This was wild. 3.5 stars

Interesting storyline and the twists were actually very well done.
I didn’t love it, but it was enjoyable. There wasn’t much development in any of the main characters and the mom character was very 2 dimensional.
The “why” was explained, but I didn’t believe the level of desperation that led to the “idea”

THIS WAS PRECIOUS AND HAPPY AND HEALING

There is probably nothing more quintessentially queer than hooking up with someone, and then not realizing for weeks that the other person is also gay. Alexei’s “are you gay??” had me cackling.

The religious trauma was raw, real, and helped me to articulate some of my own complicated emotions surrounding religion. (I’m not sure if Alexei grew up Mormon, but it definitely seemed like he grew up Mormon.) It felt so healing for me to start this journey with Alexei and watch him grieve while also becoming more comfortable being himself.

I loved learning all about the PCT and all of the work and planning that goes into a journey like that. I literally didn’t even know the PCT existed and now I’m fascinated by it and want to learn all I can.

The letters???? Fucked. Me. Up.

I cried so much that I felt hungover the next day. And as soon as I finished it I started again.
I loved it.

Dahlia and London on a cooking show similar to Hells Kitchen!!!!! Non-binary chef on national TV!!!!! So happy!!

Brendon (creator of popular dating app) has had a crush on his sister’s best friend Annie for years and has been unlucky in love. He’s a big-romantic-gesture kind of guy.

Annie is in the city for a surprise vacation. Brendon hasn’t seen her in 8 years, but offers to show her around the city and learns that she believes that romance is dead. He decides to convince her that it’s not.
Stupidly adorable, even for a hetero romance. The Ferris wheel scene early in the book really just made me love them both

I didn’t particularly enjoy Elle or Darcy (couple in the first book of this series) in this book though. Their personalities seemed too OOC and annoying? I don’t know if that’s just because we see less of the wholesome stuff in this book, but something seemed off about it

Time travel (kind of time-loop, too) romcom. Stupidly cute

Okay. I loved Truman and Ash and I wish there had been more to their story and character development. The continued inclusion of Ramona in both stories was wildly confusing since she didn’t seem to add anything after giving them the house swap idea. But Jesus H Christ at Greta and Carys.
Greta alone was fine, although kind of annoying. But Carys?? Infuriating.
She acts like she’s this great, benevolent, enlightened person, but she’s super manipulative and I don’t think that was addressed at all. And Greta decides this is the love of her life? Greta has better chemistry and more in common with Carys’s roommates than with Carys.

Among SEVERAL other things she got mad at Greta for “crossing a boundary and disrespecting her” but didn’t ACTUALLY communicate about it beforehand? The situation: the morning after a large party, Carys is hungover and Greta offers to clean up and make her some food while she sleeps. Carys says “don’t worry about it, I’ll do it later”. Greta leaves and runs errands and then comes back and cleans the house and makes some food for Carys, who is still asleep. The next day, Carys has this whole SPEECH about how it’s a tradition for she and her roommates to cleanup the day after the party and Greta ruined that (somehow?). Almost verbatim, she tells Greta “I explicitly told you not to do this” and “you’re selfish because you think you know what I need better that I do” which, no.

KEEP IN MIND they aren’t DATING and they have known each other for MAYBE three weeks if I’m generous with the timeline. She couldn’t have said “oh Greta that’s so sweet of you but it’s okay I have a tradition of cleaning up with my friends so don’t worry about it thank you anyway here’s a smooch”???

And then to make Greta APOLOGIZE and feel bad?????? FOR SOMETHING SHE DIDNT KNOW ABOUT WHEN SHE WAS JUST BEING NICE?????? I’m not debating the fact that this interaction led to Greta coming to some realizations about her own family, but the way the two totally different situations were compared made me so angry.

I wasn’t sure if I was wrong for disliking literally everything about Carys, but I felt better about it after reading similar reviews.
Anyway. Ash was a sweetheart and definitely my favorite character.

It wasn’t bad, but not particularly memorable. Like other reviewers, I think it would have had more depth if the book was dual perspective- I don’t understand why Ari was SO into Nina, and also Ari was just all around more interesting.
I think I was mainly disappointed it wasn’t more similar to that other lesbian Hollywood book.

Why do cis queer men always get the best written romances? Anyway, this was cute and everything I wanted. Charlie is adorable. Daphne is adorable. Dev is a lot, but adorable. Televised queer love????? ADORABLE.
Mental health played a big part and featured a character with OCD (like, actual OCD, and addressed the “oh I’m OCD because I like things to be neat” trope)