“Sometimes the best way to show love or be kind to someone is to meet them where they are.”

To put it very briefly, I disliked this in every single way one can dislike a book. If I wasn't so disappointed, it would be impressive how much I hated this.

Before I go on, I want to say: I went into this book with reasonable expectations. I'm not the biggest romance reader, but I've found some I really enjoy and this one sounded like it would be up my alley (especially with the focus on family issues and mental health, because I prefer my romcoms with some real-world issues.)

That being said, even my reasonable expectations were absolutely destroyed.

This book read as if someone had put every cheesy 2014 internet reference/pinterest quote/relationship tweet into a generator along with an ad for every brand you can think of - especially those under boycott right now. It felt like the most obvious brand placement in a TV show. You know the part in New Moon where the Burger King bag keeps changing directions so the label is always in view? That was more subtle.

That's not even mentioning the amount of times excrement/vomit/literally every other gross thing you can think of are mentioned.

And you would think, oh, well, the FMC is a nurse so this makes sense. Wrong! We never see her do any nurse activities (aside from checking a little girl's ears.) She could have been a professional flamenco dancer and the plot wouldn't have changed at all - we still wouldn't have been involved in her work. All of the excrement/vomit jokes happen outside of a nurse setting and are meant to be endearing? But if I had to hear about the stupid poop billboard one more time... I was going to put the book in the toilet it seemed to love so much. (This is a joke, especially since I read this through Libby.)

This might not bother everyone but I'm super grossed out by stuff like that. I understand that it's part of life, but when I'm reading a book (particularly a romcom) I don't want to read about poop every. five. seconds.

Now for the absolute delight that was the two main characters.

Every review I've seen has talked about how perfect Justin is and I must ask... were we reading the same book? These are the most unhealthy, creepy, boring people I have ever had the misfortune of reading about. How on Earth were people saying that he's the 'ultimate green flag'? I admit that there were moments that he seemed kind and maybe if someone else had been doing some of these actions, I would have been fine with them.

However, he just read extremely off-putting, possessive, and performative. The immediate way he was acting entitled to Emma's life (but it's fine because he also goes 'no, you don't owe me anything' whilst acting like he is owed the world.), the creepy questions as soon as he met her, and more!

Also... I understand his life was rough and I know that it was not an easy situation, but the way he handled nearly everything pissed me off.
(view spoiler)

That's not even starting on Emma. She had... so many problems and toxic positivity wasn't even the worst of them, yet it was present on every page.

Her relationship with her mother was incredibly draining to read about (which I believe was the point and I applaud the author for succeeding on that front.) However, so much of the book revolves around her mother-related trauma and then when things finally come to a head, they are brushed over and sped past - leaving the reader wondering why we had to sit through it, if there wasn't really going to be a satisfying resolution.*

*I understand that in real life, things don't get satisfying conclusions. However! This book never once attempted realism and created an entire plot at the end as resolution that should have gotten more focus than just a few chapters.

I could keep going. I could complain about the insta-lust being passed off as a soulmate connection. I could complain about Neil and whatever the fuck that was. I could complain about how nothing makes any sense by any stretch of imagination. I could complain that Emma caring so much about breaking her curse, when she never intends to love anyone, makes no sense. I could complain that the actual synopsis of the plot is basically pointless and discarded. I could complain about the pacing. About the way the children were written. About any sentence that uses the word "small".

But this review is already long and cranky enough.


Overall, every single review I have seen for this book is glowing. Which means that this clearly works for a lot of people and I don't want to invalidate that, but I also don't want to be dishonest. I have seen so many people say this is already their favorite book of the year and I'm happy for them.

I wanted to love it, even a quarter as much as everyone else seems to. But unfortunately, that wasn't the case. I probably won't read anything else by this author in the future, but I am so glad that so many readers have felt touched by this book.