía, solo podía pensar en el concepto de almas y llamas gemelas.

Thank you to the Sourcebooks and NetGallery for this ARC review copy.

Overall a fantastic debut! This book was really easy to read and an unexpected ending.

I liked the way Ethan and Sloane's relationship developed, despite miscommunications it felt very grounded in reality which is hard to pull off effectively. The writing was incredibly relatable for anyone who has been through a rough breakup or toxic relationship. The backdrop of New York was well represented.

The only thing that pulled me out of the story was the dual POV felt a bit repetitive at times. I would rate 3.5 but rounded up to 4.

Call It What You Want follows the on and off relationship between Sloane and Ethan over a two year span. All starting from their final year in college to the beginning of living in NYC. I was very excited to read this because it had a different concept, but I was disappointed by it. I have never been in a relationship and I could even see the red flags from a mile away. It felt like in every chapter the characters were just drinking and I couldn't sympathize with any characters in the book. It was also repetitive and took me what felt like forever to finish it. The overall idea was interesting, but it didn't meet my expectations as much as I wanted it to.

This is not your typical romance book. This is a book about a failed relationship. It is heartbreaking and very relatable to any woman who has had her heart broken.

If a book has any Taylor Swift references, I’m highly likely to read it. This was a great book for being a debut author and she took a huge leap with how this one plays out. I respect that & felt like the ending was exactly how it should have been.

Sloane is in college when she meets Ethan. They both feel instant chemistry, but Ethan doesn’t do relationships. Regardless, Sloane thinks she can be the one to change him and an undefined relationship ensues. In the first half of the book there were times where I was rooting for these two as a couple, but once Ethan and Sloane broke it off the first time and she started dating Reese the PERFECT GUY, I could no longer support the Ethan choice. I just wanted to yell at Sloane through the screen! GIRL, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I ultimately enjoyed this book, because it made me feel all the emotions— happy, giddy, wistful, angry and annoyed (at the characters). I think if a story can make you feel the emotions that the characters themselves would be feeling, it’s a good one. I also enjoyed the epilogue and how Sloane realized her self-worth. I recommend to anyone who has ever been stuck in a cycle of a toxic relationship.

One thing to note, I did notice that in the beginning of the book in chapter 8, of the date is labeled incorrectly. The year is dated as December 2018 but it should be December 2017.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for review. Call It What You Want is out June 18, 2024.

I would personally like to pay for both of these characters' therapy sessions. Like, come on, it's not cute.

Sloane and Ethan meet at the start of their senior year in college. From the start, they're drawn to each other but soon learn they don't want the same thing: a relationship. For the next few years, they continue their on-and-off relationship as they try to grow and find their place in the world.

Herein lies my first issue with the book (and I guess the dating culture that's at the center of this story): how can you say you're not in a relationship with someone you've been exclusive with for months/years? How is that not a relationship of sorts? How is that considered an 'almost relationship'? That's just wild to me. But okay, this book is a comment on today's dating culture, and this dating culture's fucked, and I can understand that.

However, my main gripe throughout this book is our lack of insight and exploration into the characters' motivation. With Sloane's POV, this issue is less apparent. I don't understand why she's so obsessed with Ethan, and that's it.

But with Ethan's point of view… oh boy.

In the book, we only get a small number of chapters with Ethan's POV, and I'd rather we didn't get anything. There's no reason for this to be a dual POV book, but it is, and the things we got about Ethan were underdeveloped, oversimplified, and undoubtedly the worst parts of the book. That can't possibly be on purpose. While we quickly find out Ethan's tragic backstory, we don't really see how Ethan processes it and why exactly it leads him to act the way he does. It's almost like his sad family story is used as an easy excuse without really diving into it. I think exploring his abandonment issues deeper would really provide the depth this book desperately needs.

In the end, this was a really frustrating yet fascinating read, and it made me feel a lot of feelings (but mostly anger)

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I desperately wanted to love this book, especially because there's so little good content around the absolutely gut-wrenching experience of developing feelings for someone who isn't really yours. Unfortunately, this book was a 1.5 star for me as it is lacking so much of the nuance and detail that would have made the situationship between Sloane and Ethan believable.

First of all, there was nothing in this book that showed us why Sloane was so desperately attached to Ethan. While we as readers can assume it was infatuation that just struck randomly, there was never any scenes that showed what kept Sloane coming back to Ethan when he was doing the bare minimum for her (as many college-aged men often do. There was no reason given other than there was this ineffable attraction that Sloane felt, and that the physical connection was there.

This lack of detail also made it difficult for Sloane's article for The Gist to be impactful. This relationship was supposed to be intense and full of passion, but that did not come through between the characters or in the article within the book.

