this was pretty alright. i loved XOXO dearly, so mentally i did compare this a lot. this imo was just not as good as XOXO, i love the world of this series but admittedly Sori and Nathaniel were just not characters i was massively into in XOXO.
getting into spoiler territory here,

i just didn’t like how jealous Sori was of Hyemi and Nathaniel hanging out. that was weird and ick. jealousy and possessiveness in a romance gross me out. it was kinda a weird love triangle plot that was resolved by Hyemi saying she will love Nathaniel from afar “like a fan”, which. is just kinda icky.

some of the writing was just not for me (mainly things Nathaniel would say that were meant to be romantic but just made me cringe, i swear to you i read some of this in public and made a full 😖 face at some of what he said cause jesus christ)
anyway this was overall pretty sweet and the writing flowed well, just didn’t have the giggling-kicking-my-feet energy like XOXO