Are you sometimes so stubborn about what you want a book to be that you overlook what’s actually written on the cover or the back ?

Olivie Blake is an author I've wanted to read for a few years. I couldn't decide which of her books to start with until I heard about this one and some words ticked very specific boxes: PhD student character, Art, Time. I blissfully ignored the subtitle that said “a love story” and jumped in.

This novel really is a love story, can you believe it ? That being said, Blake has a very original approach to romance which did appeal to me although the genre usually doesn't. It’s a very playful novel, literary-speaking. I don’t want to give too much away, but the author plays with narration in a way I haven’t often seen and it felt very clever without being too high-brow, if that makes sense.

Rep: MC with bipolar disorder (not stated but described at length and stated in the acknowledgments), autistic-coded MC.