This was a wonderful book; I fear it was just wasted on me. The characters were extremely likable and I instantly believed in their connection, despite their differences in personal circumstances and their messy professional/academic ties to one another. Mickey's chronic condition is the same one my best friend has, so I especially empathized with her with her flare ups and figuring out how to afford her medication. Diego's character arc was also equally challenging; he's navigating the loss of his wife and mother and through the haze of grief he is hesitant to accept anything new. You can tell he tries and the effort was not wasted! I appreciated his brutal honesty and admired his growth. 

I think my favorite part about this novel was how the author approached the topic of Lucia, Diego's deceased wife, with Mickey and Diego's growing relationship. I don't think I can recall a healthier example of what to do when the man you love is actively grieving a spouse! Mickey listens with her whole heart whenever Diego talks about Lucia. In fact, she encourages him to talk about her whenever possible. He shares his wife's recipes with Mickey and she turns them into the most beautiful gesture I've ever read. I never felt that at any point Mickey felt she was in competition with Lucia or that her lingering memory could cause a significant issue in their relationship. And I can honestly say that I most definitely learned something from that. I think I will recall with vivid clarity should I ever be in the same position as Mickey to approach with grace, emotional maturity, and empathy. 

So all in all, this book had all the makings to be a favorite of mine! However, I struggled to get through this. This is all me, not on the book. For the first 50%, I was sat; I was truly invested in the story. And while I wouldn't consider this book to be long (it's actually a perfect page length, otherwise), I feel like it did drag after the characters finally get together. For me, if the book spent x number of pages creating the tension or yearning for the characters to be together, I can happily sit through it! But once they're together, I'm like "ok! that was cute, but it's really time for this to be over." I think I feel this way because in this genre specifically, the whole plot is basically just how the characters get together. After, it's less plot and more developing the connection and testing to see how the characters will react with an upcoming fight, which inevitably leads to a brief breakup. It's at that point where I checked out, I lost the interest and the motivation to pick up the book again to finish. What finally got me to finish it was wanting desperately to move on to something else. I think the next time I want to read this genre it needs to be a short-story or at the very least a novel with less than 300 pages. Again, not the book's fault, that's all me! 

I would still recommend this book, especially to all the contemporary romance girlies out there. This is a heartfelt novel with really good spice that I think should be on everyone's TBR.