Yeah fine, I'll accept that I loved this so much more than I expected, even if Sage's chapters bored me and I just wanted to get back to Charlie and Luke.

Also, well, this made me flat-out sob and not really in a "it's sad" way, although it is, but more in a "I feel far too seen and this reminded me of all of the messy, broken things in my life" kind of way. I'm not as strong as Charlie and Luke are, but I wish I were.

I didn't love the parts with Sage, mostly because her back and forth with Nick was so typical of a YA book. Once I understood that she was protecting Charlie, I appreciated their sneaking around more, but I think it's so dumb for a couple that has nothing to lose to lie to each other. But whatever. That aside, I also didn't love some of Sage's actions regarding Charlie's sexuality; it's not fair of her to tell him when and where to come out and to act like she's held hostage by his secrecy. But in fairness, I did see her perspective as well; I just think she was being a tad selfish (and I suppose that was kind of the point).

Anyway, I really appreciated the discussion of how hard it is to come out and I absolutely adored Charlie. I don't love when books pull the "I don't want us to be together in secret, so you have to come out" card, but I think it worked better with this book than it has in other ones. Charlie still did it on his terms and his time and more as a result of realizing the importance of his relationship with Luke than emotional blackmail. I do wish the book had discussed that it's unfair of someone to expect someone else to come out for them but I also realize that there's a level of honesty someone would like in a relationship and I don't think Charlie was fair to Luke at many points either.

So yeah, this book isn't perfect, but it captivated me, I read most of it today, and the writing is really good. I ended up being swept into their drama, their lives, their loves, and I would absolutely die for Luke and Charlie. The cutest. The sweetest. The best.

-Book Hugger

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review! This is no way impacted my review/rating of the book.