This was definitely… a book… that I read… 😐

Unfortunately, I was mostly bored while reading this. The 1st half was too slow-paced for me. It took a third of the book for us to even get to the synopsis. The 2nd half definitely picked up, but at that point I was already too uninvested in the story to care.

PLOT:

What happens is the following: Knox is a familiar (a dude with some magical powers) on the run, so he makes a deal with a human (Ellery) so he can stay in the human realm instead of going back to his realm. Ellery accepts this deal because they think Knox can help figure out how to end the 5-year long Winter. What ensues is a (kinda short) period of time where Ellery and Knox go through a bucket list so Knox can experience human life (mostly based on teen dramas he liked to watch). The whole bucket list thing is quite cheesy and overdone, but I wouldn’t have minded it if it had been *fun*.

Sadly, though, this wasn’t really fun… 😕 The activities lasted anywhere between 1 paragraph to a couple of pages. At some point we breezed through like 10 different activities in like 3 paragraphs. Ellery and Knox sometimes talked and bonded during these moments, but tbh none of them were long enough to feel substantial, or to make me care about their relationship. They also ended up running into a plethora of supernatural creatures during this time, and these creatures often went into monologues explaining their lives and/or evil plans in a way that felt quite cheap. Overall, I didn’t care about this section of the book, and most moments felt underdeveloped.

At some point act Knox learns that

the permanent Winter was caused by the shades, and he could actually stop it by going back to his realm. Then he spends god knows how long thinking about telling Ellery the truth, but he either puts it off or gets interrupted. This happened multiple times, and it started to feel like a joke. At 65% he FINALLY comes clean when the shades are attacking them. Ellery almost dies but Knox gives them the elixir the shades are coming after to revive Ellery. They say their goodbyes (which left me staring blankly at the page because I did not care at all about their romance) and then Knox goes back to his realm, losing his memory in the process.

The final arch of the story is Ellery finding a way to go to Knox’s realm to get him back, even though Knox doesn’t remember his time in the human realm. They manage to do it by recruiting the supernatural creatures they met throughout their bucket-list-time, and then everyone lives happily ever after.</hide spoiler> I was pretty bored throughout the climax of the book, and none of the emotional moments made me feel… well… anything. 😐 But given that I didn’t care about the beginning or middle of this story, I’m not surprised I also didn’t care about the ending. It was a pretty sweet ending, though, and a simple story overall, so I can see why other people enjoyed it!


ROMANCE:

I wasn’t a fan of the romance. The moment they see each other, Knox and Ellery immediately start talking about how hot the other is. Turns out they both already developed a crush on the other before the book even began (just based on their physical appearance btw; they never spoke before)… 😐😐😐 Listen. I understand that people get crushes on strangers just by looking at them, but *I* personally prefer to actually see the romance develop from 0, instead of seeing 2 characters who already like each other (for superficial reasons only) before I even get to meet them.

Knox and Ellery then make their deal and spend time together going through Knox’s bucket list. As I already mentioned, these moments felt pretty unsubstantial, and weren’t enough for me to start caring about their relationship. It was STATED that they liked each other, but I couldn’t SEE a singular reason as to why. 😐

I also found it quite strange that Ellery mentioned rarely being interested in people, and never really having crushes. Yet they started liking Knox just based on their looks, and fell in love with him super fast! Mind you, they only know each other for a total of 3 weeks, and by the end of week 1 Ellery already liked Knox (like, more than just a crush)……

I will say that I actually kind of enjoyed their relationship when they finally got together. They were very shy and awkward, and constantly asked each other stuff like “Can you kiss me?”, “Do you like me?”, “Did you enjoy the kiss?”, etc. I appreciate the verbal consent, and I reeeeally liked their innocence. It was all super sweet!

Unfortunately, I couldn't fully enjoy their relationship because I don’t think it was well established. Like, yeah, they were sweet and pure, but also like… the basis of their romance was their physical attraction to each other, and after that they just spent some time together and were in love?? I just never bought it. I didn’t understand why they liked each other, I rolled my eyes when they showed jealousy, and I stared blankly at the page during their emotional moments. And since this story is kind of based on their love for each other, the fact that I didn’t buy their romance means that I also didn’t care about the resolution to the plot. 🫤🥲

Overall. This was… fine… for somebody else, perhaps. Not so much for me. But I can definitely see why other people would love this!