Sapphic second-chance workplace/forced proximity romance. 

I loved the work project of interviewing different couples about their love stories as a background for these two former lovers rekindling their love. Highlighting these stories is so important to have representations of diverse couples (like how they said they'd never seen an elder sapphic asian couple before interviewing). Also, appreciated this book showing how being queer in Asian families can be a challenge culturally. I think a lot of people will feel seen by these character's queer journies. I also liked the spicy scenes and how Celeste helps Gemma feel more comfortable exploring her sexuality. Could I have used more? sure, but that's my personal preference.

I was nervous about a third act breakup (mainly I was scared Celeste would just be callous about their relationship saying 'I don't do relationships') but I think it was more realistic for her just to be afraid of being hurt again. And I like that they both took time apart, went to therapy (we love to see it) and then found their way back together

 

The switching between the 1st person POV for Gemma to 3rd person POV for Celeste was an odd choice - I'm not sure why it was told that way. We get so few of Celeste's POV chapters I think that also exacerbated this, and made the connection to her character a bit tougher to relate to. A pitfall of second-chance romance is that it can rely too much on an assumption of characters past connection and I think this did slightly lean that way. Just a bit too much telling about how connected they were in college and they just kinda picked that up again which felt a tad unrealistic.

Natalie's narration is fantastic, I immediately recognized her voice as I've listened to other books she's narrated so nothing lacking there!

Overall I liked this but it didn't knock me off my feet - but it was an enjoyable enough read 

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the audiobook arc