The release date has been pushed back to 2025 for some reason! This is irrelevant but I thought it was an interesting fact. 

The other reviewers are right -- this is two books in one. I really enjoyed the first half and practically hated the next. 

Renata was fine. She was fun at first, but some of her character's quirks and habits grew increasingly annoying as time passed. Brit was interesting in the first half and completely irritating in the second. The side characters were obnoxious throughout. 

The summer section was very good (I know I sound like a broken record but this is true): well structured, great development of character and development of relationship between them, decent world building. The fall section was not good, I did not like it whatsoever. A lot of the development was thrown out the window, the insults  were outdated and certain characters' reactions incredibly over proportional to the things that happened.

It's a fine book: it kept my attention when nothing else did. 

This book definitely had a novel concept --the attempts of a woman to get her family of con artists to go legit after she took the fall for their crimes. The execution was a little lackluster though. 

I found Jillian annoying at first but she grew on me -- I definitely wasn't hating it by the end. However, although Jillian is the narrator for 80% of the book, at times that is interspersed with the POV of one of the side characters, which never really proves to be fully functional within the book. The side characters were all very much fine: no complaints but I wouldn't say they were particularly memorable. 

The story lacked backstory -- at times, the characters would describe events or definitively comment on something in a way that implied prior experience and the readers would be curious as to the background to the story but it kind of just never comes up again. 

The plot, however, I have no complaints against: it is entertaining, well structured and built up nicely. The romance was slightly surprising, to be honest, and then a little bland, but I did enjoy certain elements of it. The love interest was never really fleshed out fully, but he didn't really have to be. 

Overall, this is a very fun book; a great way to distract yourself and be entertained. I also think it would make a magnificent movie.

In writing this review, I think I've started to like the book more: to be honest, my only complaints were that the characters frustrated me at times and that I couldn't really understand how they could act the way they did at times, but the characters are unlikeable and deeply flawed and badly reasoned intentionally. Perhaps, it just isn't entirely my genre. 

Ezra was an absolutely fascinating character to follow; his reasoning, his obsessiveness, his blind (pun intended (sorry)) loyalty. The story is told as something of a recounting of events; the tone is sustained throughout the book and serves to fully flesh Ezra out. The characters surrounding him, including Orson are all also well written: we never know more than we would if we had been in an interaction with them, which I highly appreciated. 

The pacing of the books is sustained and the build up is quite subtle; you almost don't notice it until you realize you haven't taken a full breath for a few pages as the tension has ridden so high. Some of the developments seem almost outlandish when removed from their development and that, truly, is part of the beauty of this book. 

The book is also impeccably structured -- the symbolism, the parallels, it's beautiful. Despite the tone of the book overall being very dry, there are moments when you can truly feel the muffled intensity of the happenings; stunning execution. 

Overall, honestly, it's a great book. 

This was a wonderful anthology. I do not see many stories about college, let alone many within that age group that have any diversity whatsoever. 

However, a lot of the stories concerned the same issues and for almost all of them the solution was the protagonist starting to date someone, which isn't a real solution in bigger life altering situations. A lot of the stories ended up feeling a little shallow because of this. As it frequently happens with short stories, they at times felt rushed or unfinished -- one of the stories ended on an ellipses. 

Overall, this was a necessary, fun read, even if it felt a little under baked at times.

Now for a little overview stats of the stories individually: 

Catch You On The Quad [All three acts of the poem] - ⭐⭐⭐
The Ultimate Guide To Orientation - ⭐⭐⭐.5
Shofar, So Good - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Fall Once More - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Powder - ⭐⭐⭐
Sophomore Slump - ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
The Final Countdown - ⭐⭐⭐.5
Rani's Resolutions - ⭐⭐ (this is the one that ends with the ellipses)
Heavy Rotation - ⭐⭐⭐
Ruby - ⭐⭐⭐ (was going great until the solution was to find a date)
Momo's Epic Rescue - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Begin Again - ⭐⭐⭐