TW: cheating, panic attacks, mental health talk, dealing with the loss of a parent, we defend women's rights but most importantly we also defend women's wrongs.

This is why I can't bring myself to DNF books. I picked this up, read 50% and fell asleep five times. I let it sit on my nightstand for over a week, just marinating, wondering if I was ever going to go back to it or just let it melt away next to my bed until I forgot about the entire plot and never picked it up again.

I am so glad I DIDN'T DO THAT.

This is going to be a hard one to tackle without giving you any spoilers, but I will do my best.

The first half was super slow. This is a slow book, with an Emily Henry and Christina Lauren style. If People We Meet on Vacation and Love and Other Words had a baby, this would be it.

The thing that initially annoyed me about this book was how similar it was to things that we have already read. They got together as teens, they were best friends and stopped talking for twelve years because of something that happened. The story is told by her between present and past shifts (and I am an absolute wh#re for present and past storytelling shifts, I am also an absolute wh#re for friends to lovers, so this is a winner) However, it wasn't a winner from the get-go.

It is extremely infuriating to me; to love a trope so much and just read more of the same being told with different names and different faces. Give me something new, give me angst, give me tension, so I was a bit unhappy during the first half.

Until I got to the second half of the book and the story started picking up, the characters became more vivid, their interactions more tense, the plot twist was awesome (even though it was quite predictable) it was incredibly emotional and honestly, understandable.

This is how you tell a second chance tale.

I don't know when it happened exactly, or how, but there was a moment where I wasn't bored anymore. I wasn't rolling my eyes at the page any longer, things started to make sense, I created a bond and a connection with these characters and every time Percy had a panic attack (your girl has a lot of those too so I relate) I was right there with her.

The imagery, the flow, the emotion and the overall rawness of how this story was told is what got me.

I found myself inside their minds, wanting to hug them all and tell them it was going to be ok.

Their teen angst, their first kisses and the first time she let it come out of her mouth she had feelings for him RUINED ME. All of their love scenes and conversations were so delicately written, ugh. So good.

The first half was well written, it was just slow.

This ended up differentiating itself quite a bit from Emily Henry's and Christina Lauren's stories at end, and it was thanks to how much personality these characters had. There were quite a few butterfly inducing scenes, and she didn't shy away from s&x in this book either. Everything was given to you in the right amount, at the right time.

This is what a well written book looks like and you can't tell me otherwise.

Just keep in mind that this is an emotional journey, filled with some heavy themes. I never cry while reading books, it wasn't a tear-jerker or anything (IMO) however, this will make your heart swell a little bit, not gonna lie.

This might not be everyone's cup of tea because of it's slow pace, themes and the tropes in this (I just personally love these) but we can't deny this is IMMACULATE story telling.