i enjoyed this much more than i expected!! (maybe i’m just a sucker for a sports romance 🤭) but i truly enjoyed reading the character development our two main characters go through, of learning how to love themselves and accept that they are loved by others. i really REALLY connected with stevie’s story between body image issues and feeling never good enough (and her enormous love for dogs 🐶), this book felt so sooo personal 🫶🏼 i’ll be honest, this wasn’t a 5 star read and it’s because of a man! sorry! while i really did love his development, zander’s’ initial persona was a nottt for me but he started to show his softie side and i melted for him too 🫠i will say however, i wasn’t the biggest fan of how he handled the whole paparazzi situation (trying to keep this spoiler free but my readers know 🙂‍↕️) near the end, but that’s just my opinion! i feel like this was a great start to the series and i can’t wait to read more… i’m just hoping to see more of stevie and zanders in the next books!!

if your name is @minsuni, look away. . . . . . this was utterly uncompelling.

this book feels polarising in it's reception, and i am sad i fell to the side which was remarkably bored most of the time.

i actually quite liked it up to about 25/30%, and after that, i'm really baffled at how quickly i turned.

what stood out to me most was how uncaptured i was by the writing. it never flowed for me, and i felt like i was constantly battling with it for stability and finished each chapter feeling more and more fatigued.

the plot was introduced really well, and i liked the lore and background we received to start the story. but then it started to piss me off, with it's whirling and twirling, unnecessary added elements and convoluted mess of tales.

the characters were also interesting to start, but once you've come to understand them as they’re initially presented... what else is there?

what i did like was the underlying commentary about nationalism, immigration and change. it was well worked into the narrative and something i wish wasn't so clouded out by everything else that circulated around.

if you're on the fence, listen to your gut and/or DNF when the boredom comes calling.

This book lovingly cracked me open til I was bleeding on the floor and it doesn't even have a PLOT

I mean, I guess it technically does. The entire main plot can be found in the blurb: Adina is an alien who spends her life faxing observations about humans back to her home planet for reporting purposes. Eventually she shares them with the world, but this doesn't happen until late in the book. The story really just follows her life, her thoughts as she tries to make sense of humanity and forms connections and navigates being an outsider on a foreign planet.

Despite the alien stuff, I wouldn't classify this as sci-fi. It's left pretty much up to the reader whether or not they want to take her being an alien literally. Part of the beauty of this book is that it doesn't really matter whether you take it literally or not. Either way, if you're someone who has ever felt othered from the world around you, Adina's story WILL hit like crazy.

I was obsessed with the writing pretty much immediately. Bertino has such a unique style and way with words, she did things with the English language that I've truly never seen before and it was one of the most engaging experiences I've had with someone's prose in a long time, possibly ever. She created such a strong narrative voice for Adina that the book's pacing flowed effortlessly despite not having much of a central plot structure. Some authors are just masters of the craft and it didn't take long for me to be convinced that Bertino is one of them.

Idk how to describe the effect of this book except by saying it's just so charming. Adina is such an endearing character and it was a delight to read about her interactions and reactions to the world. It also made my heart ache, because not everything about being human is delightful and Adina doesn't miss that fact. But it all culminates into something so beautiful that I can't fully describe, I just need more people to read it.

I also sobbed at the end and was on the verge of tears at MANY points throughout the book. Adina has my heart and so do the earthly creatures she forms bonds with; I'm lucky that I get to be one of them.