I’m struggling to work out what rating to give this book.

On the positive side, I loved both characters and their relationship. I felt real love between them.

Unfortunately, their journey to that love felt kind of meh? It was like there were gaps in it. There was an initial attraction, then some stuff happened, and then they were in love, but the “stuff happened” felt like isolated, unconnected events, rather than an emotional journey?

Also, I honestly don’t mind when authors reuse plot elements, set pieces, or even whole plots and character arcs in multiple books! Some of my favourite books are ones where authors have done this! However, in this book, there are two scenes that have been reused from Stars Collide, and in this book they should be more emotionally impactful because the stakes in this book are higher, but they are just not. In particular,

the scene where Taylor convinces Natalie to go jogging wearing a disguise of a baseball cap and sunglasses is so similar to Anna convincing Eden to do the same in Stars Collide, but doesn’t have the same sense of panic, and doesn’t seem to have any consequences. It’s not until the final chapter that we find out that Taylor was mostly just upset that she thought Nat was putting on a show for the cameras, and Natalie wasn’t actually scared because she really was so focused on helping Taylor. Same scene, but handled so poorly. But the most ridiculous thing is that Taylor was Eden’s bodyguard during that scene in Stars Collide! She should know from experience that going for a jog in a hat and sunglasses doesn’t work, and it will just end up in you and your traumatised love interest being mobbed by pushy fans!

Anyway, the middle of the book felt a bit meh, but the start and end were good!