I am so lucky that I get to call this book my introduction to the romance genre. I'm so glad I discovered the romance genre. It's better than I thought and it's the perfect escape in the pandemic, and maybe my recently broken heart kind of makes me more vulnerable to it too. I don't know, but I adored this book, I want to buy it in print and tab away at quotes like about half the favorites on my shelf. I wish I had space for a bookshelf, maybe now that I'm alone I can make space.

This book isn't really so much as a review so much as it is a sort of catharsis. I loved Chloe, as someone who struggles with chronic depression, anxiety, social anxiety that used to be agoraphobia, and ADHD it's like I understood how devastating her journey was to believe in herself. You see the heroine of this book is a Black Woman with chronic illness, Fibromyalgia to be more specific, and I saw shades of myself in her. I felt so much sympathy for her but was genuinely impressed with her running her small business and being organizational as fuck, she has her shit so together, it's very inspiring. I do not have any of my shit together, but I felt the pain she talked about when she was so scared to leave her house, the way she shut herself off to everyone...I understand what it's like to have all your friends leave and abandon you just because of what you are, and for you to fear it all over again.

Red was also such a treat, he was such a kind man. He was so thoughtful and precise in the same ways Chloe was, but relaxed enough to fit all her gaps. God, I cried sometimes from how sweet Red was. I cried probably because I've also gone through toxic abusive relationships, and to see the abuse from a males perspective was so refreshing and I'm so glad to see it normalized.

I read (maybe heard? Not sure) another review mention the ending of this book. They felt the last conflict wasn't really necessary, because the conflict in the middle was enough and highlighted these issues the characters had already. I disagree. I think it's necessary to show how these characters with all their hardships have these deep mental blocks, and how they over come those with such huge determination for their own love and happiness. These mental blocks, in a lesser book, would be brushed aside or if this book never included that conflict--while I would have still enjoyed it, I might have wondered a bit. I think it was necessary to show how much work you still need even in happiness, how depressing and paranoid tendencies stick with you even in the fog of love, and how much relationships hurt for people who have been through hell and back already. The ending theme despite that though is that love is worth it, and that these people deserved love and each other.

**Adding more thoughts re:conflict in last 1/3 of the book** I see a lot of people saying that the conflict felt rushed or contrived, but people do seem to understand it's realistic for Red to react that way. I want to say as someone with ADHD...this is how my conflicts are, and maybe that's why I don't feel disconnected. My mood changes at the drop of the hat, it's not a swirling depression (which I do get sometimes), it can be a part lingering anxiety but that's my entire life, but it's like something snaps. And then you give me five minutes, an hour, and I suddenly am like, "What the fuck is wrong with me?" It's joked about in my life that I can never be mad at someone longer than five minutes, but when I am it's hell. Maybe to a lot of people it wasn't realistic and maybe it's not? It's the way I experience it though, and the conflict does span several days, it's just not something we get to experience in text (which is the right call imo, it would have been repetitive I think otherwise). I just wanted to offer my perspective on how I'm flawed this way, so I didn't see this as a negative, and if you experience mood snaps like I do especially if you're one of the ADHD gremlin friends I have reading this--it might not take you out of it. I completely get people experience anger and sadness differently though, but this is a perspective I wanted to share since I didn't see it in another review. I didn't even think it COULD be unrealistic, I'm a silly neurodivergent I guess.

I hear the sequel is better and I'm so excited, I love how real and honest this book was. The dialogue was superb and made me laugh, and I don't know if this book meant as much to anyone else as it did to me. Right book, right time I suppose. My review makes it sound like these issues with the characters are the centerpiece, and I would say that's not entirely accurate. These issues are present throughout, but there's so much more happiness, romance, and little adventures that they fit naturally into the story. It's not a depressing book or anything, but one filled with hope.

I listened to this on audio, and I was fine with it but wouldn't recommend necessarily. The narrator isn't bad but is on the more mature side, I don't mind listening to sex in any voice to be honest, because in text/audio form it does nothing for me since I've been reading way worse in fanfic for a decade and a half, but worth mentioning. I heard the audio is better in the sequel, so I'm pretty excited for that since audiobook is the primary way I read now unless I absolutely can't deal with the audiobook.

I think this is a great introduction to romance if you've never thought about the genre, and I am pretty much going to recommend this to everyone for the rest of my life. So yeah, thanks for letting me read this book, honestly.