Disclaimer: I was given an ARC of this book in return for an honest review

When I first saw this book on my Instagram stories I immediately freaked out. While I don’t have an official diagnosis for endometriosis, my chronic pelvic pain and symptoms sort of line up, and being able to read about a character who is going through something similar made me so excited.

Unfortunately the romance did not work for me at all. I know a lot of people enjoyed this book, but I’m really picky when it comes to romance, and I was a bit worried that I wasn’t going to be a fan. Despite that, I wanted to give it a shot because I had heard that the author was keeping the sex scenes realistic to the diagnosis and that was something I really wanted to see. 

The first thing that was a major turn off was the Cheez Whiz in the spray can. I’m sorry, I just find Cheez Whiz to be kind of disgusting? And the fact that Evie lives in Paris and this is what she craves all the time…

I understood that the author was going for an enemies to lovers/fake dating thing, and while I understood the enemies part, the fake dating just didn’t make sense to me because it was so so so obvious they both had feelings for each other.

This whole book is just two people being really horny for each other and constantly wanting to make out (probably the point of this book considering it’s a contemporary romance, but it got old fast). There were some super awkward scenes when either Evie or Liam are standing super close to each other and whispering in each other’s ears while someone stands there watching…it just made me uncomfortable.

I did appreciate what we got to see of Evie and Caroline’s relationship. Evie’s mom is pretty awful and while the ending sort of makes up for things I don’t think it’s enough to make up for all the horrible comments she’s said to Evie and how that’s affected her self confidence and ability to love and accept love.

Now for the endo rep. I really really liked what we got (minus for the flaring and feeling horny and deciding to have a make out session in the kitchen, maybe a thing some people with endo do, but when I’m flaring I don’t want to talk to anyone let alone move). I loved the little lines we get of sudden sharp stabbing pains or cramping or leg/hip pain in the middle of a completely normal scene. It was especially nice to read since I was flaring while reading this and sometimes I’d get a sharp stabbing pain and go “wow, so this does happen to other people”. One thing I also related to a lot was acknowledging the pain and then moving on because you have things to do and can’t rest every time you’re in pain. It was such a mood and super validating to see. Also Evie uses a cane! I really loved seeing that.

As for the sex scenes, I’m really glad the author kept this realistic because I think it’s important to show in a book like this. Also I really love how Evie’s therapist emphasizes that sex isn’t the only important thing in a relationship because that’s so true. Another thing I appreciate was that we don’t end off on a sex scene where everything is perfect and wonderful and pain free. Because it’s really not realistic and things like that take work and time. 

I don’t have much to say about Liam. Like I said, the romance was not my favourite. Also the puns were a bit too repetitive. And some of his lines were kind of cringe too

Anyway, 2/5 stars mostly because the endo rep was pretty good.