It's Always Been You caught my attention when I was looking for wintry romances to help me make the yuletide gay. I liked the ace representation and thought that the enemies-to-lovers relationship between Courtney and Sophie had a lot of potential, but I couldn't connect with any of the supporting characters or the whole prank war plot. I felt like there were too many extraneous details and unrealistic moments, and I just wanted the book to settle down and focus.