i took a month long break between the first and second halves of this book Because Life™️ so i was super excited to get back into and miss fawcett did not disappoint!! 

as a ugrad student who loves reading studies for fun, the format of this series scratches this itch in my brain so perfectly. and as an enemies-to-lovers addict and a slow-burn fiend, i was vibrating with overwhelming nausea (positive) while reading. i believe y’all call that butterflies in the stomach but baby it felt like a whole group of common folk was jumping on my intestines. in the best way possible. 

i adored most everything about this book, the only reason i didn’t give it 5 stars is because i personally felt it dragged quite a bit at the start. i understand the task of integrating world building that’s so complex and well-thought is tough, made all the more difficult by the scholarly format fawcett chose to write in. i think she did the best she could and i appreciate that. unfortunately, it wasn’t seamless, although the footnotes were a fantastic idea and helped a lot, because it took a considerable amount of time to set things up. again, though, this is a very small criticism that may not be shared by others who have better attention spans than me lmao