Thank you to Netgalley and Parson Press for the eARC! All opinions expressed are my own.

I was so excited for this one but it was a huge let down!

I loved the playlist in the start of the book and each chapter represents one of the songs! I picked this up because of the swiftie references and hallmark Christmas movie vibes (big city girl goes back to her small hometown to help direct the church play with her ex/best friend 💕).

The novel is told in alternating timelines between present and 7 years ago when Aspen and Roman were in high school. I liked the past POV more than the present, at least in the first half, which had less fleshed out storytelling and felt underdeveloped. Although the past POV was very insta lovey probably because of the short amount of pages that timeline was given, but I so would’ve preferred a story of Aspen and Roman’s high school romance. The book went downhill after 25%

I would’ve loved POV from Roman 😭 The writing is just okay, it’s a lot of telling instead of showing and felt very YA despite the characters being in their mid 20s. YA isn’t a bad genre, it’s one of my favorites in fact, but I don’t like YA writing where the characters are older.

The dialogue also felt unnatural and abrupt. I cringed every time someone talked, I can’t remember a book where the dialogue was this bad 😳 Half the conversations with Leila felt weird and unrealistic. Everything to do with Leila felt unnecessary and her character only served the purpose of being there for Aspen. .

I know FMC is a singer but I haaaaate when books have song lyrics, it’s a personal opinion but I find it so cringey.

“Their chemistry is undeniable” is the chemistry in the room with us? 👀  There’s no tension, no banter, etc. They dated in high school, which that happened super quick very insta love, and then barely have any romance in the present timeline. Their interactions are surface level, how am I meant to believe this man knows you better than anyone else? Roman is also a huge walking red flag 🚩 

Did not give a shit about the main characters. Aspen is selfish and “not like other girls” and completely unbelievable.

Story is slow and highlights moments that really didn’t need to be mentioned. A lot of unnecessary scenes that do nothing for the plot or character development. There were so many unnecessary details that the main plot and romance got lost!

Sexual assault references brought up at the very end of the book felt super last minute/rushed/added for “the plot” which I hated. What was even the point of doing that, it was completely out of left field?!

It’s a debut novel and I just found out the author is only 16, which is impressive. I'm not saying young people can't write good books, or that debuts can’t be good, I'm just saying an author’s experience/age can definitely be obvious in their writing in ways that don't really do good things for the book.

Being young or writing a debut doesn’t mean a book will be inherently bad and I’ll critique them as I would any other author, otherwise it’s a disservice. It’s amazing that Freeman pursued her dream of writing and I hope she’ll continue to follow her dream. I commend Freeman on getting her first book out and would be willing to give any future books a chance.

Also if the author is 16 WHY NOT WRITE A YA ROMANCE?! Writing an adult romance as a teenager feels wild because the adults now read as juvenile and unnatural.

I continued purely for the unique song playlist tie in and Taylor swift references 😅 I so badly wanted to love this one!! The holiday vibes, unique chapter song tie ins, Taylor Swift references, and hallmark-like plot all sounded great in theory. But the dialogue, telling instead of showing, underdeveloped characters, and lack of chemistry just made this novel fall flat for me 😭 please someone give me a good romance rec that has either TS references and/or has a hallmark Christmas movie-like plot!

Tropes: Small, hometown romance; holiday romance; Football player x nerdy girl; celebrity romance; second chance; insta love

Rep: Latino love interest, BIPOC author