Three stars for the heroine, Harper. Lance gets zero. Seriously, he started off amazing. And I had been waiting for his book! I wanted to love him. But about halfway in he becomes insufferable. Even further in and his words and actions are pretty much emotional abuse.

Also, I get that they spent two years apart, but for the love of everything, stop having the heroines wait around, not even thinking of sex with someone else, but the man is back to getting laid, even if he “hated himself after”. Then we find out he slept with the girl who cheated on him in high school, even though she’s in a committed relationship with Lance’s old high school bully. This really took Lance down a notch for me.

This book had so much potential. If the angst had been dialed back just a bit. Or if Lance wasn’t such a huge jerk turning Harper into a doormat. She needed to leave and he needed to spend some time groveling. I also would have liked it since Harper was too in love to have sex with anyone else during their breakup, then Lance should have been written the same way. I just hate the stupid standards that authors seem to hold their female characters to. They both were supposedly heartbroken. It would have made just as much sense for Harper to also find comfort in that way.

Edit: I am re-reading books in this series (for other reviews) and why in the hell didn’t I mention the blatant racism and the playing of stereotypes before? I know that the characterization of Rene bothered me then. (He’s both the gay BFF stereotype and the way the author writes about him being Latinx? Oof)

Also, it’s ridiculous how often the author mentions that Harper is “unattractive”. Apparently her legs and butt are good, but gotta diss everything else. Another oof.

I’m still pissed about the sexism.

Upon re-read (dnf this time) I’m changing this one to a two star. I still liked Harper.