another great addition to the series. i love these characters and im so glad they continue to be out in increasingly wild situations 

not my fave CMQ book. the tour was WAY too detailed and the specifics got WAY too repetitive. 
the idea behind the story and the writing itself was amazing, i just found myself skimming due to the repetitive nature of the book

i wish i could say i liked this book more. the premise is so cool, and it could’ve been done SO well. 
but the writing style got me and i couldn’t ignore how painfully “millennial trying to be gen z” it felt. the constant repetition of words (see: josh from drake and josh), the timeline, and the way the characters kept dropping random pieces of lore that didn’t make sense were all downsides. 
i do wish the writing was better because the potential could’ve been GREAT. 
i can see other people LOVING this story, but it truly just? wasn’t for me. 

I love an epilogue. I love an epilogue even more when it’s followed by a WHOLE NOVELLA of happy times. such a wonderful experience. 
i’m rereading this series with all of the novellas this time, and i love these characters so much. 

if jj writes it, i will read it. and i was SO excited to get the arc of this book. i flew through the rest of the series (both of them) and im so happy i didn’t have to wait long for this one. 
max and luke’s story was much different than the other books in this series. i would recommend fully reading the TW/CW before picking this one up. 

this book is so special, because it shows the best case scenario for this terrible situation. the person responsible is punished. but it also shows the realize of SA and how it impacts every aspect of your life. luke was the right person at the right time for max, and im so glad they had eachother to lean on.

i love these characters and this world. 
 
adding why i took points off:

points off for the use of the word “nervy” and also the underdevelopment of margot as a character. the focus was on max and luke, but margot felt like she was included often enough that she should’ve been more developed. adding in the friendship with luke’s roommates felt inconsistent.

i love shane and ilya. more than i can put into words. their relationship is so sweet and i cant get enough of those small moments. 
i loved getting to see shane and ilya being in a relationship instead of a situationship over a decade like in heated rivals. 
seeing these men grow together, and independently was so healing. i loved the mental health aspect and how it wasn’t a straight shot of healing. mental health is messy and never linear, so seeing someone like Ilya, who seems to have it all together and a good life, struggle with mental health was… validating in a way. 
i wish they communicated more, but i also understand that’s easy to say and hard to do. 

i loved harris and troy’s relationship, specifically with the growth they both showed through the book. 
seeing troy grow comfortable with his identity, his new team, and his life was a very healing situation.  it’s hard for queer people to be queer when that identity wouldn’t be accepted in any aspect of their life, so troy’s courage was nice to see. 
i also love harris as a character. harris was unique, confident, and always willing to help anyone who needed it. 

for all the ones who looked at the content warnings and were SHOCKED and SCARED… its backstory. and it’s also not what you think at all. 
for all the ones who weren’t shocked and scared… how????
anyways, the story was fun. i liked seeing a bunch of the characters from other books coming back and seeing how these stories overlap in timeline. 
i wish we had more maria content, especially in the second half. i feel like books like this tend to… separate the main characters from their people when a relationship develops and i don’t like that energy. 
ended up cute, i love a good epilogue. i’m not a huge age gap fan or a miscommunication fan, so that took points off. 

i’m glad we got to know ryan in this story! his character seemed so interesting in the other books that im happy we got a book all about him! 
i really like right-person-wrong-time as a trope and this book did it well without overdoing it! i feel for ryan, especially with his anxiety forcing him to lead a life he was unhappy in! 
one thing i wish is that there was more communication with the boys. i feel like sometimes they got over their issues without solving them, which will lead to bigger issues in the future

a fantastic addition to the series. as a massachusetts girlie, i love seeing boston represented. i loved the timeline layout of the book and thought it was a really interesting way to tell the story. 
i do wish it felt like… fetish-y in some spots, but overall a solid read.