~~Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!~~

So, to be completely transparent, I only got this ARC because it was up for grabs on NetGalley. I did not like Underhill's debut, whatsoever, but I have read sophomore books and liked them. I figured I'd have another go-around and hoped I'd like this one.

You see my rating. I obviously didn't.

One thing I will say is that I liked that it wasn't instalove. Abby and Leo's first convo was awkward and weird, reflecting what I would feel was the realistic reaction anyone would have if they got lost with a stranger. But the story is suppose to be about strangers connecting and falling in love, and yet all I saw while reading was the lack of genuine chemistry between our leads. If anything, I either found them both annoying at best or boring at worst; the grumpy/sunshine dynamic taken to the extreme always irritates me. I had to skim near the end because I was just so done being with these characters.

The story also suffers because of the lackluster romance. I'm normally fine with two characters doing nothing but talking and exploring the setting, as long as they're both charming and interesting, of course. Without that, the story just drags and it isn't fun, anymore. The side characters were bland, too, their main elements essentially boiled down to distractors and cheerleaders for the leads to finally get together. The one part with side characters I liked the most was when Abby and Leo wet book hunting with a queer club. I would rather have read a book about the club than what is shown in the book.

Again, Underhill's writing is just fine but nothing exciting. I completely forgot the author has music degrees, because, again, the main character(s) can play music (Leo on snare and Abby with clarinet). The music playing scenes were a little better this time around, but I still found it boring.

Overall, this was just meh. I think I won't be reading anymore of Underhill's work, even if their ARCs are free to grab on NetGalley.