Loved:

The setting - there really is something about a wintery, New England ski lodge that is so charming
The whole plot and backstory of the boy band True North. A very obvious reference to One Direction in name, but the characters do not feel like caricatures or rip-offs of the 1D boyz
The side characters (for the most part). They were full fleshed out characters with unique personalities and relationships to the Leads
Both main characters were charming. The FMC (Alix) felt very grounded and sure of herself while the MMC (Tyler) was intriguing and adorable
The inserts of previous articles, text exchanges, etc. They added backstory without exposition weighing down the prose of the chapters and helped flesh out the world/bit of a bubble that these characters existed in
The pacing. Usually pacing is really tricky, but I think this book was really successful in pacing its beats. I never felt like it was unbelievable how long secrets were kept, because they weren’t hidden for that long. These characters communicated

Loathed:

The sister, Lauren. She was supposed to be, I believe, in her early 20s, but acted like she was 13 and it was *infuriating*. I know this is the point, and I knew she was going to be a huge pain, but, I’m sorry, some of her actions were just too much for me and they legitimately made me angry, ha
How many times she broke her DNA after saying in the beginning that she couldn’t. I feel like that would absolutely blow up in her face if she did that, but such is the fantasy of fiction
The formatting of the texting font. It was really hard to differentiate between the texting and regular prose, since the “texts” were integrated directly into the prose and the “texts” were simply a smaller font size. But I found it bizarre that Alix’s text’s font size was slightly bigger? Than whoever she was texting? It was an odd choice

Longed For:

This is a bit nitpicky, but I would have loved just a *bit* more delving into the two leads getting to know each other and build that relationship. It was by no means an insta-love/lust situation (thankfully), but I thought that he fell for her just a *smidge* fast
A strong start. The first 3-5 chapters were just kind of throwing you in, which can be fine, but these dragged a bit from nothing really (sorry) interesting happening until Alix met Tyler and we learned more about True North, Sebastian, etc.
Kind of an extension of the last point, but this book needed just a *tiny* boost of energy & urgency in some of the moments. The last Act had this the most, for sure, but the first two acts just kind of felt like everyone was just existing and meandering at points.
More details and exploring of the lodge! I wanted the lodge to be more of a character than it was. We still got to learn a bit about it, but I wanted to really feel like I knew it and understood it, if that makes sense. It all felt quite cursory

Will I read the next one? : Probably. I’m adding The Reunion to my TBR, most likely going to listen to it on audio when I get around to it

*Thank you to Atria Books & NetGalley for providing this ARC!

The Lodge