2022: If you can make it to Part Two, you're in for a treat.

Here's the deal: One of my friends told me to chuck this book into the ocean after I read him a line. He's not wrong - from her name being Lily Blossom Bloom and she runs a plant shop *eyeroll* to reading about how much she lauds Ellen DeGeneres *yikes* the first part has some extremely cringey moments. Don't get me started on the spontaneous wedding in Vegas that she called her mother at 2am to get her on a plane to go to (you could just wait until 8am? idk). Plus, despite some of the plot being tied up in the fact that she grew up in Maine and then moved to Boston, this was the most generic story. There was no "Maine" or "Boston" imbibed in this novel.

AND YET - Part Two almost made up for all of it. I am certainly glad that I persevered and finished the book, if only to be able to talk about it and be a part of the zeitgeist. If you're frustrated with the *many* red flags that Ryle espouses in Part One, you will be rewarded in Part Two. A taste of what you'll have to put up with to get there though: "Please, Lily. Please have sex with me. I want you so, so bad and I swear, once you have sex with me you'll never hear from me again. I promise." GIRL, RUN

Without totally spoiling everything, make sure you check out the trigger warnings on this book if you have any previous history with abuse.