I was drawn in by basically the first chapter and didn’t want let go of the book anywhere in my reading of it. I love social media and texting in books and I think it added to the enjoyment of this book even more – specifically because during COVID there was such a large uptick of us being online and communicating with each other – although I just do that anyway. 

Ezra and Oliver were so so cute. I liked how they went from “I’m messaging you because I need to” and then moved into the “starting to text for fun” group and then “I’m chatting with you several times a day” and then eventually into the super cute “relationship messaging”. I really enjoyed being able to join them in moving into all those different stages. 
 

I liked how Ezra was more than he seemed at first. That on the surface and probably to a lot of people who knew his surname and family – they would probably think him arrogant and self-absorbed. But he most certainly wasn’t. He was kind and tried not to judge people – which is hard to do seeing as he was judged so much by his family. 

I loved that Oliver had Rheumatoid Arthritis. Well not that he had it – because it’s a difficult disease – but that a character shared a diagnosis with me. I sympathised with him so much about his pain and his frustrations of it all. I don’t have my vocal cords flaring up but as someone who (admittedly) talks a lot I can imagine that’ll be sore. But I liked that while he was (obviously) very aware of his diagnosis he tries the hardest to remain as positive as possible – which is hard anyway and then you add a pandemic! 

It’s extremely easy to become negative when you have a chronic illness and I think even more (easier) when the pandemic hit. So I definitely didn’t think less of Oliver when he pushed people away or got angry because as I said – it’s very easy to get angry/become negative. But through it all he still tried to have moments of happiness and positivity and those small moments are what helps a lot. 
 

When Ezra first called Oliver “Ollie” I awwed so loud I was glad I was in my room 😂. They were so so cute. Ezra finding and sending funny or weird sentences to Oliver was so funny – I hope Smith had fun writing them because I had fun reading them. Fiona (Oliver’s cat) and that she took an immediate liking to Ezra was definitely a draw for me too – cats are most certainly the way to my heart (and also make me rate books higher 😄). 

I also liked that the both of them were friends with the other’s friends. Or well that they had a mutual friend in Ryan and their other friends seemed to quickly slot together into a larger friendship group. That bode well for their relationship as time goes by plus also more friends being made! 
 

As I’m starting to read more romance books I’m obviously seeing a lot of third act conflicts/breakups – which I know a lot of readers have a lot to say about. Some like them, some don’t. It’s necessary vs it’s not – and so on the conversation goes. I’m on both sides of the conversation, I think? It can help but it’s also unnecessary in some books. Plus it depends on the writer because I thought the conflict in this book worked, but another romance book I read recently it didn’t work for me. 

In this book however it worked because it showed what they were struggling with but how they were starting to work through it. For Oliver it’s trying to live his life when his body makes it really hard – and how easy it is to push people away because you feel like you have to do it all by yourself. I think for Ezra it was the feeling of being pushed away, maybe even feeling like he’s unwanted (because of his family). Which is two difficult things to manage and probably issues that will continue to come up in the future. But I hope that in the future they’ll approach and manage it differently because they’ll be different people then.