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2.5/5 stars.

br with alayla!!

and as alayla would say: sigh.
(if you want to read what alayla actually said (you do), it's right here: sigh.)

there are a lot of things i didn’t like about this. my favorite part, to be honest, was emily’s writing. i love her prose and style and her banter is TO DIE FOR. it will always feel like a warm hug from someone you know and haven’t seen in a while and i’m never not going to love it.

butttttt that’s pretty much where it ends. (lies there is more that i like at the end)
“what didn’t i like,�� i heard nobody ask?
well, since you asked��

harriet. don’t get me wrong, i liked her occasionally. i even related to her occasionally. but it was 400 pages long and when she’s being annoying for 350 of them, “occasionally�� doesn’t cut it.
maybe my biggest problem with all of it was concerning her: SHES SO HORNY OH MY GOD. why is nobody talking about this 😭 i swear to god every single chapter was her being horny and wanting to literally jump wyn and thinking about jumping wyn and fantasizing about jumping wyn and IT GOT SO OLD HOLY SHIT. there was no tension between them because there wasn’t room after all the lust.

and because of this- i didn’t feel the broken love i’m meant to. i was meant to feel all sad and whatever but i didn’t feel whatever loving and amazing relationship they used to have BECAUSE HER INTERNAL MONOLOGUE WAS SOLELY WANTING TO FUCK HIM.
i love a slut era as much as the next person but there’s a reason a slut era isn’t about finding love-

my eyes were rolling. if that old wives tale about the wind is true, i’d be so blind rn i wouldn’t have been able to finish reading the book.

and because of this, when they finally did have sex, i couldn’t have cared less. there was no tension. i was falling asleep because i felt like i’ve already read this 100000000 times in harry’s internal monologue.

also all the shit with her being dramatic and assuming shit and whatnot made me want to smash my head into a very solid wall.

note: i’ve always liked emily henry because she hasn’t fallen into the traps of other contemporary romance authors of trying to make inside jokes with all the so cute stuff that happens *gag* but unfortunately it started to happen here.
first, the eyes. i get it. he has eyes. most of the human population does.
and i’m convinced harry has some kind of coke problem we don’t know about because NO ONE SNIFFS THAT MUCH. IT’S NOT HEALTHY. AND I DON’T CARE WHAT HE SMELLS LIKE ESPECIALLY NOT THE 250TH TIME.
it was an active ick for me.

wyn. look, he’s okay. he’s there. not gonna be there in my memory for long but whatever.
in some ways i liked him. but not really anything worth mentioning. he was what this book was: meh. he's the most one-dimensional character in the book. wyn is a sexy lamp. (if you aren’t aware of what the sexy lamp is, please google it.)

not to mention i feel like from what we got to see if their relationship, it was just a lot of:
harry: “i don’t deserve you, blah blah blah��
wyn: “i’ll love you forever in every universe, blah blah blah��
like that exact situation happened at least 3 times. that’s not a lot, but it’s strange it’s happened thrice.

the friend group/friend dramas/all that shit. i’m not sure what sense of surprise or whatever was meant to be here, but it was painfully obvious from the beginning that they all had their own shit going on. i gave sabrina the benefit of the doubt, but god she’s insufferable. i can understand some people needing more control and having that sort of personality quirk - we all have them - but this is an INNATE characteristic in a person and they either would have run into a problem with it earlier if they had incompatible or clashing personalities for friends, or they would have made different friends. it’s so stupid that it’s happening now. and at the same time, i don’t care.

i’m not going to lie i don’t really care about cleo either i barely remember anything about her, but kimmy? loml.

someone said (i think ale?) in their review that they felt like they were third wheeling this friend group, like they were doing their own thing and as the reader you didn’t really have a reason to care, and that’s exactly how i feel!!

the setting. hear me out. emily henry has previously had wonderful settings to all her novels, very atmospheric and interesting, and this one felt dull in comparison. it was there ofc, but i’m not gonna remember it.

the ending. girl, please. i know that harry had problems with her job, but throughout the novel she reaffirmed that though it was hard, she enjoyed her job. THEN WHY IS SHE GIVING IT UP TO MOVE ACROSS THE COUNTRY FOR A RELATIONSHIP THAT MIGHT FALL APART AGAIN BECAUSE THEY CAN’T FUCKING TALK TO EACH OTHER? the math isn’t mathing.

also, people can have hobbies and passions that exist outside of making money. that’s a normal healthy thing to do. this is like a larger issue relating to capitalism and triggering my fight or flight but not everything has to be mercenary. that so often ruins passions and it annoys me when so many people do that. why can’t shorty just like pottery??

i’m sure i forgot something and i’ll definitely come update this but at the end of it i do still love emily henry as an author and i will continue to read whatever she publishes.

i love how she creates stories differently with different plots and that the characters are all different and not carbon copies of each other.
and as previously mentioned, i’d propose to her writing style.

basically, i’m pretending my signed copy is of book lovers.

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i'm leaving this pre-review bc its gorgeous:

this acts as my love letter to emily henry, love of my life, so if you’re not emily henry, then please continue on your way-

look, emily, my love, i’m sure i will adore this book and everything in it with all my heart just as i have all of your others. i would buy your grocery list. i would adore your grocery list. i would give up the first born child that i’m not planning to have for your grocery list.

but girl i’m scared. one of my least favorite tropes is second chance romance. i won’t recover if this book ends up being the reason that we fall out of love. but i have faith in you and my preordered signed hardcover ��