4.25

I am genuinely surprised by how much I liked this book!

That's not a fair assessment really but YA contemporary and I are not always the best of friends so I wasn't 100% sure how I was going to feel about it. - ALSO I got an ARC of this, and it came out this past July so like, your girl completely lost her mind. I thought it was for July 2021! I am the worst.

This book was A) a love story, B) a mystery/treasure hunt (maps included!) C) about self discovery and D) all about friendship!!!

I loved the friendship aspect of this. So much so that the end actually had me in tears.

Cassie is at times kind of a hateful narcissist but she does have a lot of character growth throughout this novel. I really enjoyed getting to see her grow into a full adult and hope that her future is full of more happiness.

This is one of those books where I really feel like a need a post-college epilogue. If I could get that, I'd be dang happy.

Also, I didn't even mention the '90s aspect! This book, along with Rebel Girls by Elizabeth Keenan (that I also had an ARC of last year) just goes to show how much us modern-day women really owe it to the feminists from the '90s (and earlier too!). Where would we be without the rebel girls from the past?

That all being said, there were a few aspects that I didn't 100% love or feel like I got the conclusion I was looking for, and that mostly revolved around Cassie's parents. There was a conclusion for their relationship, but I don't feel like there was any coming together of her and each parent individually - if that makes sense?

Anyway, really good book, enjoyed it. Recommend it for anyone who enjoys the '90s and books about finding yourself and/or friendship.

Cover 4; Characters 4; Plot 4; Pace 4; Writing 4; Enjoyment 4; Cry *

**May Contain Spoilers**
I had never really been too interested in Megan’s work when I was younger, but the synopsis of the book seemed too good for me not to give it a go! I am so grateful to NetGalley to allow me the opportunity to read this before publication!

The writing style is not my favourite, it took a while for me to get into. It feels like this book is trying too hard to make it relatable to the early 90’s crowd by inserting too many references. With that said, it took me till the 20% mark to really get interested in the plot since the begging was just all over the place and very confusing. I caught myself having to re-read a page over and over to even make sense of what was going on. One of my biggest pet peeves in a novel is when the main character refuses to call there parents “mom” and “dad” and only calls them by there first names, I find it so confusing.

On a more positive note, I love the Bellarosa girls; they’re so entertaining to read about. I also quite like the idea of the plot; the scavenger hunt is exciting and amusing! Certain scenes had me laughing out loud at how ridiculously entertaining they where.

The ending was so confusing the conflict in the novel only really happened around the 85% mark, so the issues needed to be resolved in such little time that I felt very rushed. The book itself could be so good by just moving certain events around and re-organizing the book!

But overall, It is an excellent throwback book, and it does reward itself 3 stars.