This book was absolutely adorable. Perfect ya/teen love story. I have not one complaint about this book. It was wonderfully written and incorporated a lot of everyday struggles that teens go through. And hello, the suspense of which one is it going to be?! Yep I highly recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley and Scholastic for the eARC!!

For all the fans of While You Were Sleeping. 😉

I wholeheartedly enjoyed this book. I find no fault with it. And even better, this book showcased many things that many Ya today overlooks. I’ll try to go through them all.

1. We have a protagonist who does NOT have all the answers. She doesn’t know what she to do with her life at 17 years old. I’m so tired of YA focusing on this concept of “I need to know my whole life at 17 and must go to an Ivy League to do it.” There are some kids who know this and that’s wonderful… but I love seeing a book emphasize that it’s okay to NOT have your dream goal figured out. And I love that she doesn’t even know it at the end of the book! She has her whole life ahead of her!! I also loved that even though her cousin does have a dream, we got a little bit of “what if it doesn’t work out? I feel like I have nothing else I can do.” Yes! 🙌 Such a good point!

2. Along with the first, there’s not a huge emphasis on college. I like that there was talk of different options! Ryan taking time to travel. Not every path is right for every person. And I liked that Nina wasn’t hell bent on college and an overachiever to the extreme. That is getting so overused nowadays.

3. A thought-provoking family plot that does NOT overshadow the main plot. This book had the perfect amount of familial plot on both sides. I knew their families and felt for their families and enjoyed those subplots. I never felt it overwhelming the main story.

4. There is NO SPICE and (from what I remember) very little swearing. THANK YOU. This is a YA book that I wouldn’t mind seeing a younger YA reader reading!! They kiss. That’s it. There is no talk of hands going under clothes even. It’s all tame!!! And god do I love seeing that. I’m almost desensitized to smut and vast amounts of sexual innuendo in YA now and it’s disheartening. So this book made me SO happy!! 😁 (Again this is from what I remember but there are definitely no explicit scenes!)

5. A believable, fun, and interesting plot with characters who are upfront and honest.
Guys. This is big. The romance plot between the lead and both twins MAKES SENSE. I kept going “oh yeah, I could see that happening. Oh yes, these two work better.” Etc. I love how the author went about it and without spoilers, it all works out perfectly!
And Nina is HONEST with herself and others. She’s such a beautiful character. I was never annoyed with her. I loved her. And she talked through things with herself and others very well - she felt like a 17yo in a situation like this. Yes, there were times when her emotions felt explosive but guys, she’s 17. 😊 I was just so happy to get a protagonist who is logical instead of nonsensical!

Highly recommend this book to young and older YA readers! As an adult reading YA, this was so fun and fresh!! It felt like reading those early 00’s YA books similar to Sarah Dessen. 💖 It made me happy to see and I hope that more younger readers can find this book!

Ian and Nina's initial encounter was a wonderful start to the book.
His misinterpretation of the condition of her clothes. Her acute embarrassment as to his misinterpretation.
Nina and Ian next meetup with an "audience" ,so to speak, was cringe worthy for Nina. And think that Nina's emotions attached to that particular scene are believable.

How Ian interacts with Nina subsequent to that was fun to follow. What would I have liked to see? Less physical interaction between Ryan and Nina to show their incompatibility. Get that there has to be some physical (kissing) between the two but maybe limiting it to one and done would've been better as it's like she test drove both models (brothers) to see which is a better fit.

This ARC was provided by the publisher, St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Scholastic | Scholastic Press

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