A sincerely disappointing read. There was so much potential that severely lacked the proper editing. The entire story was an example of telling instead of showing. The characters overexplained every scene and emotion to the reader with so many unnecessary recaps that made you feel like you just got mansplained every relationship in the small town. Also the fact that neither the author, editor, nor publisher realized that they should not have used AFD as an acronym speaks volumes. Shouldn’t be using the acronym of the Germany alt-right nazi political group, just a thought. Random things that did not make sense and fully pulled me out of the story: describing the stars from a NYC rooftop (girl with that light pollution?), sleeping on a rooftop after a rain and hailstorm (sounds nice and dry), going to jail for skinny dipping (the U.S. might have some wild nudity laws but in what world are you being jailed for swimming naked). I persisted hoping for the sweet romance to cancel out the poor writing but found it lacking. The characters were interesting when they weren’t being annoying but the climax lacked any bite.
I am so thoroughly exhausted after trudging through this overexplained romance that I need to take a break from romance books for a bit.

This book was vastly disappointing, mostly because it could have been something great with the proper editing. Without giving anything away, this story hinges on suspension of disbelief that emotional cheating does not count as cheating. It tries to corner you into rooting for the best friend of the main character’s boyfriend while giving no ounce of empathy to the boyfriend or the relationship to begin with. The title, and as a matter of fact entire story, tries to convince you that if only the main character had chosen a different guy to get a ride home from a concert, she would be happy. When in fact it is months of manipulation and lies that is the root of her unhappiness, all orchestrated to look like acts of love. At its essence this is not a romance. It is an adult coming of age literary fiction with a romance. This book is inherently not romantic. There are so many red flags in this emotional cheating that should not be packaged as signs of love, phrases such as “you are so good at making me love you.” Blaming the universe for the lack of agency and communication while cheating on your boyfriend with his best friend isn’t my idea of a romance. I see what Jimenez was going for and it would have been an interesting look at love found at the wrong time and place if it wasn’t wrapped in layers of lies, cheating, and toxic relationships. To each their own but that’s not a romance novel for me.