Harper Horowitz is at the top of her dental class and ready to enter the competitive world of oral-maxillofacial surgery.  Nothing can distract her from her goals... except the super hot student whose jaw cast she accidentally destroyed the other morning.  Dan Craige is a first-year dental student entering the field to carry on a family legacy after a few years in another career.  He's feeling the pressure to save his family's dental practice after his father's death, but knows this isn't the field he's meant to be in.  When Harper and Dan collide -- literally -- it forces them to reevaluate their paths, their goals, and their outlook on love.

It's probably good to start this review with a quick disclaimer: I think this is primarily a case of "it's not you, it's me," and I am someone who has been fairly mentally ill her entire life, including dealing with an anxiety disorder like Harper does.

This book sets out to do something really tough - make dentists sexy.  For me, it doesn't really succeed.  There's no graphic dental work here, but there's still a lot of dentistry going on.  Lots of studying, lots of explaining how to make molds, lots of thinking about facial bones and muscles.  Just not my cup of tea.

I would also say that this book is aggressively straight.  It's absolutely not homophobic, but two characters who claim to be feminists are... not really?  Dan is glad when he meets a vaguely paternal (and I mean vaguely) figure for Harper that this man doesn't have a rack of guns on his wall.  No thanks!  And while Harper verbalizes her irritation with Dan when he undermines her authority with a patient they see in clinic in a misguided attempt to support her, she doesn't care at all when he punches an academic rival of hers in an effort to do the same thing.  Call me odd, but I would much rather a man accidentally undermine me verbally than punch someone for me.  Let's not normalize violence like this??

My other biggest qualm with this book is the resolution.  Harper says some things to Dan in a state of panic that, to me, are unforgivable.  I would not forgive someone who spoke to me like that, nor would I expect to be forgiven if I said those things in a similar position, which is a totally viable possibility for me.  Somehow, Dan seems to accept the responsibility for having put her in a position where she emotionally exploded and her anxiety manifested in some pretty horrible words toward him.  There's some time that passes between this and their resolution, which was 100% necessary, but Harper needed a much more intense grovel.  Being mentally ill does not excuse you acting like a jerk, and she's absolved of this behavior much too quickly.  

Like I said, this is really a case of this book just not being my thing.  I'd be careful recommending it to people with anxiety issues, but otherwise don't have a ton of concerns with it.  Thank you St. Martin's and NetGalley for the ARC!

CWs:

Harper's mother died in a car accident and her injuries/death are described but not in detail.  She went to live with extended family after that.  Harper has serious anxiety issues and there are multiple on-the-page panic attacks.  Dan has an emotionally abusive father who died of cancer and a mother working to come to terms with that abuse.  His mother is experiencing financial insecurity.  Harper experiences sexism and has a lot of internalized ableism.