Oh my god what a terrifically terrible book. I can’t even believe I originally gave it three stars (it’s because I love the series so much really) but holy shit if I could give it 0 I would.

Every single page in this book is filler. Nothing happens. Absolutely nothing. If you skipped this book and went straight to the third you would miss nothing and would be none the wiser. There is no development of characters, they do not learn, they do not grow and instead even Simon and Baz hate each other the whole time. Simon even chooses to sleep on the floor instead of sharing a bed! What about the classic trope!! I wanna see that here!!

It was so Agatha central and to be honest she is so incredibly boring, so what it turned into was a weird road trip around America where they kill a bunch of vampires? Oh no! Moral conundrum for Baz! But, not really. And then they…go home. Honestly? I think Rainbow Rowell was forced to write this because she needed to have a trilogy, knew it would sell because it has been so long since her first Carry On novel and was under pressure by publishers for a quick publication date. Because this book. It’s truly actually shit.

And that is incredibly painful for me to say, considering that these books were my first introduction to queer literature and I adore them so much.

As much as I loved reading this book and getting back to the characters, there was something about this story that wasn't as satisfying as the first book. I wanted it to be longer, and have more character development/ be more "inside the character's head". While it was super exciting and full of great plot, I missed feeling like I knew what what going on emotionally. That's not entirely fair I guess, we hear about Penny's feelings after the break-up, and there is some from both Simon and Baz questioning their future relationship... Just wanted more. Plus I thought it was not very detailed about how Baz must be feeling during all his talks and dealings with Vegas/Lamb--he was learning so much about their 'way of life' and I would think this would really be an opportunity for a lot to be happening emotionally!

Also, not that I was only here for the relationship/smut, but I wanted more moments between Simon and Baz--more worrying about the other person or an actual argument about their problems/emotions, not the mini argument about plot stuff.

Very intrigued about Shepherd, I feel like it's clear he is a love interest for Penny, but I want to hear more about his story and it seems like he'll be in the next book.

That ending!!! I didn't know there'd be another book, so I was super concerned while reading about how it was all going to be wrapped up in time, and I'm a little miffed that it was basically a non-ending, with a call for danger at the very end that sets up the next book!