Thank you so much to BookForward, NetGalley, Claire Kann & Berkley Publishing for an advance copy of this book! 

This book will be published on April 12th, 2022. 

This book came on my radar after it was chosen to be a future book club book so I was super excited to get my hands on it early, 

Joy is a ray of sunshine who would do anything for anyone especially for her best friend Malcolm. They met while in college at an LGBT Alliance mixer and Malcolm was at his asexual/ace book. Joy's lightbulb went off that this might be who she is.  Malcolm and Joy have been super close for the last 10 years and nothing more. They kissed one time and never spoke about it again. Joy feels this pull towards Malcolm and they each will do everything & anything for one another.  Malcolm springs a last minute trip onto Joy and advised that she will be meeting a potential girlfriend (who also will be bringing a friend). Joy is not happy because she wants Malcolm. Joy's twin sister Grace reminds her that she needs to start doing things for herself & that she could be missing out on other people out there. 

Since Joy and Fox are there two friends along for the trip, it only made sense that they would rely on each other while Malcolm and Summer coupled up. Fox knows that Joy is in love with Malcolm and comes up with a plan for Joy to make him jealous by having them fake date. The tension (sexual and frustrated) between Joy, Fox, Malcolm and even a little Summer buzzed throughout their weekend together.  Fox was an amazing fake/real book boyfriend. Also loved that he had salt & pepper hair! Who doesn't love a silver fox moment (pun intended)?!  I even fell in love with his grumpiness and broodiness. And by the end, my goodness he was just so sweet to Joy & followed her lead and made sure she was comfortable. 

I am a proud ally of the LGBTQIA+ community and over the past year within being in my book club that focuses on LGBT books, I am continuing learning and that included what being asexual meant. It even made me question myself and possibly being on the spectrum. This book really dove into what it means to be asexual from two parts of the spectrum - Malcolm has sex for fun & Joy doesn't feel the desire to have sex with another person. Compared to other books, this gave me such a better picture of what it meant to be asexual. 

One thing I loved was how majority of this took place over a couple of days. I like when we are given a short time frame throughout the course of a book. It made the flow of the book go pretty quick. 

Joy made me laugh so much and I found a lot of things she said and did so relatable. She was literally sunshine mixed with a few clouds. I loved her banter with Fox and they just made me smile so much. 

"You showed your cat videos of me." 
"Shut up. Nobody asked for your judgement." 

What got old was just her relentless inner monologue and sometimes conversations with Fox on her feelings for Malcolm, We know she loves him but we didn't need to hear about it over and over again. 

This will be highly recommended to my romance reader friends and I am looking forward to reading future books from this author!