I was very excited to read this book. I have truly loved this series. I love how the characters are all interwoven but each story is hugely different from the one before. I honestly didn’t think Perkins could top herself after I read Lola, but I was wrong. This book was just as good if not better.

Isla is this straight laced, gets good grades, keeps to herself, never breaks the rules kind of girl. She smart but has an underlying yearning to be something just a bit different. She’s trying to find herself but really doesn’t know where to look. Her insecurities are glaringly obvious, especially when it comes to boys. She’s obsessed with her classmate, Josh. He’s been the object of her affection since they were freshman. But she doesn’t think he notices her, and since he had a long time girlfriend she never thought they would have a chance. Her insecurity wreaks havoc with her ability to see that she is truly worthy of affection and love. Thankfully, she develops well and learns that she should be happy with who she is and that she needs to take chances. I can say that I didn’t relate to Isla as much as I did Anna and Lola, but there was something about Isla that really made me like her immensely.

Josh, well, we met him in the previous books. But we didn’t get too much about him. We know he’s this kid who constantly blows off classes and doesn’t seem to care about school. What we don’t know is that Josh has his own insecurities. Not only about his ability to love and what that means, but also about the choices he has made in life. He’s so much more under the surface than you see. I kind of wished we could have had his POV in this book, but Isla does a good job of fleshing him out and showing us who he is, mostly through his graphic novel autobiography. And the fact that he’s always had a thing of Isla is just true love screaming for them to make it.

Kurt,oh boy. He’s Isla’s best friend since they were in diapers. And just to make it perfectly clear, that is all they are, and there is never a hint of anything more. When you meet him you’ll understand why. He is extremely quirky and a creature of extreme habit. He’s also not one to hold back not only how he feels but what he wants to say. Sometimes to the point of it being inappropriate. I really loved the relationship between Kurt and Islas, though. He never held back from telling her exactly what he thought and she often needed that!

Their relationship certainly has its rocky moments. And Isla’s insecurity gets in the way more often than not. She’s constantly trying to understand how Josh could possibly want to be with her, what he sees in her, how he can give his love to her. Josh wants her to take risks and open up, but it’s hard for her to break free from the regimented life she’s created for herself. Perkins does a great job with the anticipation in the relationship, the build up from crush to love as it unfolds in a fairly short amount of time. Then she brings it crashing down and wrenches your heart with Isla’s rash decisions. There are some more adult scenes in this book, not excessively descriptive, but you get the idea of what is happening.

Perkins does a fabulous job with the world building in this book. In Anna we got some glimpses of Paris. In this book, it continues even more in depth than what we had before. And Perkins expands the world to include not only New York City (and since I’m a native New Yorker, you can imagine I was nit picky). Her descriptions are spot on. And even as she was describing Barcelona (a place I have never been but have studied the architecture of in the past) I could vividly picture it all in my head, like I was right there with the characters. And I love how she incorporates our old favorite characters into the book. I loved seeing them!

My favorite part of this book was how emotional it was. I mean the other two were also full of emotions, but this one actually brought tears to my eyes and made them spill over. Not big ugly tears but tears that said “oh no” and then hope that things would work themselves out in the end.

If you’ve enjoyed the other books in this series, you will certainly love this one. Reminiscent of Kasie West’s The Distance Between Us, Isla shows us what it’s like to find true love and learn how to take the risk to trust ourselves to feel it and experience it.