This book started out strong and could have been an excellent romance. I adored AHB’s writing in theory and felt like she did an amazing job of creating messy characters you didn’t always like but emotionally connected to. But the narrative choices made me scratch my head and ultimately made my reading experience just “meh.” 

By the middle of the book, the romance between Delilah and Claire was completely overshadowed by other relationships: Astrid’s relationship with Spencer and Claire’s relationship with Josh were massive plot points of a sapphic romance, which felt weird. It was such a weird choice to make it seem like Claire just couldn’t help but have sex with Josh when they were alone together, hence the need for Delilah, Astrid and Iris’s presence on the camping trip. This is a romance novel about Claire and DELILAH. Why am I worried as a reader she still wants to jump her ex’s bones?

As others have pointed out, Claire and Delilah’s relationship was driven by the action of others and conflicts were solved not through conversations but strange plot devices (discovering a diary that reveals a tight-lipped character’s innermost thoughts from childhood! How convenient!)

Overall, while I appreciated AHB’s ability to write really deep and complicated interpersonal relationships, a lot of these relationships overshadowed the primary romance. 

Delilah and Claire’s relationship was the least interesting relationship in this book and felt mostly sexual. I just didn’t get why they were paired up together.