Thank you so much to Forever for the complimentary copy of this!
Thank you so much to Hachette Audio for the complimentary ALC!

This book is out now!

I am in a buddy read for this one that was spearheaded by a bookstagrammer who made this book her personality which meant I totally had to read it.

I love that this took place in a college and we really got to see the side characters in this. Of course my focus was on our main couple Leigh and Will. The way Will would always have his eyes on Leigh in class and in the library - swoon. And there was a moment towards the end that we learn that he assists her in a task that she was not able to complete that literally made me go "of course he would do that!" The two have been pining after each other since high school and it's very apparent that those old feelings just don't go away no matter how hard you try. Also who knew hooking up in a library would be SO sexy?!

"I can't write a single poem where you don't exist."

I am very torn on how I feel about the HEA in this. Leading up to the end I thought it was more a Happy For Now until both characters took the time to grow separately and perhaps seek therapy. The turnaround time between the 3rd act break up to reconciling was just not enough. They really needed to work on themselves. Leigh was just TOO competitiveness and insecure and I just found it hard to believe that it wouldn't happen again if she would stay with Will while they were still in classes together.

There was a moment with Leigh and her therapist where I thought "Am I Leigh?" There is a moment when the therapist says, "Your first reaction, when someone ignores you, is to assume that there's something wrong with you. You assign your self worth based on your perception of what others think about you. WOOF - I felt attacked when I read it and attacked again as I type this out. I love that the author made it a point to have Leigh see a therapist on the pages. I also thought it was refreshing to show Leigh's parents relationship unfold in adulthood.

I paired my reading with the audiobook. This was narrated by Sarah Beth Goer and I thought she was a fabulous narrator! She was able to bring out the vulnerable Leigh needed and when she would do Will's dialogue, she would have to bring out a softer side to him too.

Ultimately I still really enjoyed the book and was invested on how the story would end. There were parts that had me smiling from ear to ear and giggly over what their future could be (*cough* pumpkin patch*cough*).

This was a debut and I'm excited to see what Katie Naymon will do in the future.

I recommend this book if you are looking for an academia setting, second chance romance with occasional flashbacks.

PS - I often don't fancast while I read but I could not get German actor Damian Hardung (Maxon Hall) out of my head for Will especially after seeing a photo of him with glasses on.