4.5 Stars
This book can, in fact, sit beside your Emily Henry, Sally Thorne, and Ali Hazelwood books.

Josephine “Josie” Larsen is a Sydney TV news reporter who feels like she’s a bit behind in life. She is approaching 30 and is seeing everyone else’s lives move forward while she stays stagnant. After a panic attack live on air, she gets sent to Newcastle to cover another report’s six-month leave. Who is at Newcastle you may ask? Zac Jameson – her best friend since high school who she hasn’t spoken to in two years. Now within the same city, they navigate through their lost friendship and experience these new feelings for each other while also dealing with their own personal issues.

One look at this book and I already know people will be reaching for it. The cover, the title, the description – absolutely pleasing to those of us who love books that look like these.

Josie is a sweet character who suffers from health anxiety due to her family’s medical history. It hinders her from her daily life and caused her to freeze up on live TV which affected her job. With the rekindling of her friendship with Zac, she tries to jump back into it as though time hasn’t passed with the use of old nicknames and habits. But there’s still that part of her that wonders, “What if?” At times I wanted to jump into the book and scream at her to get a grip but if I was in her position, I’d be so in my head he’d probably think I was ignoring him indefinitely. I definitely think she had a slight character bump when she was making the accident about herself. And not literally since she was in the crash, but Zac had all the right to be upset with her and she completely forgot about his trauma till he had to bring it up.

Zac is an absolute sweetheart who just needs a hug. No matter what happened between the two of them, he was always there for Josie. He is still dealing with the grief he has over his fiancée who passed in a car accident he survived. Although he does have feelings for Josie, he still has all these emotions that cause a block between them that manifests into guilt.

These characters are so loveable and complex not only as a couple but as their own individual characters. I love how the past chapters were short and sweet and out of order because it felt like these memories were placed specifically for the following “now” chapters. There were times when it felt like they were blurring the line of friendship/relationship while in their own separate relationships but nothing actually happened. Thank you NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

P.S. I don’t see a physical copy to be pre-ordered so I will be keeping an eye out for it.

Omg I freaking LOVED this book. It gave me real People We Meet on Vacation vibes. Josie was a great female main character. And Zac. He definitely is up there on list of top book boyfriends. Highly highly recommend!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I loved this book! It truly sucked me in from the beginning and I finished it in one day! I loved how it was a friends-to stranger-to lovers romance. This book included aspects of mental health, which were a nice addition to raise awareness about health related mental health and trauma. I loved the 2 main characters and their relationship, especially the flashbacks to the past throughout the book to understand how their friendship evolved before the current timeline. Super cute easy read romance, which was just what I needed when I was reading it.