Rating: 2.5 rounded up to 3

In hindsight the title is cute as hell for this, referencing one of the scenes I did find genuinely cute in this book. Overall, though, it didn't really work for me. But before I get into that, I want to say how much I *adored* the representation in this book, specifically the allosexual-aromantic rep. I've been fed excellently with aro-ace rep lately, but as an allo-aro myself I'm always missing that real connection with the characters. Jonah is pansexual aromantic and I love the way it's explained and the way that the main character handles both that explanation and the bisexual/pansexual discussion. It was so validating to read such easy acceptance and I loved the confidence with which Jonah was able to talk about it. The main character, Hallie, is Jewish and her thoughts about her faith play a large part of the book. I really enjoyed reading about it, and I actually spent some time between chapters googling Jewish traditions that were unfamiliar to me and learning more.

The rest of the story, unfortunately, just didn't quite click with me. In all honesty, it felt a lot like some of the trapped-in-the-woods, huddle-for-warmth fanfiction I've read, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. That feeling is probably why I devoured the whole thing in one day, it was super easy to read. But while it focused a lot on dialogue and conversation, and the developing friendship between the two awkward near-strangers, I didn't have the kind of depth of character understanding to make me *really* care about Hallie and Jonah. I wanted to care deeply about seeing them become close, but I really didn't know either character well enough to care.

Right at the end there was more danger just kind of shoe-horned in, and I didn't feel like it was particularly necessary. There wasn't a huge emotional pay off and we were so close to the end I knew it would be fine. A lot of the sense of danger in this story actually distracted me from the developing friendship. I was getting so annoyed that they were having these moments of intimacy when their friends and family were injured and trapped and relying on them - I would have liked it a lot better if they'd been trapped alone and it was about them getting to know each other in their camp. Maybe it's just my under-treated anxiety, but the thought of being distracted by sex when my fourteen year old cousin is in mortal peril just didn't work for me.

All that being said, this *was* fun to read and I did read it all super fast so I'd still pick it up if you get a chance to, it's interesting and has great aro rep - I think I wanted a slightly different book, that's all.