Came for the romance, stayed for the tragedy.

As protagonists go, this one was unflinchingly honest. She talks about loving being straightforward, and actually walks her talk, though there was something about the character I didn't like. She is a well-written character and is as human as can be which is what's needed in the story. What I didn't like about the character was that she was too much like the past self I hated, the past self that wanted so much to be validated by other people, the past self that hasn't found herself—hasn't found me yet. Someone who won't allow herself to express herself. Someone who kept herself in a cage to be what people wanted her to be. And that's someone that I just want to forget.

It resonated with me, just not in the way that I thought it would, and it's not necessarily a bad thing because it reminded me of how much I've grown.

I'm not sure if this could be called wholly a romance novel, since, to me, it was more about the protagonist finding herself, and allowing herself to express herself. For me, it's only partly a romance novel, since for some reason I didn't really find any butterflies in my stomach when I was reading some of the lovey-dovey, romantic scenes.

I also really loved the part where she won, because that part seemed one of the most genuine scenes. I also really liked how this novel was kind of like a low-key ode to Hades and Persephone and their toxic-ass relationship.