4.5/5 stars.

I am literally crying at the fact that this was the last book in Catherine Cowles’ discography until Delicate Escape comes out. I’m in mourning.

This book was so much better than I thought it would be holy shit. I was skeptical in the beginning of the book, with Austin being a grade A asshole and Carter kind of being infantilized, but that only went on for a little while. I lived for their friendship, and then how Austin won Carter back, and then their relationship that follows. THEY WERE EVERYTHING IN THE LAST 50%.

Seeing Taylor made me emotional because I just read the Sutter Lake series before this, and seeing the mentions of her mom brought tears to my eyes. Seeing her and Liam in this book makes me want to go back and read the Sutter Lake series…

And FORD. I love him, obviously, and he was like my second favorite MMC in the Reckless series (no one can top my mans Brody) and seeing him in action made me so happy. He made me laugh every time he was there, and seeing his little speech to Austin at the end was a little call-forward (callback for me because I’d already read his book) to how he blamed himself for Violet’s death and the accident that took her life. SO GOOD.

Plus, extra points for Carter’s name—I loved it and added it to my baby name list.