Book safety, content warnings, and tropes & tags down below.

“If I wasn’t numb to everything. If it was before. If it was five years ago. I might have smiled. I might have laughed. But it’s not. And I feel like a pillow is pressing down on my face, suffocating me with regret and painful memories.”

My first Charli Meadows book, and certainly won’t be my last. Fallon is definitely affected by trauma, and feelings of guilt and abandonment, but he’s also just a reserved and quiet person. I liked that he didn’t get a personality transplant just by working through some of that. Ryder is such an endearing mix of dude-bro and golden retriever, as well as being a super-dirty-in-the-bedroom sweetheart. Like, if I ever had a kid, I’d want my kid to be like Ryder. Well, without the dirty bedroom stuff, maybe. I wouldn’t wanna know, atleast, lol.

“Do your lips hurt?” I ask. “No,” he responds, breath hot against my touch. “Damn,” I tease. “I was gonna kiss them better.”

I normally don’t read romance with MCs this young, but I really loved it. This was a very low angst sexual awakening/coming of age type book. I still want to read Al and Joel’s story tho, lol. Single dad, age gap, son’s basketball coach? Sign me up. But yeah, even tho the parent figures stole the show for me a little (I wished we got more scenes between Fallon and his uncle), I loved this book. A little heartbreaking, a little sweet, and a little fun. Just solid overall. Adored the writing.

I think this was my favorite quote:

“I don’t deserve him. But I think I’m going to let myself have him.”

OH, and plus points for a ‘little sister’ character/prominent female character that didn’t get on my nerves within the first three pages. Sofie was awesome. Highly recommend. I’m gonna go back and start with Cali Boy. Soon. Ish. Hopefully sometime this year.

Extra btw, fucking kudos to these guys for banging on a bean bag. I can’t even sit down and get up from one of those without resembling an overturned turtle.

Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️

⚠️ Tropes & tags ⚠️
Friends to lovers, forced proximity, virgin x2, opposites attract, pseudo-stepbrothers? (dad and uncle of MCs are dating), high school romance, basketball, coming of age, sexual awakening, past trauma, found family, musician, piercings and funky hair, nipples ftw, size difference

⚠️⚠️ Content warning ⚠️⚠️
Explicit sexual content
Violence
Underage drinking and drugs
Bullying (outside of the MCs)
Homophobia
Parental loss (off page in the past)
Parental neglect (off page)
Grief
Anxiety
Depression

⚠️⚠️⚠️ Book safety ⚠️⚠️⚠️
Cheating: No
OM drama: No
Third-act breakup: No
POV: 1st person, dual POV
Strict roles or versatile: Strict roles