Sigh. Don't get me wrong. 3 stars is not a bad rating. It's just that this book was one of my most anticipated reads and I was so convinced that I would adore everything about it, and instead, it fell short in so many ways.

the good:
• Rafe is super sweet, gentle, and 100% anti-toxic masculinity
• Sloan is a brilliant, hilarious, badass surgeon & mother
• the kids are cute AF
• Xeni & Monica are 10/10

the bad:
• too much pointless dialogue, not enough happening
• a lot of really awkward phrasing that doesn't make sense (I'm not referring to word choices and slang, I'm referring to words missing from sentences, etc.)
• a tremendously rushed ending
• forced tension between Sloan & Rafe (there's one scene where they act like they've had some sort of fight, but it was really just... nothing?? there's literally no tension present on-page WHATSOEVER, but they make a big deal out of it and it feels so forced)
• lots of minor annoying, unrealistic incidents
• most of the side characters are incredibly flat and one-dimensional