⭐ (Story) 3.75
⭐ (Narrator) 4
🌶️ 1
🥵 Spicy Chapters: 24, 31 (plus a few fade to black scenes)
📚 Tropes/Themes: first love, besties brother, no strings attached, single dad, friends with benefits, secret relationship, it’s always been you
👀 Dual POV 1st person
🎙️ Dual narration (Amelia Hugh + Christian Leatherman)
⏰ Approx 6 hours
💔 Triggers: terminal illness
🛍️ Available: Now
💬 So I’m very torn on how to review this. Full disclosure when I signed up for the AUDIObook tour I didn’t realize that I’d actually DNF’d this Ebook before. Ultimately I decided that since it was an audiobook I might have a different experience so I went ahead and listened to it.
First, Chapter 24 is a repeat of chapter 23. I’m not blaming the author for this but putting it out there for other readers.
Most of my feelings were the same from my previous read, but I give it a higher rating because of the ending. I finally felt like i was invested in the story, understood everything and some of their childishness made sense.
Both characters are young and act, imo super childish, and that’s what a lot of the story, tension, and drama is centered around. I know just because a writer creates a story, a certain way doesn’t mean that the writer necessarily endorses that or thinks that those things are reasonable, like you can write a childish character who’s purposely that easy but I had a REALLY hard time connecting with the characters.
I think people who enjoy NA romance would like this book.
The overall plot or framework, I guess? Is good. I liked the idea of the story but I don’t like the execution again because of the immaturity. Probably the biggest reason is because I’m in my forties and I don’t know what it’s like to be 24 anymore, and I couldn’t suspend reality enough to overcome that.
Also, as a former XR tech, while I’m grateful they didn’t call us technicians, the imaging scene in the book could have still used some more research. Most likely the brain MRI would be with and without contrast, and they wouldn’t have been able to repeat it- no matter how much Riley stamped her feet – the same day. Not to mention it’s atleast a 30 minutes scan so it would put everyone else’s appt behind.