thank you to atria books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

i’ve been going back and forth ALL over the ratings board from 2-4 stars, so i think landing solidly in the middle is fair. this book was close to being a SLOG to get through. josie is such a tough character to be in the head of. every time she got herself into wacky situations, without thinking anything through, had me wanting to pull out my head. i mean, truly, i was close to calling it a quits early on with just her narration style.

i switched over to audio about a quarter of the way through, not because of the writing per se (rather because i was on a road trip and needed to listen something. so two birds, one stone). but man did that make so much of the difference. the ditziness definitely became a bit easier to stomach. i mean i was still like “girl what the actual fuck are you doing!” but those moments were definitely fewer than in the front end.

i also think as their plot progresses and as matt and josie’s relationship develops, him being around more also helped the case. matthew was truly the saving grace of this book. the way he went with all of josie’s dumb decisions,,, he really is what made this book worth continuing on. and now, while i really didn’t find myself loving josie (and i’m still irked we still never really get any clarification into WHY she was engaged 4 times, or what happened so that they’d all still be friendly with her) their relationship was still lovely to see develop.