I received a free copy of this book, and am leaving an honest review here.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. But I didn’t. Ok, I’ll start with the positives. I appreciate the positive portrayal of polyamorous relationships and how the author told us about the importance of good communication in order to have a healthy relationship, but that’s where the positives really end.

First things first, this book was 100% tell, not show. We are told about the chemistry, how great these characters are, etc., but the writing never actually shows that. There’s a part where it says “being the understanding person that she is, August has pretended not to notice”, but there was nothing portrayed in the story that would have showed this as a character trait??? I think the best way to describe the writing is that it felt like I was reading Case Studies of a polyamorous relationship and it was turned into a book. There’s also parts that were so incredibly text book. There’s a conversation between Derrick and Daisy and Daisy says “In the future, when a new partner enters our lives, I think we should follow kitchen table polyamory.” to which Derrick responds “ok, can you remind me what that means?” and it just irked my soul because PEOPLE DON’T TALK LIKE THAT. It sounds like they’re reading a bad script and acting it poorly.

Next, going back to the chemistry, I can be convinced that we were able to see it with Daisy and August, but I can’t be convinced there was ANY chemistry between August and Derrick. They had maybe one conversation just the two of them? Like I think I would have much rather preferred reading it as a polycule without Derrick and August being in a relationship as well because it didn’t make sense. It seemed very much so sexual fantasy driven, which like to each their own, but prior to the sex scenes, there was really no sexual tension between them either.

Lastly, I HATED that Daisy was August’s managers, and it seemed like the author peeped that would be unethical and just kept saying they saw each other as coworkers rather than boss and employee. Then just make that their dynamic?? Also, Daisy is so unlikable? I despise the quirky MC archetype and honestly, that’s her to a tee. There’s a point she’s like wow the thought I had was so poetic, I should write this down and I literally wrote “dear god no” because between Derrick’s bad poetry and fake deep Daisy, I cannot tolerate this couple anymore.

PS: throwing in “Mija” at the end of a sentence to let us know that a character is Latina is a quick fire way to make me not take a book seriously. It’s lazy writing and not how Spanglish works.