I have tried multiple times over a few months now to get into this book and I cannot. I was put off immediately by the writing style. The storyline, from what I read, was also implausible. I don't think it is fair to the author to rate this publicly, especially since I did not finish the book, so I'm not sharing these thoughts on Goodreads or Storygraph.

This was good and fun and weird! and also sad and not-fun. I guess I felt all the things - I did pause thinking about the ending. It didn't feel realistic to me - without spoiling it I'll just say that I would have made a different decision.

This was like a trainwreck I couldn't look away from. The beginning of this started off promising, but ended up in total disarray and in jumbled parts of a puzzle that is missing some pieces. How Rubiat’s impulsive choice doesn’t lead to further exploration by law enforcement seems contrived and left me irritated. I think that this part of the story could have been fleshed out better and the author could have picked a more realistic spontaneous decision for Rubiat to act upon. Both of the main characters were pretty insufferable and unlikable. Rachel gives me “I’m not like other girls” vibes with a twist of an annoying manic pixie dream girl. While overall my enjoyment of this book was less than stellar, I couldn’t stop reading because I wanted to know how it would end. *Thank you to NetGalley and Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity for the ARC of this book.*

Early on the main characters of this novel meet in art school, where they are paired by an art class instructor to determine each other’s causative factor, the emotion from which their words and actions derive. Uncertain of one another at first, they spend an intense few days getting to know one another and then several years unraveling what separated them—one through her art and the other through therapy and redirecting his life. The progression of the woman’s artwork—and her deepening comprehension of the incident that separated the young couple—is a particularly interesting device. At heart this is a novel about young adults trying to figure out who they are and what they want; their story, and that of the few other young adults of the story, may leave one reflecting on one’s own decisions and motivations at a similar time of life.

Many thanks to NetGalley and to Regal House Publishing for an ARC of this book. My opinions are my own.