If you enjoyed this, then I'd recommend Alice Oseman's novels, which are more somber and tense than the Heartstopper comics. This reminded me of Loveless in particular with regards to the setting and general character dynamics, but the main character in that book and the one in this book have quite different problems. This book is also a bit of a product of its time and some of the dialogue and attitudes are bit less culturally sensitive than a more contemporary book would probably be. I usually give books that I had a pretty good time with but didn't get really excited about 4 stars, but I can't quite give this book that rating. I started the book disliking all of the characters at least a tiny bit and none of them managed to fully grow on me. I mostly felt uncomfortable and worried while reading, right up until the end I just didn't trust that anything would be resolved or that Cath was going to make good decisions. I will say that it was interesting to read this after having read Carry On, since a decent percentage of the book is references to that story and the Simon Snow in-universe series. The audiobook narrator was a little too monotone for me, I had her sped up to 1.7 speed. 

The romance in this book is adorable, and I love the depth of the point of view character especially. I finished this in 2 days, and would have happily read longer! I love authors who are respectful of fandoms and I giggled a LOT at the thinly disguised Harry Potter references. It's always risky for a writer to write about writing, but this author does an excellent job, and I was completely sucked into the story. Very mild heat, for a romance novel, too.

Cather is going through a lot her freshman year of college. Her twin sister Wren is more interested in partying than spending time with her, her dad is bipolar, her mom abandoned them, her roommate Regan seems to hate her, and her fiction writing professor doesn't seem to think that fanfiction can be anything but plagerism. Cath does her best to juggle everything whilst balancing a school schedule and trying to finish her queer retelling of Simon Snow, a psuedo-Harry Potter series, before the final book releases. If that's not enough on her plate, Cath also finds herself pulled between Nick, her fiction writing classmate, and Levi, Regan's sort-of boyfriend. What's an anxious freshman to do?

It's definitely a cute coming of age YA romance with a fun fandom twist, alternating between Cath's daily life, snippets of the "real" Simon Snow books, and Cath's own fanfiction.

Read it with book club and it was such a fun book. I like that Levie was not written as super good looking but he was the main love interest

I like that the sisters are so different from each other but they still find each other in the end!

Another comfort reread. Honestly, I was just too devastated after the atrocity that is the love story in Daughter of the Moon Goddess that I just needed some concrete, unfailing love that is contemporary romance novels. 

"She had to make him another omelet." 🥹 My god, this was not destined to be a 5 star read, but it so so so was. I connected so deeply, in my heart and soul and stomach, with Cath, right from the beginning. And Wren, Reagan, Levi, Dr. Piper, and Art, even Courtney, Nick, and Laura—the whole cast did such justice to the beauty, fragility, strength, brokenness, wit, and charm of Cath.

A good fluffy read if you want to explore how the character experiences their first year of university and how they navigate the new and changing dynamics in their life.