3.5 stars.

My second Rachel Lynn Solomon read this year. I really enjoy her writing style and she delivers a cute and comfortable contemporary with fun characters. The development of the plot wasn't as sophisticated as her See You Yesterday, but this simply shows her evolution as an author. This earlier work still is a fun read and demonstrates excellent promise in Solomon's writing.

The storyline and the character relationships are fun and cute, but they are not intensely explored or developed. I wanted more from these characters and really wanted to immerse in the issues that Quinn had with her parents. For such an intense impact on her life, the "dealing with it" portion of the novel felt like it somewhat skimmed over the issue.

There is some discussion among reviewers about issues with the Muslim representation in the book. While not a Muslim myself, I can see the point of practicing reviewers who pointed out problems with the way the character of Tarek was written. There is a lot of expectation for writers to explore diversity in their novels and I appreciate that Solomon tried to make her character base more well-rounded, but it is unclear if she had OwnVoices input on her character prior to publication. In my case as a reader, I didn't really recognize the issue due to my personal lack of exposure and understanding of the Muslim community and religion, but I agree that accurate representation is important and suggest that potential readers do seek out OwnVoices reviews to understand more fully.

All in all, a light YA read that I found cute and moderately enjoyable.