this book cannot decide what it wants to be: a contemporary, a holiday novel, or a small town second chance romance? idk bro, i can't tell you. it tries to juggle at least three different tropes and genres and loses all of them. the execution fails spectacularly, the mystery is ruined, the romance is half-baked, the attraction is all physical and it's literally all about the guy who's lowkey a creep and does questionable things. doesn't even ask for consent or confirm the girl's feelings in one scene before doing something that would've been sexual assault or harassment if she weren't into him. the writing is awfully mediocre and juvenile and despite being an adult romance, its language reads like stereotypical YA. i liked oliver but he doesn't take up a major spot in the narrative. homegirl keeps crapping on jeremy the ex but never says a single good thing about him, which doesn't explain why on earth she gets married to him. also, the book gets an F coz it flunked the bechdel. all interactions between two women are about a man. i want to give it kudos for having tall fml rep but it's offset by the ml being described as "ohh soo much taller than her". i'm mad at this story coz the beginning was so promising until the middle started getting mediocre asf, not to mention that horrendous third act conflict that happened in the last chapter because of a stupid thing and got resolved within minutes. who tf thought this was a good book. it feels like booktok bait.
