2025 has only just begun, and I have already had my first 5-star read of the year. 

 

I read this book after reading a post on Instagram, where the person recommending this novel said you’d finish it with a severe case of book hangover. Spoiler alert: this person was right. 

 

From the very first pages of this book, I knew I wouldn’t be able to put it down until I finished it. I was immediately drawn into Fia’s mind and just wanted to know more about her story. 

 

The Murphy family is used to welcoming foreign students who come to the United States for a year as part of their studies. But with their daughter Fia entering her senior year of high school, they decided not to host this year so that she could make the most of her last year before college. One phone call and the withdrawal of one host family later, they agreed to temporarily host an Italian student, Massimo, until another family could be found to host him for his exchange year. As soon as Massimo and Fia see each other, their hearts beat faster. But what can they do when the fact of them getting close to each other could jeopardise Massimo’s time in the United States? 

 

It’s impossible not to love Fia and Massimo, individually and together. They are both sweethearts. They are loving, generous and selfless. They are the friends we all wish we’d had in high school. I was rooting for them from the start of the book, and like Jenna—Fia’s best friend—I developed a visceral hatred for Seth, Fia’s male ‘best friend’ (when you have a best friend like him, you don’t need enemies). 

 

I enjoyed discovering the protagonists as teenagers and then seeing them reunited as adults. It made me care for them even more, because you realise that they’ve grown as people, but still some things remain the same. 

 

I’m now going to nurse my book hangover and add Nichole Greene to the list of authors whose other books I want to discover.