This was...not good. I'm honestly surprised that I disliked this book as much as I did. The premise sounded promising -- Black teens fall in love but also have their own family drama and traumas that they have to work through. Cool, we have some romance but side stories that keep the book from being all about teen ~*love*~.

Brief summary to start. Rex Carrington and Carli Alexander meet and instantly fall in love in a hard-to-believe way that could rival Shakespeare's best. Carli passes out at a basketball game and who is there to catch her but ESPN's high school player of the year, Rex Carrington. After their initial meeting, we learn that Rex's dad is distant due to Rex's mother dying after childbirth and Carli's parents are divorcing for reasons they refuse to share. Carli also juggles with the difficulty of telling her dad that she no longer wants to play basketball but aside from that has no idea what she wants to do with her life. Family drama and misunderstandings ensue.

First of all, let me tell you if you are looking for the WORST and I mean THE WORST young adult romantic male lead, look no further than Rex Carrington. This kid is selfish, stalks Carli (literally, multiple times!), yells at her, and that's not even the worst part. I can't with this guy. God forbid anyone else have their own struggles that detract their attention away from Rex or dare disturb his future in basketball!

Other issues with this book:
- The two main characters fall in love IMMEDIATELY. Not just in the first chapter, but on the first PAGE!
- Despite being drenched in teenage love hormones, Carli and Rex don't talk to or engage with one another until almost 100 pages into the book after their first encounter. And with the passing out part, it's not like their first meeting was full of witty get-to-know-you banter. Then when they DO finally see each other again !BOOM! they're in a relationship; no dates, no texting, just straight up boyfriend and girlfriend with exchanges of "I love you's" not long after.
- This leads to another issue I had with the book. These characters are SO QUICK to judge each other. And you know why? Because they DON'T KNOW EACH OTHER!
- The POV switched way too frequently for me to connect with either character. I at least got to somewhat sympathize with Carli in the last 30 pages of the book, but never NEVER Rex.
- The overuse of so many tropes: secret love child (second I've read in a week; why is this becoming a storytelling tool??), child thinks they killed parent and is thus laden with guilt
- I think the writing at times tried to be existential and deep but just ended up coming across as weird ramblings

In summary, I did not like this book.