Let's put it this way, if you're not down with the happenings on Noth-Hoth, this book will NOT be for you.  If you are, you'll love it. Maybe a little extra cringe, but I was into it.  Strongest human yet!

great anxiety rep - loved that instead of a dual timeline it was just like present day prologue and epilogue basically around a GIANT flashback

WOW. An emotional roller coaster.  I thought the beginning was odd and unique but still charming. Then the back half knocked me out of the park!!!! I cried. I laughed. I fell in love with both protagonists.  But then the epilogue had to go and ruin it all for me again. I almost think the little denouement at the end of the school year could have been the epilogue, but alas,

we like 'em barefoot and pregnant while they're young

.  also the timeline just seemed unbelievable (that math's not mathing)

-grumpy sunshine
-amazing mental health rep
    -disordered eating
    -ocd tendencies?
    -relationships
    -anxiety
-hot dirty smut
-complicated family relationships
     -loving parents (through adoption)
     -loss of a mom / mean dad - but like in a nuanced way that was done really well and with love
-toxic friendships and people are complicated
-found family
-CONSTANT CONVERSATIONS AROUND CONSENT!
-highly competitive athletes (figure skater and hockey captain)
-college stuff (but the lingo was off, gonna chalk that up to English author writing about an American university experience and this was originally indie published I think?)
-a [book:The Kiss Quotient|36199084] reference <3
-Nate was unrealistically perfect for a trust-fund, collegiate athlete in the way all the best book boyfriends tend to be, but he wasn't 100% perfect which made the book feel all the more authentic

god I love dirty, filthy, smut with a Disney twist

Beast, Belle, and Gaston live happily ever after

I think this one was the most smut heavy and plot-light of the series so far... and that's saying something

Impressive that it took until book 17 for them to just get smutty

I really wanted to like this one but it was just fine. Tbh brighter of the characters were that great. Brooke kinda sucks tbh

Bruh. 10 months. EXACTLY 10 months. That’s how long it took me to finish this book. I don’t get the hype. Maybe I’m missing something. But wtf. I’ve already realized I’ve drifted away from thrillers because they’re always just a bunch of unlikable people doing horrible things but this was next level. The first half was creepy just for the sake of being creepy (tbh the reason I had to stop was because it was interfering with my sleep so something was effective). But then the second half was dumb. And the twists even dumber. Why is this entertaining? It should be illegal for this book to be classified as romance in any form or fashion. And the writing just isn’t good. I mean it’s easy to read (which I don’t think is a bad thing), but it’s like redundant and obvious and simple. Idk. Hate to yuck yum and realize I’m 3 summers late to the trend. But wtf

3.5
Great book but would be better if the grown ass adults could communicate at all and not keep stupid schemey secrets. I loved the relationship though outside that bs.

I could see some call it “steamy” but it is fade to black