I wanted so much to love this. A witchy version of the BSC felt like it would be made for me, but sadly it didn't live up to my internal hype. The writing felt more middle grade than YA to me, and the main character, who's supposed to be 17, read more like she was 12 or 13. The first two-thirds of the book felt really slow, and yet there wasn't much character development/depth. The faster paced last third bumped it up to two stars for me, because I felt like something interesting was finally happening.

The review that said that this is a f/f romance written for straight people is pretty spot on. It's insta-love fluff in which the people falling in love happen to be women, which would be great if everything about their relationship didn't feel so heteronormative.

Nope to the "bully romance" trope, and a giant nope to her being under 18. I finished it because I wanted to see where the train wreck went, but I mostly skimmed because...nope.

I skimmed most of this and probably should have just DNFed. I kept waiting for the Major Drama that usually comes up 75-80% of the way through a romance, but it never really happened. Didn’t care about Isa, found her family stuff annoying, couldn’t get past that.

This book is utterly delightful! I LOVE enemies-to-lovers, but this? Lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers is my new favorite trope. I loved the writing so much that I was able to get past how frustrating I found Naomi at the beginning. I laughed out loud through a lot of it, I cried, and my heart felt SO FULL. If the author rewrote the book from Nicholas’s perspective, I would 100% read it immediately.

CW: abuse. I only kept reading this one because it was so absurd. Also, literally everyone in this book needs therapy.

I kept hoping this one would improve; it did not. It felt like every cliche you'd expect a romance novel to be--nothing fun or exciting.

I didn’t love it as much as Guts, but I found her friendship struggles relatable and enjoyed the quick read.

I wish this book had existed when I was 10-11 years old. I relate so much, and I feel like it would have helped me feel less shame around my anxiety.