This was such a frustrating reading experience, but in a way that was only possible because of how well it was written. You wouldn’t get so viscerally upset watching a best friend make poor life choices if you didn’t care so much about them. That’s how I felt about these characters.

I wasn’t quite expecting this to be as slow-paced as it was, and I’m not certain whether I believe the story’s resolution provides a catharsis proportional to the nearly 400 pages of agonizingly poor communication and bad timing.

A fade-to-black reunion? Seriously??

However, the writing was stellar, the dialogue was laugh-out-loud funny, and the characters were super endearing. I empathized with them almost as much as I thought they were being completely unreasonable for 90% of the story.

But that’s people. These characters were realistically flawed and acted in irrational ways that I’m all too aware mirror some of my own.

So all in all, I was impressed with the writing, but wanted a bit more from the romance besides a torturously prolonged angst phase followed by a hastily tacked on HEA.