This was so much fun!! I can't remember the last time I outright cackled at a book, and the ending had me smiling so wide (and shocked, to be fair).

Admittedly I almost rated this book 4 stars because while it was super fun, there's lots of little world/plot holes, things are sometimes resolved fairly easily, and it was fairly predictable. But then the final reveal caught me completely off guard and it was fantastic. And honestly, the book was just way too enjoyable to rate it any lower. The only time the above issues actually bugged me was when I was discussing them at length in book club, and even then they didn't impact my actual reading experience when I continued reading.

I just really loved Alessandra and Kallias and they're relationship so much. I mean, they sucked as people but in this book almost everyone did, so by comparison they were easy to like (for me at least). Like these are definitely the evil king and queen that some other books would work to overthrow but I loved that this book just didn't care about that aspect. It went hard, Alessandra was a manipulative, cruel, calculating woman, and Kallias's dreams were to literally conquer the entire world, but I didn't care? They were just so great together and that's all I ended up caring about.

I haven't read any of the other books by this author yet, but now I'm seriously excited to. If they're as fun as this one was, I'm excited!

I think there's a lot of aspects that could have made this book stronger, but in the end I did still enjoy parts of it, and there were quite a few aspects that made the book stand out for me. That said, I'm still not sure if I'll be reading the sequel.

The world in this series, while interesting and well-developed, is delivered a bit too thickly in the beginning, and left some members of the book club I was reading with, myself included, lost at first. So many details were passed out in the first few chapters that ended up being integral to understanding the situation Amora finds herself in later, and not recalling all those details sometimes negatively impacted the reading experience. I feel like the author could have easily spread out the world building a bit more, as many chapters later on were thin on world development. In the end, the book found its stride though, at least in terms of the world the story is situated in.

Amora as a character is honestly quite interesting, but not always in the best ways. She spends most of the book fully sure in her duty and right to rule, even though she's lacking many traits that a good ruler needs (like... knowledge of her kingdom). She's in general extremely naive yet overly confident, and for a majority of the book these traits clash dramatically. It makes her feel inconsistent as a character overall, and it isn't until characters around her (namely Ferrick) start pointing out these flaws that she begins to grow (and even then, it takes a while to kick in). However,

Spoiler

she finally realizes by the end that the monarchy may not be the best for Visidia, at least not with Montaras at the helm. This realization is immediately pushed away though, with her father insisting that while he was a cowardly king, she'll make for a much better ruler. I'm hoping her realization, and the depth that it adds to her character, sticks, but I'm not sure

Depth is something that this book is overall lacking in my opinion. For a majority of the book, this book seems to deal with deeper, darker topics, but lacks the ability to handle those topics properly. While there's something beautiful about most of the descriptions in the story, and I felt I could vividly picture most of the settings, it seemed liked glitter to hide the book's overall flaws. Near the end, these deeper topics (the life of one for many, rightness to rule, etc.) were touched on more fully, and I feel like the book was really getting somewhere in the final scenes

Spoiler

where Amora's father admitted his mistakes to her, and she seemed to consider them and the motivations he had for them

, but it felt a little to late. Honestly, I think the characters overall just didn't do it for me, and weren't able to carry the weight of the story itself. I spent most of the book annoyed with Amora's inconsistency, Ferrick only started growing on me when he stopped taking Amora's insults/unfair treatment, and I only liked Bastian about half the time. However, I do believe all three of them grew quite a bit from the beginning to the end of this book, and it makes me more hopeful for the sequel overall.

Honestly, rating and judging this book is tricky because there are some aspects that I thought were really well done, or on the border of being well done, but there were also many scenes, themes, and characters that felt a little weak to me, and hindered my overall enjoyment of the book.

Ahhh this was adorable and I loved this a lot, especially when compared to some of the recent romances I've read! I honestly was beginning to think it was me, not those other books, but this one proved me all wrong.

Even though I'm not generally interested in medical/dentistry school settings, and I felt like overall the author did a fantastic job of sucking you into the academic world of Harper and Dan. It felt relatable on a generally academic level, but even beyond that you found yourself admiring Harper and her ambitions, while on the other hand understanding why Dan despised the program. It also worked really well as a setting for all of Harper and Dan's trauma to be dealt with, and for their romance to originally flourish.

I also really appreciated and liked the mental health rep (anxiety) in this story, and thought it was extremely well-done, especially when compared to recent reads. It was a constant presence in Harper's life, not just appearing when textually convenient, and you could painfully see the depth of her struggles with it. There were some scenes that were really hard to read because of how true they felt, especially regarding academic perfection and success. It makes me really excited to read more of the books in this series, especially seeing the next one focuses on a character with ADHD.

The romance was also adorable, especially in the beginning. I'm generally not super into friends to lovers, but this wasn't wholly that trope, and even when it was just friends, Dan was just so completely obsessed with Harper that it was adorable. I've read a lot of colder, more hidden/mysterious male MCs in romance recently, so seeing a guy just outright adore this woman was really cute to read. It endeared me to both characters, and their budding relationship, really quickly, and from there I was sold!

Overall, I really enjoyed this, even more so since I got to buddy read it with a friend, and I highly recommend it!

V cute v gay!!

I gotta be honest, I was a bit wary going into this because I wasn't the biggest fan of Cool for the Summer, but the synopsis just sounded right up my alley, and reminded me of recent sapphic YA books I loved, so I went for it anyway. And I'm sure glad I did! I really enjoyed this, and it ended up being a super fun, queer, fast read.

I really liked the main characters and their surrounding cast (...the non-homophobic ones), and thought it made for a unique set-up. I haven't really seen fake relationships for the purpose of hiding queerness in contemporary, YA fiction, and it was interesting to see how that played out here while also being brutally honest about the fact that being so hidden and closeted was still needed in parts of the US. There was a lot of time spent on this and related subjects, like homophobia in religion, on sports teams, and other areas of US high schools, and I felt like Adler was able to give these topics the space they deserved/needed while keeping the book overall feeling light and joyful still. I also felt like the ending did a good job of giving a well-deserved happy ending without minimizing any of the tough problems queer kids in high school face.

I also found that the story of Jack and her trying to play football as a girl in high school, and perhaps in college later, blended really well with both the queer themes of this book and the story of Amber and her struggles. It felt like this book was able to touch both on homophobia within sports and sexism in sports without diminishing either's impact on Jack's overall situation. It clearly showed how every aspect of her identity played a role in how people treated her.

I also felt like Adler did a much better job of building up her side characters in this story, and it made them feel a lot more fleshed out and less like walking identities, which is how many characters in her last novel came across to me. This was especially clearer in Jack's best friends, Morgan and Sage, and how even though we never actually spend much time with them, we can see their impact on Jack and see a bit of their own personalities come from as well. Miguel was also a very strong character, and while I still wish Amber and Jack had a bit more of a supporting cast, Adler has still improved dramatically, I think, from her last book here.

Overall, this has definitely changed my impression of Adler and her novels, and I'm seriously excited to see more from her now!