The prose!! The political intrigue!!! THE TENSION!!!!! Oh this was fantastic

Diana Wynne Jones has never met an eldest daughter, change my mind

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.