Okay. Several things.

First, the good.

I liked Sebastian’s narrative. He’s funny and (mostly) smart about things and … quite simply, the book was fun with him leading the way. I’m considering reading the next, purely because of how much I liked him. Because almost everything else was trash.

Now the bad.

1. Calvin is so incredibly unprofessional as a cop, it blows my mind. Maybe it shouldn’t. But still. That blow job scene still feels like something I dreamed up while high on NyQuil. As in, it would have made sense if the toaster had started producing sideline commentary.

2. Can we please stop villainizing people with mental illnesses? Please and thank you.

3. The mystery was just boring and predictable. (I’m a mystery snob though so YMMV.) I knew who the murderer was the moment they stepped onto the page. Additionally, there’s several loose ends that are either dropped, forgotten, or shoved under the rug of, “well, they were crazy.”

I don’t even know how to rate this.

I expected this to be a cute, fun holiday rom-com. Instead, the MC Dana was just annoying. And the love interest Charlie is patronizing and arrogant most of the time. The rest of the time, they’re explaining to Dana how to be a better ally to non-cisgendered people. Which, don’t get me wrong, has its place. But here, when I already had no sympathy for either Dana or Charlie, it came off as kind of preachy. Admittedly, my review is somewhat soured by one of the last scenes where Charlie and Dana are spectulating that Charlie’s brother is gay, he “just doesn’t know it yet” which is an enormous pet peeve of mine.

This was perfectly delightful. Light, fluffy, very minimal amount of angst at the end. A lot of sex scenes, but Jake and Bennett constantly make it interesting. And oh gosh, all the food.

Gods above, I loved this so much.

Really cute and sweet.