4.5 stars!

Overall, I absolutely love this book. The writing is fantastic, the characterization is awesome, the character chemistry is wonderful, and there are more adorable and exciting moments to intensely freak out over and delight in than I could ever possibly count. It absolutely hooked me and kept me hooked.

I ultimately appreciated the messy realism style the author employed, especially at the end of the book, though the ending (while I really liked it) did take some getting used to, and showed a kind of ‘uglier’, more difficult side of true love that I don’t see as often in fiction, and appreciated seeing.

This book also opened my eyes to issues of discrimination in the LGBTQ+ community that I was not fully informed about. And, at least from my perspective, the author did a great job diving into those issues. For that, I’m grateful.

That being said: one of the few things I didn’t like about this book was the issue of one character, who is otherwise a wonderful & loving character, being slightly ‘controlling’ in bed. Another character did bring this to the character’s attention at the end of the book, and I am interested to see where the relationship goes from there in the second book. Hopefully, that will get addressed.

Overall, I really recommend it! Can't wait for the sequel!! :)