Great start, but went downhill about halfway through. The FMC was insufferably insecure. This book (the FMC) was constantly making a big deal out of nothing. The “taboo” aspect of her relationship with the MMC, not knowing how the MMC felt about her (despite him being extremely direct and obvious about it), what she should do career-wise (even though she always had the opportunity to follow her dreams with a nice supportive safety net). I liked the MMC, but the FMC ruined the book for me. This book was overly shiny and polished in terms of banter and the love interests initial meeting. It was algorithmic and predictable, especially the stupid third act break-up. The original plot point of her giving him bedroom lessons barely ever occurred, and it was pretty much abandoned halfway through the book. The dialogue got progressively more cheesy and cringey (including during the sex scenes, which is ironic considering she was teaching him how to dirty talk). There was no real conflict or drama, and the book just got progressively more boring, and I skimmed the ending. Also this book was EERILY similar to Fan Service by Rosie Danan, who I believe did a blurb for one of this author’s other books. Overall just a boring predictable copy of other similar boring romance books that aren’t really worth the read. Also this book was so AGGRESSIVELY MILLENNIAL UGHHHHHHHH!!! The humor, the banter, the references- just ughhhhh.

Meh. Very average. Uninspired. This was definitely a 3 star leaning towards 2, as opposed to a 3 star leaning towards 4. Like, there may not have been anything SUPER wrong with it, but I still didn’t enjoy it THAT much.

Excellent, strange little book. It’s kind of hard to feel a specific way about it. It was good, well written, simultaneously interesting and uneventful. The characters seemed very, very real- like unbelievably three dimensional, and very well established even early on. This book did a fantastic job depicting depression and self destruction. The ending wrapped up maybe a bit too fast, and maybe a bit too well, and left me wanting just a bit more, but overall, a great book.

• EXCELLENT little book! Very, very well written. Awkaeke Emezi is extremely talented, and I thought so multiple times throughout the story. Good plot, fairly well formed characters, very interesting premise. The story had a good drive that kept me wanting to read the whole time. I would’ve liked to see a bit more in terms of world-building and character development, and just overall depth, but I also understand it was a YA book, a short story (?), and the book still managed to do what it set out to do very well. I think the only thing keeping it from being a five star read in my mind was a slight lack of wow factor.

It was taking too long to get into the meat of the story, not to mention the FMC’s inner monologue was repetitive and rambly. It felt like the author was trying too hard to be atmospheric with her writing, and some of the prose felt almost pretentious? I think the plot twist included something about the FMC not being in control, and that’s why she was behaving the way she was or something (aka making poor decisions and being blazé about her VERY SERIOUS circumstances), but even if that’s the case it was still annoying to read. I don’t want to read about a protagonist with zero self preservation and/or no control/autonomy, especially if I’m meant to believe they’re intelligent enough to be a space researcher. A profession like that requires logical thinking, and the FMC seemed to have none. I’d be willing to give this author another chance though!