5⭐️/ 3🌶️

Starlet always knew how she wanted her life to be. From a young age, she had everything planned out from when she would graduate college, getting engaged, married, and even when she would have kids. Basically, when it came to life plans, Starlet never deviated from it, and on her twenty-first birthday, she thought she was going to complete another milestone in her life…that is until she walked in in her boyfriend cheating on her with another girl. Fast forward to Starlet going to a frat party and trying to make the best of her birthday, and while there she stumbled into the mysterious, blunt yet handsome man who seemed to portray a sense of hurt in him too. Good decisions thrown out the window, Starlet took the opportunity to just be free and enjoy a night of passion with this gorgeous man! Until a few days later not only was Starlet face to face with the mystery man who rocked her world that one night, but…. turned out she was one of her students for her student-teacher position!!!!

Right away this story had angst, and sadness oozing from the pages. With the way both Starlet and Milo each talked about the losses they experienced in their lives, it definitely changed their outlooks on their lives respectively. For Starlet, after the loss of her mother, she wanted everything planned out for her future in the hopes of making her mom proud had she still been alive. Whereas with Milo, before his mom passed away due to illness his home had once been filled with love and laughter, but it was no longer the same after. Milo was self destructive in finding ways to either numb his feelings or quick to make rude comments, not caring what anyone thought.  Between the two, Milo was still dealing with a lot after his mom passed away, and he wasn’t apologetic whatsoever about his behavior, all that mattered to him was just getting through the day, and hoping he wouldn’t dwell too much on thoughts of what he had lost. So if you’re looking for an angst filled story with a wounded male lead who’s a total grumpy man, then this book will be it for you! 

Now, before I started reading, I assumed that with the whole student-teacher dynamic it would have been Starlet and Milo both being in college and Starlet being a student-teacher in one of Milo’s classes…. I wasn’t expecting him to be a high school student though!! Definitely understand better why there was a forbidden trope considering the dynamics that Starlet and Milo had. Thankfully Starlet was only two years older than Milo (Starlet was 21 and Milo was 19), and Milo was both of legal age and there wasn’t a huge age gap between them so, the romance didn’t feel uncomfortable with them being only two years apart in age. That said, with the way Milo was enjoying all the ways in getting to see Starlet as essentially his teacher and tutor, he found a new appreciation for starting to attend all his classes, and putting in the work at school since it meant he got to be around his birthday girl (IYKYK!!!!) 

One of my favorite tropes is grumpy/sunshine, and this story delivered that exactly! Starlet was the perfect sunshine, she was sweet, endearing, warm, kind hearted, and all around a beautiful person inside and out. Milo was obviously a grumpy guy, filled with so much angst, and “I despise everything around me” kind of vibe, but the way he started to become obsessed with Starlet had me internally giggling with joy. You know it’s going to be a good grumpy/sunshine trope when the grumpy character (ahem Milo) finds the littlest things that the sunshine character (Starlet) does to be the most adorable and beautiful thing in the world. Milo would often times catch myself being like, “why am I so obsessed with her? Or ugh I love the sound of her laughter I wish I had a recording to listen to it whenever I want”. (Sigh) yeah I loved reading those kind of moments when Milo had realization of just how much he was falling hard for our dear Starlet. Even Starlet was becoming more aware of herself smiling as she texted Milo or how she couldn’t help wanting to make him feel better, to even subconsciously still thinking back to the steamy night they shared. Yeah I was gobbling up every morsel of sweet, thoughtful things being thought of internally and spoken to one another from Milo and Starlet! 

Despite Starlet trying to keep a professional relationship with Milo, both she and Milo couldn’t resist the pull they had towards one another. While reading, I could sense the desire and want coming from both Starlet and Milo. While Starlet felt she had a deep connection to Milo, she didn’t want to cross any boundaries with him… that was until from all the time spent together during tutoring and of course the trip to the ice cave once again showed just how much Milo and Starlet wanted one another. The tension was pretty good, and my goodness our resident grumpy man was giving his all with the flirty comments and absolutely him being obsessed with Starlet! 

The emotional connection that Starlet and Milo had together was beautiful and raw. Both Starlet and Milo didn’t expect to form such a close bond to each other, but that was exactly what happened. The way that Starlet recognized the pain and suffering that Milo went through to Milo seeing the ways Starlet brightened his life was so much more meaningful. Both Starlet and Milo experienced their fair share of grief and losses, but together they saw each other for who they really were, the truest versions of themselves. I especially loved seeing Milo shed a little bit of his grumpiness and how he started to feel happiness in his life. After everything that Milo went through and was still dealing with throughout the story, it was really nice to see that he had Starlet by his side to support, comfort, and love him through it all. Starlet had originally had her whole life planned out, but with Milo being in her life she finally found someone who not only treated her as a queen, but was also able to bring her out of her comfort zone. Mixed in with all the angst in this story, it was easy to see just how much the love between Milo and Starlet was strong. 

An emotionally packed story filled with lots of angst, and a whole lot of heart. Milo and Starlet’s story was beautiful and had its fair share of heartbreak and loss. Before reading this book, I didn’t know what to expect other than what was mentioned in the synopsis, but oh my goodness it was so much better than I realized. Going into this story, you might think it’s just a forbidden romance, but it was so much more than that. Starlet and Milo’s first meeting was passionate and unlike anything they had ever experienced. In other words, the connection, the chemistry, and bond that Starlet and Milo formed was truly remarkable. I loved every aspect of this story from Starlet, Milo, the forbidden romance, the grumpy/sunshine trope, Milo falling first for Starlet, and the deep emotional connection that were formed. The more I read, the more invested I became in both Starlet and Milo. Towards the middle part of the story, it really turned it up a couple of notches in the angst department and whoa, it was not an easy road for both Milo and Starlet. I genuinely loved Starlet and Milo, and seeing their growth over the course of the story was inspiring. There were so many amazing qualities to this story that I could just keep going on and on. I felt the emotional pull on my heart a couple of times throughout the story, and my goodness I just wanted to hug Starlet and Milo. Overall, i throughly loved this book, and the way Starlet and Milo’s story started from beginning to end was beautifully written. I especially had my fair share of swooning over the heartfelt things that Milo said to Starlet over the course of the story! The ending was so satisfying, and then the epilogue was even better, and wow! Simply wow! Epilogue really ended on a lovely note, and I teared up a bit. Do yourself a favor and read this book! Guarantee you’ll love Milo and Starlet.