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when this book was first announced �� before it had a title, or a cover, or a synopsis, or anything other than a weird beige placeholder and the words BY EMILY HENRY stamped on it �� i made a solemn vow.

that vow was this:

i would trade my firstborn to read this book. i'll locate a baby just to exchange it for this.

after i read it twice, i declared it worth it.

after the third read, i have good news and i have bad news.

the bad news is this might be my least favorite emily henry book.

but the good news is that having a least favorite emily henry book is like having a bad slice of pizza, or seeing a just-okay movie in theaters with a big bucket of popcorn and a slushie the size of your head. in other words, even the disappointing experiences are better than most things in this earthly plane.

emily henry books are always trying to balance a series of incredible things: a consuming romance; a bantery cast of characters; a charming setting; and an extremely daunting character arc that usually encapsulates a deep dark secret, a fatal flaw, daddy and/or mommy issues, and a shifting career path.

this had all of those, like the creation from god it was. (tough way to reveal i'm starting an emily henry-based house of worship.) it just didn't nail the balance. or the happily ever after.

we have a cast of four friends who suck up all the character awesomeness quota, leaving none for our two main characters. we have a very soul-sucking (i'm using the word suck too much for a book that is good) career / parent / self-esteem drama subplot that becomes the whole plot, leaving very little joy or yearning for the love story we may have thought we were in for.

it also leaves some moments of frustration. how could these two people who love each other so much they need no other relationships or dreams or pastimes fail so hard to communicate? like as in never even consider it, let alone try it? how could pottery be a career path when its whole plot-based purpose is that its career-less-ness is what makes it nice? how many times can we have a patch of dialogue that culminates in one millennial joke before a scene change, leaving you like wait, that's it, we're just going to pretend the word "kardashian" is funny like this is a youtube video from 2013?

most emily henry books give you a concerningly relatable protagonist (like, show-up-to-therapy-with-a-romance-novel-a-diagnosis-suggestion-and-a-dream level relatable), a hot love interest, their gooey steamy romance, and a dream job for your girl. it gives you, in other words, a fictional person you can see yourself in and the ability to believe that she-slash-you can have it all.

this one doesn't quite get there.

we still have more good things in between than most books can aspire to — maine! friendship! jokes! �� but if you, say, decide to read this in a not at all ill advised cry for help emily henry binge reread, you're going to come away noticing this doesn't have the same magic as the others.

but it is still a slice of pizza.

bottom line: oops.

3.5

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reread update

emily henry books are a precious and nonrenewable resource, to me.

that's why i'm rereading all of them like a test before i can read the new one.

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original review

(view spoiler)[when this book was first announced �� before it had a title, or a cover, or a synopsis, or anything other than a weird beige placeholder and the words BY EMILY HENRY stamped on it �� i made a solemn vow.

that vow was this:

i would trade my firstborn to read this book. i'll locate a baby just to exchange it for this.

and now that i have read this book twice and it is now out in the world, i have the following to say:

worth it.

emily henry is the unparalleled queen of banter and friend groups.

does that make me miss the golden age of my life during which she was writing about both and also magic and also realism and also YA? sure. do i think that she is at her very best when she is writing for quirky teens? yeah. do i think her adult romances are often pale comparisons, in terms of their friendships and relationships and character depth and even humor and reality and emotion, to those books? for sure.

but i'll take it.

especially since there is angst and yearning here and that is really my only romance criteria!!

also, anyone who is rating this book low because the Joy and Butterflies and Unicorn Smiles meter isn't turned up to 200%, you're a coward and i challenge you to a duel. romance can contain ranges of emotion, and actually be the better for it! and you're a dork for thinking anything else, even if the genre does have the words ROM and COM in it.

but i digress.

bottom line: i still believe i founded the emily henry fan club, and i remain a staunch member. (hide spoiler)]