what i loved most about this book where the two main characters and how they were and stated very uniquely themselves throughout the entire book.

the introvert didn’t suddenly love speaking to strangers or found it fantastic to stand on a stage.

religion didn’t suddenly lose all meaning because a love interest was found.

and it was so nice to see someone talk about the differences between jews and muslims without any comparing or judgment but rather a reminder that one religion is different from the other and if you believe in a god you might want to be respectful of anyone else believing in one as well!

i also enjoyed how there were little mistakes made that were actual mistakes -something done with good will in mind but still wrong in the end- and it was talked about.

i also really enjoyed how racism especially casually brushed aside one is discussed in this book. it’s great to see a book show how it is in real life, someone mentions something that bothers them about clear unjust and another person mentions something completely unrelated but similar in topic and the whole conversation switches away from the racism topic.
i like how the authors pointed that out and that it’s not okay to do that, that it’s important to actually talk about those issues and that they should not be brushed aside causally.


i also really enjoyed how the characters grew and learned to fight their own battles - and how the parents that pushed them towards those battles all of a sudden found it a bit strange that their kids would actually fight.
because if you were lucky and had involved parents how often did that actually happen?
then pushing you towards something or into something you didn’t want to do but than you do it and start to find your own way of doing it and all of a sudden they question of it’s actually the best use of your time.
that was about the most realistic portray of parents!


i also really enjoyed the relationship between the main big and his little sister! it’s so nice to see a supportive but still realistic sibling relationship in a book!


clearly there were a lot of great moments and details in this book!



it clearly had heavy political themes and topics and talks going on, a lot of mentions of how campaigns are run and done in the USA. and while those parts weren’t don’t badly i have to say as someone not from the US it did start to get a bit boring from time to time.
wasn’t a huge deal but still it happened.

i also wasn’t a fan of the friendship between our main girl and her supposed best friend. as a person preference i enjoy it more of a female friendship is n it portrait as this was: something easily exchangeable and always deeper from one side then the other.
i like it better when girls support girls.
and while i am sure what the book showed is realistic i wish it would have done it differently and more of a supportive role or gone the whole way into the negative and shown that some friendships are better left alone. either way would have worked for me but this strange middle ground wasn’t for me.

also i mentioned how i enjoyed that the religion and believes of the teens didn’t just disappear or become unimportant once they would a love interest BUT there is one moment and sorry if you consider that a spoiler but its a romance? so i don’t?
but if you don’t want to know anything about the book that if you are very picky to. it know anything don’t read the next section!

i don’t know a lot or anything really about the muslim faith other than very basic knowledge so when in this book it’s mentioned that kissing is also considered something very special between basically the man and woman that know they will want to marry.
which i find perfectly acceptable! if it’s your faith that you don’t kiss until you are sure about your partner? that perfectly fine! there is so much more than all that body stuff that could and i think should be more discussed in especially YA romance books to remind especially teens that it perfectly fine to NOT always kiss or make everything sexual.
that a relationship is more than that, that real intimacy isn’t archived through body parts but rather knowing your partner very well.
so i was wishing for that once the no kissing was mentioned.
but i was disappointed wo the that because of course there has to be this big drama moment and then a kiss.
which i don’t get?
why make a big think out of not kissing and saving those moments but than doing it anyways and not even discussing what that means? why not then take it a step father und make it a discussion of what it means now that they have kissed?


that might be something not a lot of people are so not-picky about but for me it was something that bothered me a bit mostly because the drama that surrounded the whole topic and than it was just ignored without any explanation.


all in all?
cute romance that discusses real and realistic topics and has great family moments!