I enjoyed this one more than Hoangs' first novel. Which may be due to the fact that I read the first on audio and the narration was a bit cheesy. I loved the characters way more and the story line was more interesting to me. I highly recommend this book. You don't need to read the first book to enjoy this, but you may want to as some of the characters from the first make cameos.This book was filled with humor, heart, and just the right amount of steam.