Rating: 4.25⭐️

There’s just something about Lynn Painter’s writing that always gets me. She has this way of pulling emotions straight out of the page and making everything feel so vivid. Her writing is so descriptive and immersive, it’s like I can actually feel everything instead of just reading about it. And this isn’t just romance, either. The way it explores grief and social disparity adds a surprising amount of depth to the story, and I really appreciated that.

The plot had me hooked from page one. The storyline flows naturally, and there are enough surprises to keep me turning pages. It also lowkey reminded me of The Inheritance Games without the riddles and games, which initially scared me because me and that book are mortal enemies, BUT THANK GOD I did not end up hating this one.

And FINALLY, an actual enemies-to-lovers in contemporary romance. Because sometimes these books call two characters “enemies” when they’re actually just mildly annoyed with each other. But Julia and Damion are actually BEEFING. Their hatred is rooted in something genuinely serious, and I can actually feel the weight behind it. It made their transition from enemies to something softer feel so much more convincing. The hatred was palpable at first, and Damion could be downright sinister sometimes. But as they slowly got closer, everything started shifting into something sweeter and more tender. I was so giddy, it was like I was living in a heart-fluttering banter heaven.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the bullying scenes, not because they were badly written, but because they felt really brutal. High school bullying can leave some seriously permanent scars, and some of these scenes were so extreme that I spent half the time wanting to hug Julia, put her in my pocket, and send countless hexes to every single one of her bullies.

The protagonists were well-written overall, but I still wanted more complexity. I liked them, but I think they could use a little more depth to ground their characters even more.

And Julia’s parents. GOSH. ARE YOU NOT HER PARENTS??? Because how are you aware of what your daughter is going through and just standing there while other people are the ones showing up for her??? Stand up. Do something. Be useful. THAT IS YOUR DAUGHTER RIGHT THERE.

And the ending was probably the most unusual part for me. We still get the cute little happy ending Lynn Painter loves to give us (because duh, obviously), but getting there required some characters to sacrifice something along the way. It was bittersweet, and honestly, I appreciated that. Sometimes getting your happy ending means accepting that not everything can stay exactly the way it was.

Overall, this was an emotional and immersive read with an enemies-to-lovers dynamic that actually enemies-to-loversed.

“I will stand with you between the heavens and the earth. I will tell you where you are.”

NOBODY TALK TO ME 💔💔💔

“𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙖 𝙛𝙤𝙤𝙡 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙣𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚’𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙖 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙣𝙪𝙩.”

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

OH MY GOD. WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN. THE YEARNOLOGY. I WILL JINJJA COMBUST.

Oh, how I’ve missed WesLiz. Better Than the Movies was genuinely a life-changing book for me, and I went into this thinking there was NO WAY the sequel could possibly be better than the first one. But goddddd, I was so wrong on so many levels. This book is a MILLION times better.

Crazy how this book is serving me world-class yearning while ALSO being insanely heart-fluttering. Like, I cannot be expected to survive both at once. WHAT A FUCKING SERVE.

I’ve never been the biggest second-chance romance girlie, but this book might have converted me. Alexa, play The Only Exception by Paramore. I just loved how much more depth Liz and Wes have in this one. They were already well-written in the first book, but here, we get to see sides of them that weren’t explored before. They’ve both been through some genuinely awful shit, and yet somehow there’s still this little spark of hope in them.

And YES, we still get their silly little interactions. I swear it made me fall in love with them all over again, and there’s something so nostalgic about seeing them together again.

I loved how Liz is more grumpy and melancholic in this one, she’s just like me fr. I loved seeing how driven and hardworking she is, watching her fight to chase her goals was genuinely inspiring.

And Wes… oh, my poor boy. He went through so much shit and lost that spark in him for a while, but watching him slowly find his way back to himself, realizing there are still things worth fighting for and that he doesn’t have to give his entire life away just because life dealt him a shitty hand, was just so UGHHHH. I love him so bad.

That nightmare scene, though. I WAS IN TEARS. Please. PLEASE. Never do that to me again. Have I not suffered enough?

I also really loved the new side characters, especially Clark. Like, okay, could you STOP being funny for five seconds because my stomach HURTS.

And honestly, I don’t care if people think this book sucks or that it shouldn’t exist. Your opinion is invalid to me. The more for me, I guess. 😌😌😌

Overall, this was such a beautiful story about grief, healing, and second chances. It somehow gave me everything I loved about the first book while giving Wes and Liz even more depth, and I am absolutely going to make this book my entire personality for the next five months at the very least.