<b>Quick Stats</b>
Age Rating: 12/13+
Over All: 2.5 stars
Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2.5/5
Setting: 3/5
Writing: 3/5

<i>Special thanks to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.</i>

Was this book bad? No. Was it good? Also no. Did I read the whole thing because I was inexplicably invested in it? Yes.
Honestly, that sums up my feelings on this book pretty succinctly, but I’ll do my best to elaborate.

This book is childhood friends/crushes who had a falling out and became estranged until they meet again years later and maybe become something more? I absolutely love this trope, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of the way it played out in this book.
Alexa is way too hung up on a middle school friendship/relationship that lasted a whole four months. Like, this flirtationship has affected her so fully that she doesn’t watch TV, go on social media, read magazines, exist in pop culture. It was really hard to suspend my disbelief. It was way too dramatic.
Meanwhile, we don’t even see the love interest, Carson Knight-turned-Cayden McKnight (the name change was unnecessary and just made things confusing, honestly), until 30% into the book. And then, there’s just some broody eye contact and 0 words spoken. After that, Carson/Cayden isn’t seen for another 50+ pages. Nothing really happens in these 50 pages.
Then Alexa starts stalking Carson/Cayden again. They have some weird, angsty conversations. They fall in love. Everyone lives happily ever after—just kidding! Of course there’s the eternally dreaded third act miscommunication trope & breakup!
The thing about Cayden McKnight is that he is the Broody Bad Boy everyone loves to hate (or hates to love? Both?). He thinks that this persona is the only reason he’s famous, and if he lets even a crack show, he will suddenly never work again and will go back to the relative poverty* he grew up in. And dating someone—especially a non-celebrity? Well, that would simply be the end of his career.
*Carson/Cayden’s one big personality trait and sob story past is that he grew up poor. Except it was this whole big thing, when in reality he seemed relatively low income but nowhere near impoverished.
Honestly, the whole “if I date her my career is ruined because my bad boy persona will be shattered completely!” was the most annoying thing ever. Because 1. He was a douche about it and 2. It just doesn’t make sense. When has a male celebrity <i>ever</i> gotten heat for dating literally anyone? We are also constantly told that people thinking he’s a decent human being is going to ruin his reputation, career, and lose him all his fans, but every instance we see of this occurring, has positive affects on how his fans view him, except we’re told it’s ruining his career while people fangirl and gawk over him. The things we’re told by Cayden, and by Alexa, and by talk show hosts, are in direct opposition to the events we actually see play out.
That whole aspect of the book really just made me want to hit this boy upside the head.

Like I said, this book was not good. But I also became weirdly invested in it. I felt physical pain at reading it, and yet I finished the whole thing quickly and never felt like I was forcing myself to read it. I actually wanted to keep reading, and I almost hated myself for that fact. I don’t pretend to have sophisticated taste in books, but the fact that I was somehow enjoying a book whilst actively disliking almost every aspect of it was confusing, to say the least.
Would I recommend this book to someone? No. Would I dissuade someone from reading this book if they were interested? Also no.
Make of this what you will.