Update: After reading all these 4 and 5 star reviews...did we read the same book???

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine for a free copy of this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I picked this book after reading Drawn Together by Juliana Smith and I was craving another fall in NYC romance for feel good vibes. Unfortunately, unlike Drawn Together, I hated this book. I had to force myself through the last 30% and rolled my eyes so many times, so unfortunately this is not going to be a kind review. This dislike was for a variety of reasons, but most predominantly, it was because June was one of the most insufferable, childish, immature, and selfish characters I have ever read and that's saying something, because I have spent more than 1000 pages inside the head of Violet Sorrengail.

From the very beginning of the book, June is naive in a way that is not charming, it's just annoying, and this came through in the set up of the book as well. I liked the idea of them being left the house and the forced proximity there, but in the flashbacks, when they move into the house to begin with, I stopped being able to take this book seriously when June said she was looking for an apartment in NYC with a budget of $1300. It's so unrealistic it completely took me out of the story. This idea continued in the present day timeline with her talking constantly about not being able to afford rent, but somehow she's constantly going out to eat and buying clothing and now somehow needs to pay property taxes on a house when she doesn't have a job. This, combined with there being seemingly no reason for Adam to have to live in the house (June's reasoning at least made sense - she couldn't afford the flight back) gave the book such a shaky premise. The entire logistical setup was flawed in a way that made the story nearly impossible to enjoy.


MILD SPOILERS BELOW
(skip to end spoilers for rest of review)

From there, I thought maybe I could get behind the romance, but I could because of the pacing and once again because of June. We as the reader do not even know what happened between them before suddenly they're together again. It was so bad you move across the country and don't talk for 6 years but not so bad because after a week of living together you're about to have sex in his restaurant? (Don't even get me started on the sex scenes...I felt so viscerally uncomfortable). The first 40-50% was fine, but then suddenly they're together again, except we haven't seen any emotional work from June and there's no payoff to the moment. Then it seemed like the novel couldn't decide what June wanted, especially towards the end as we suddenly add back in her insecurities and the absolutely ridiculous third act "breakup". These characters are supposed to be in their THIRTIES. And the worst of it all was that other characters acknowledged how insane June was being, which means the author knows it too. Choosing to reserve the full explanation for the falling out until 80% into the book was, in my opinion, a terrible choice. It left the book feeling messy, the character arcs inconsistent, and to top it all off, the ending completely unsatisfying because the reason we waited 80% for was stupid.


END SPOILERS*

The only reason this gets 2 stars instead of 1 is because at the very least, I enjoyed SOME of the moments between Adam and June, particularly the ones with his family and a few of their bantering moments. All I gotta say though is that Adam, king, you deserve better. He was communicative and up front about his feelings and June waffled for reasons that didn't even seem to align with her character, it seemed more so like the author just needed conflict. It seemed, however, like the author couldn't decide what conflict to settle on to justify both June running away but also her being able to come back, and the book read like it. This needed a strong developmental edit, because some cringy dirty talk and a few cute family moments are not enough to carry the other 400 pages of logistical headache and irritating characters.

This book is probably not as bad as I'm making it out to be, but my biggest pet peeve in reading is when I can see the author's hand behind the story, especially when, in my opinion, it isn’t well done. I feel bad I was so mean, but I cannot overstate how annoyed I was reading the last 40% of this book.

Thank you again to Netgalley and Ballantine for this e-arc.