Thank you to Netgalley and Vintage for the eARC!

I thought it was a cute and funny story at the beginning but it started to drag a little bit and I found myself getting bored (and a tiny bit annoyed with the MC). I did enjoy the bi and anxiety rep plus it was interesting to learn about Luna’s Cinematography work!

Good bi rep especially showing both the struggles of coming out/being a baby gay while also showing lots of queer joy! At times I related to Luna because some of her thoughts on coming out reflected how I felt when I came out, and was trying to figure out what that meant for me (plus like Luna, I also came out in my mid twenties!)

The conflict in the third act was well done, it made sense for the relationship and characters; plus most important of all it didn’t involve miscommunication! These characters are all 24+ so for once they communicated like their age (take note other romance authors).

One of the biggest issues I had with the book is Luna’s obsession over losing her virginity and what “real sex” was, which got annoying quickly. At times it felt almost like she was invalidating Romy’s experiences and explanations because Luna kept insisting that penetration needed to happen for it to “count.” There’s was so much emphasis on sex defining your sexuality. She has queer friends and uses terms like comphet or allosexual-terms I wouldn’t think someone who’s got a lack of LGBTQ+ knowledge would know and use so often-Luna has a surprisingly narrow minded view on sex! Also the amount of acephobia acting as if you can’t have a relationship without sex is extremely harmful and I think the author tried to be so inclusive that she completely missed the mark instead. We can have bi rep without putting down/shaming/erasing other LGBTQ members!

The dialogue and inner monologues are kinda disjointed and felt like someone who is not Gen Z thinking that’s how Gen Z talks (and I say this as a millennial 😅 it’s painfully obvious and not how any Gen Z person I know sounds). The slang and terms thrown around just felt forced and at times cringey.

Lastly, the pacing is all over the place-it started off well but by 35% it slowed down quite a bit, and then had a rushed/abrupt ending. The idea was there but the execution fell flat and I started slowly losing interest by the second half. I’m sad I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I thought I would, especially since this was one of my most anticipated sapphic releases for 2023 😞 

Spice: 🌶️🌶️ (2/3)

Rep: anxiety, Jewish MC and side character, bi MC, non-binary lesbian side character (uses she/her pronouns), lesbian side character 

Tropes: Friends to lovers, celebrity, slow burn

TW/CW: biphobia, outing, sexual content