I don't think there was anything bad with it. If by bad, you mean anything objectively bad.
Subjectively? yes it was quite bad. Bad as in doesn't fit my taste at all but still kudos for holding my attention for about half of the book, genuinely.

It's a modern romance, so it's not like there's gonna be any grandiose plot, or at least one that involves a goal that the character must achieve for its own sake or for the sake of the world, etc. Unless if the characters getting together, having their little romance counts as a goal. But either way, I don't read romance books for the plot but rather for the characters, their evolution, how they change after meeting their SO, etc. And all that requires the characters to be likeable or appealing according to my standards. And that's where this books falls short.

Not like I completely hated them, I actually liked Penny and she felt so relatable at some points.

But Sam? Meh couldn't care less. He could have been a character I liked actually. I mean the elements were there: cool, wearing all black, film major, wants to direct documentaries, cooks very well (this specifically is a huge factor on whether I like a male character or not), is quite confident about his appearance (quite bc it wasn't always the case). But he still didn't deliver. Why? Because he felt pathetic, not pathetic as in I didn't care about what was happening to him or that I think he deserved every single one of them but rather because he felt too passive if that makes sense. But again, this is objectively not a bad thing for the book itself, it's rather me not picking the right one for myself.

This book also reminded me why I seldom read realistic fiction. It's just not entertaining to me and I should run away whenever I see the tag again on a book or be honest when someone recommends me a book tagged as such. I read for escapism, for original concept, for things to amaze me and blow my mind. If I wanted a realistic fiction, I could just ask a random person on the street to narrate their entire life and I could get similar content. But again not the book's fault.

But also it being a realistic fiction make it hard to review the points I genuinely feel are the book's weaknesses. I mean I could go on about how the chemistry between Sam and Penny was lacking but do we really judge couples in real life based on chemistry? No, we judge based on their feelings and feelings have no science. I was also curious about the whole emergency contact thing and I wanted to see how their relationship will play out but when they started interacting, mainly through texts, I've gradually lost all interest.

One thing that I really liked, borderline loved, was Penny's writing. Like her thoughts, how she comes up with plot and she views her won writing, etc, that was really interesting to read. And I learned some stuff which was cool. If it was book dedicated just for that I would have kept reading it.

But yeah, I just don't vibe with the book. That's all there to say to justify why I dnfed it.