i enjoyed a good amount of things in this book, but the little things that i didn’t enjoy as much really stood out to me and made this book a good read but not a great one. 

let’s start with what i liked:

1) 
i always enjoy reading about characters they have passions and try their best to stick to those. 
no matter what those passions are, characters that know what the enjoy and don’t try to be someone else to fit in but instead be weird and a little different in their own way? always a preference. and both celine and brad where those kind of characters as well as most of the side characters as well. 
brad and celine where good characters with nice personalities that were enjoyable to follow along for the most part. 

even if i want to say that having read the brown sisters trilogy- celine felt a bit of a mix of the sisters from that series. not a negative, just something i noticed. 

so great cast of characters! 

2) 
i loved the parents -and siblings!- from both main characters! 
it’s sadly pretty rare to see great adults in YA books, especially parents so having more than one of them in one book was fantastic to see. 
they were supportive and tried their best but where also humans and made mistakes and whereby always perfect role models or showed their kids perfectly how to do things. 
but they loved and supported and listed to their kids in their own ways and that’s beautiful to find in this kind of book and it’s target audience. 

3) 
the representation of OCD and showing the daily struggles but also that it can be managed and is not the sadly trendy funny little quotable thing that so many people misuse and “label” themselves with but an actual daily if not just general constant struggle to focus on what’s actually happening instead of listening to the compulsive thoughts or falling into the need to do the necessary routine of what ever the compulsion expects. 
Brad was a nice character to represent both the struggle and show that while the struggle is there coping mechanisms can help and work. 
but also that support systems are extremely helpful. 
i do wish that the OCD itself would have been a bit more of a topic itself but it’s not a book about an OCD character. it’s a romance with a character having it and for that it was well done. 

4) 
the friendships 
this book had so mans different but wonderful friendships. 
different types and personalities all making it work to show that actual real friends can come from a lot of different situations and with a wide range of different group of people and interests. 
in general i loved the many different characteristics represented in this book but showing especially the target audience of this book that even if it might not look like people might be someone that you would normally befriend can still become a great friend. 
and that not all friends need the same interests and dreams, everyone can follow their own dreams and aspirations and the friends be supportive and cheer them on all the way. 
as shown here. 

on to what i didn’t love as much (which is not to say i hated it, just that i feel some things could have been done better or slightly different and made the entire book better overall with it):

1)
the over the top drama -especially at the beginning. 
look i get it. 
hormones are not something to scruff at in that age range! 
something very small can feel enormous and life changing. 
but most of the drama comes down to that Celine and brad didn’t just talk to each other after a moment both of them behaved in a way the it her didn’t like and said stuff they clearly didn’t mean. 
so the constant talk in the binding of them being enemies? that was fine the first two times but any other time after it just got a bit too repetitive and it happens a good amount until they finally managed to talk to each other. 

2) 
the extreme switch from hate to friends. 
for all the over the top drama for so long? felt a bit too fast how after such a short time and basically one real conversation it all just …puff was okay again?
mhm. 

3) 
the ending  (not really a spoiler but if you don’t want to know how a romance ends just skip this point  and know the ending didn’t work for me)

it felt a bit too nicely and needle wrapped up. 
it’s a romance so we all know how this story goes but the last drama and than the bit finally felt too rushed on the few pages it good and it all ending a bit too neatly for me to love it. there were so many things that were made into this big thing throughout this entire story either solved in basically a sentence or just minimized as if they never were bit thing to begin with… just not how love seeing things wrapped up

4) 
the scholarship stuff. 
i liked the idea of it but the overall things just felt a bit too random and we never really got that many details on how exactly it all worked and the winner would be chosen and if any of the others would get something for making it as far as they did as well. 

as i said, i liked the idea but for being the thing the book was build around it felt too underdeveloped and a bit too loose overall. as if it could be what it was needed to be at any moment, at least that’s how it read to me. 


it’s a good book. 
and i think it has its funny and entertaining moment. 
it’s snarky and realistic in many aspects and a good 
read that will keep you turning the pages. 


 it’s well written and well targeted for its YA audience.