This book began like a very awkward first date who comes in way too eager and tries to kiss you after fifteen minutes before getting to know anything about you. WHY THO. 

We are rolling into intense grief scenes within the first few pages (grief around a character we haven’t met and never hear about again). 

Then the hero is so over the top sexual immediately (so unnecessary) that it completely ruins any “will they won’t they” tension that could have existed. 

It doesn’t feel believable that the hero and heroine are even best friends, especially since the heroine has a huge and tight knit group of girl friends who seem to hang out multiple times a week. Why does she need this random guy friend? They don’t even have a backstory. 

I felt uncomfortable so many times reading this book.
1. I felt uncomfortable when the heroine repeatedly referred to herself and her friends as “curvy girls”. 
2. I felt uncomfortable when the hero’s sister demands details about what the heroine does sexually with her brother. 
3. I felt uncomfortable when the hero decides to “confess his love” for the heroine within the first chapter but instead just tries to sleep with her. 
4. I felt uncomfortable when the hero seems to have a bit of an anger problem and this is literally never addressed. 

I really appreciate authors who try and write plus sized heroines, but it can be done in a subtle way… or not. It felt like this author was bashing us over the head with the fact that the heroine was plus sized. The hero is constantly trying to feed the heroine. She leans really heavily into plus size tropes - example: she prefers chocolate cake to sex, has very serious body dysmorphia, and “isn’t fit enough to run”. There are a lot more nuanced expressions of being in a larger body (both positive and negative ones) that could be creatively explored. 

If you get annoyed with heroines who are oblivious to people being in love with them, this book isn’t for you. Our hero is literally kissing the heroine, forcing her to sit on his lap, and calling her babe — and yet she still thinks he couldn’t possibly want her. This is a level of self sabotage and low self esteem that is so intense that it makes me root for the heroine to NOT be in a relationship. We need some self work, and some self worth. Getting lucky with her best friend isn’t the answer. 

This book does have some cute parts, and addresses some very real world problems, but it drags on and on with the heroine’s insecurity to the point where all the fun of reading is gone. I just don’t think either of these characters were emotionally ready to be in a relationship. 

I don’t think I’ll read another in this series.