4.5 stars

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. I had a couple issues with the way a character's fatness was associated with him being a bad person, but everything else about the writing and characters was great. It was super engaging and easy to read. The plot was well paced and avoided potential problems that could have hurt my enjoyment of the book. I really connected with Lucy and Josh and even teared up a little at one part. Watching their relationship progress was so much fun and confirmed that I do love enemies to lovers in contemporary, not just fantasy. It introduced me to workplace romance, as well. Also, I am super picky about sex scenes in books, but I actually really enjoyed those parts of this one because I was already invested in their relationship before they got that far physically. This book just generally made me really happy and helped me get back into reading after a few weeks of barely reading anything. I definitely want to try more books in this genre.

4.5 stars

This book was surprisingly emotional for me and I really enjoyed the characters and the sense of humor. It would have been a five if the writing was just slightly cleaner.

This took me a minute to get into, but I kept getting more ad more invested as the book went on until I couldn't put it down. It's absolutely everything I wanted it to be. It was funny and scary and smart. I also was a lot more emotionally invested in the characters than I expected. After that ending (which blew me away) I literally cannot wait for the sequel.

This was a really enjoyable read. It wasn't a five star because it didn't have the emotional impact I look for in a five star read, but I don't have any other significant complaints. The writing style was unique and engaging with the very present narrator telling the story. This writing style may have made it harder to connect with the story emotionally because of how detached it is at times, but it did allow for the book to have a broader scope and more world building overall. The world was a really interesting blend of science fiction and fantasy and hit that thing I like when books combine science and magic. I enjoyed the characters and their dynamics, but they didn't particularly stand out to me as new favorites or anything. My favorite aspect of this book was all the political intrigue and reading about how the different characters navigate their situation. This book definitely achieved what the author was trying to do and I'm excited to continue in the series.