oof this one was a hard one to rate. It really surprised me for the positive, I ended up having a lot of fun with it, really enjoying the romance and it even made me laugh, but there were still so many moments that made me roll me eyes or that I just found not funny haha but funny weird.

To be honest, I hate how it started. The set up felt forced and a little ridiculous, the characters interacted in unbelievable or just really annoying ways to give way for the main plot of the book and to stir drama, and I just didn’t get a good first impression of literally any of the characters.

However, this started to get a lot better once you get to understand the characters, their past and how that influences how they act in the present, once you get to see a more vulnerable side from both main characters and see their relationship start to form, and the humor got a lot better later on in the book.

About Wilder: I have so many mixed feelings about him. On one side he was caring, sweet, considerate, always doing everything to protect Scottie, making sure she knew he was there for her, for her to talk to, a shoulder to cry on, someone she could rely on. Reassuring her that her feelings were valid, that she didn’t have to hide them or that she could act on her desires without having to be afraid of getting hurt, that he would never want to hurt her like she had been hurt in the past.

However, he did so many things according to what he thought was best without listening to Scottie and that fucking grinned my gears. I just needed him to shut up and listen. He talks over her so many times, specially when concerning their relationship both fake and real, and does not communicate with her before making decisions about their fake relationship, when it’s Scottie’s problem (literally) and she should be the one with a saying in it, and I didn't feel like there was any growth from him in this sense.

About Scottie: She took a lot of Wilder’s actions as these insanely romantic and caring acts and I didn’t really like how the characters would look at these actions as something above the bare minimum. The thing is, I understand why Scottie thought like this, she had a really bad example from her previous relationship so she was learning again the right way for someone to treat her, and while Wilder was very sweet and understanding to her, he was also just doing the bare minimum. A lot of times he would remind her that the things he does for her should have also been done by her previous partner or by anyone that cares about her, but then he’d also say things like “I’m not like other men” like baby needing an emotional connection before fucking someone does not make you better than other men, it just makes you have a preference.

If I took a shot every time Scottie mentioned Wilder being two years younger, I’d have alcohol poisoning by now. Oh my god this actually annoyed me so much, he’s 27 and she’s 29 and she made it seem like he was so much younger than her and how he was so mature for his age, was so kind and considerate despite his age, didn’t actually know what he wanted because of his age. Let’s say that she was much older and they actually had a huge age gap, 27 is still a full grown adult that should be mature and considerate and everything else she thought he was too young for.

Now despite how strongly I felt about Scottie and Wilder as individual characters, I adored their romance and seeing them grow closer while in the camp, and even how much love they had for each other once they left it. There were a lot of scenes that felt ridiculous but worked in the characters’ favor to develop their relationship, they formed both an emotional and physical connection in such a sweet and believable way, both characters were understanding of each other’s past and how that hurt them and they helped each other heal and move past that. There was just so much understanding between them, it was so heartwarming to read.