Listen. Look and listen. I’m only here for henry and alex and that’s it. I love their relationship, i thought that they were cute, i love those sweet emails they sent to each other, i love the longing and the bantz and not for much else.

First of all, I didn’t care for the politics, frankly I thought it was boring and I just sped read through it because 1. I’m not american nor am I british 2. i DO NOT care about fictional election campaign. 3. I was here to read about some lighthearted romance and not about politic. I did not sign up for that. Some people pointed out that the political part about this book is flawed and sterilized and I do agree with that. The politic seems like a big part of the book but also at the same time, it just feels so contrived, not realistic at all compared to how dirty and complex the actual thing is. There were also some comments being made throughout the book by the characters about torture chambers, waterboarding etc. and it was passed on as a joke which is horrifying.

I also don’t know what to feel about reading a book that focuses on these two men’s romantic relationship (also one of them being a POC) with pretty explicit sex scenes written by a white woman and how almost, almost everytime they meet with each other they’re always having sex (i mean have yall ever heard about the fetishization of gay men being done by female audience????) and honestly the book did feel fanfiction-y at times.

Overall though it was an okay book, I did scream at some point or another because I was rooting for Henry and Alex to get together. But as far as characterizations go, there’s just nothing special about them.
Also I just wished that the author focused more on the growth of their relationship and the change of their dynamic from enemies to lovers because i would’ve much preferred to see them growing in a slow-burn (because the premise of the book WAS enemy to lover) instead of the author rushing them to be together immediately after their second or third meeting.