Here’s the thing -- the premise, the way the author did the gender flip here, and the mystery were all very fun! HOWEVER:

Charlotte is not a small woman. She loves to eat sweet treats and I love that for her. But at one point in the book, she explains that she’s calculated the exact number of chins that she can have before her face shape is no longer attractive. And we’ll just occasionally get a comment like “she’s at 1.4 chins so she can’t have a second slice of cake” or something like that, and WHYYYYYY????

I looked into it and apparently it persists throughout the series and I’m so sad about it because it ruined the whole experience.

Look, I started following Jill Gutowitz on The Website Formerly Known As Twitter for her very funny Kaylor content, and this book felt like a whole book’s worth of her tweets. It’s a very funny (and a few times, very sad) discussion about the progression of lesbian/sapphic representation in media (and in Hollywood!).

Also there was a full chapter??? talking about how awful Perez Hilton was and Jill was SO right for that.

Spent a lot of this book going “oh no you poor thing” at the main character. Emily Austin is so good at writing mental illness? You can FEEEEEEL the anxiety coming at you -- which is part of why it took me a little longer than usual for me to read this because I could only take on so much of that in one day.

But if you’re down to read about a undiagnosed neurodivergent lesbian who is REALLY into true crime and space and also has a phobia of bald men, you should ABSOLUTELY read this I loved it so much.

WES IS SO GOOD????? Loved his first interaction with Ada, loved his passion for making Baby Blue perfect, loved their romance -- this goes without saying.

But honestly my favorite thing about this book was Ada’s growth and the relationships she builds with the women at the ranch. She had a “not like other girls” phase so she’s not used to getting along with women because of her past, but she’s open to adjusting that and the women of Rebel Blue are ready to support her in that and I got kind of choked up as she found that she could have good, meaningful friendships with other women. Once again, Amy is an absolute sucker for Found Family, SHOCKER.

Yeahhhhh this one just wasn’t for me unfortunately.

Just didn’t have time with the library book. Will probably get it on audio since I have credits, to be determined

ONCE AGAIN, Dahlia and Darby’s family prove to be just...truly awful, from the start of this book (ok, after a chapter 1 one night stand) we are dealing with their piece of shit father -- which leads her straight into Everett’s arms and sets them off on a fake dating adventure! Which truly doesn’t last long because Everett is SOOOO down bad and is ready to prove himself however he can to Dahlia.

Also, there’s a very good mirror scene (extra impressive since he’s not even in the room for it).

Also, Taylor Swift references in a book are not usually my thing but they’re actually done SO WELL with this (I’m sorry but telling Dahlia’s daughter that SHE is the invisible string that brought them together? CUTE AS HELL) and I love it.

KU subscription ended before I finished it OOPSIE