I consider myself quite easy to please when it comes to fiction; write a story that spans decades and delves deep into a culture I'm not familiar with and I'm likely to enjoy it. However, the writing in this book struck me as juvenile and naive to the point where I wasn't able to simply enjoy this as a low-stakes summer read. I don't want to give any spoilers so I won't go in detail, but I will say the ending probably bumped my rating from a 3 to a 3.5.

I wanted this book to be more heartbreaking after seeing all of the rave reviews, but I honestly didn’t feel anything but impatience when I finished it. The writing dragged on and was really repetitive at times, and I didn’t find the main character especially likeable.

This book was originally published to AO3 as Reylo fanfiction, and it has all the trademarks of a fanfic-to-original-fiction book. That can be a good thing— it’s a very fast read and has some really sweet, funny moments. But it also leans heavily on really common fanfic tropes and zany, improbable situations that end up making the entire story feel cheesy and kind of juvenile. I still enjoyed it, though, and would recommend especially for people who want to read something lighthearted and quick between more serious books.