Secondly, there was so much detail missing from WHERE this story takes place. While logically I knew that these characters were on the East Coast for school, I found myself filling in details from my own (West Coast) college town as these scenes played out. I also found myself drawing on details from my own experiences visiting New York to fill in the details from when Sloane and Lauren were living in the city.

Finally, the use of Ethan's perspective felt completely unnecessary. While we were supposed to get into his head to further understand why he was unable to be in a relationship, his chapters were often too sparse and short to provide any nuance that we didn't get from Sloane's perspective. While I think his perspective was unnecessary overall, the chapter from Ethan's perspective during the final break up felt like it should have been removed completely. The same dialogue was used in large swaths, and there was no real value add from having his perspective.

Overall, the premise was a good idea but the execution was severely lacking in details. I walked away not caring about this break up and would have been more invested reading about Sloane's best friend Lauren who seemed to be living life to her fullest without being an emotionally-stunted whiner.

Following Sloane and Ethan through their years long, on-again off-again 'situationship', Call It What You Want is raw, honest and real. It dives into all the highs and lows of first love, and reminds the reader that relationships aren't always like the movies, instead they're messy, illogical and ultimately unpredictable.
Its been popular on TikTok amongst a demographic of 20-something readers and I can completely understand why. It explores the lives of characters fresh college/university and the difficulties of navigating relationships in the adult world. There are quotes that will be important to readers and help them through difficult break-ups and I appreciated the themes of self-development and growth.

I enjoyed this to an extent, however, I found everything a little under-developed. Everything significant seemed to happen off-page, which meant I found it difficult to connect with the characters at times, especially around the emotional beats. Its roots as a self-published novel are also obvious in some places, with the odd typo and repetitive phrase. With a touch of closer editing though, I could see it being popular with Colleen Hoover fans.

it was fine. I liked the idea of it, but it could have been better executed. several times throughout, sloane would reference something that had happened previously and I'd had to stop and think because it wasn't actually written on the pages. the book also needs an editor - badly.

I rated this 2.5 stars but will round up to 3. I saw this highly recommended on TikTok, and that's usually a sign that I need to be more skeptical on my opinions. It's not that this book was bad, it was just lacking a lot of depth that I think would have really made this story shine.

As a former heartbroken, college-aged girly with a complicated af situationship, a lot of this story was really relatable. It brought back SOOO many feelings and memories of my own, and for that I couldn't put this book down. Even being in a happy and loving relationship now, there's just something about that heartbreak that will always stay with you.

My main issue with the book was the lack of emotional depth and complexity between the characters. It felt like we were missing whole conversations. I really didn't get to know these characters, even as the story progressed. I would have liked to see more of a plot, and character development was a much needed addition. I know the book was short, so I can forgive some of this.

Overall, would I read it again? Probably not. Would I recommend to a friend? Maybe! I mean... I read this in a day. It was fast and easy, and that's always appealing about a book.

This was cute and entertaining but didn’t pull me in and it felt a bit repetitive and a bit be said she said for me! Thank you for the arc in return for an honest review!

I absolutely adored this book!! I stayed up until almost four am because I simply couldn’t stop reading I was rooting for
Sloane and Ethen’s relationship to work out the whole way through.

I also really enjoyed the backdrop of it being set in Wilmington, NC as it’s one of my all time favorite coastal towns, so have been where some of the characters went, like Front St, and the Reel Cafe was really fun!! Everyone needs friends like Lauren and Jordan to get them through

This book was entertaining but at times frustrating. I was surprised to find a grammatical error in the first 50 pages. If you like a he said, she said, will they, won't they-type story, you should try this. I found it hard to be invested in this relationship because both main characters were immature, especially Ethan. I will say, I liked the ending.

I was excited to read this book but honestly, it was disappointing. The characters were frustrating and I couldn't find any room to feel empathetic towards Ethan and Sloane's situation at all. I think it would have been empowering for Sloane-and turn this story around-if the ending had been different. I can't say too much about that because it's a spoiler.

Thank you NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS for the ARC.

Call It What You Want follows the relationship between Sloane and Ethan over the course of two years, from their final year in college to the beginning of adulthood living in New York City. This book was about a really interesting time in people's lives, but it just felt like it wasn't super fleshed out. The characters were always just drinking and talking around the points that the author was trying to make, which might be relatable for some people, but doesn't translate super well to a novel. There was a really strong sense of time and place, with a lot of references to Greek Life and music, which might appeal to some readers. Unfortunately, the writing didn't really do it for me. This book will likely appeal to people who have found themselves in a situationship or felt they were in a one-sided relationship, and there is some catharsis in the story.