oh wow, this was really great. I'm so glad I noticed Leigh Kramer's reviewt!!

Wintery, Christmas-y in the more ennui way that I love, grappling with father figures that are absent, but for far different reasons, and money troubles, this is the New Adult romance I love to read.

Kal and Asha are both young, barely twenty-somethings who are attending college and are struggling, but mostly, to make ends meet. They get snowed into their otherwise empty apartment complex during the Thanksgiving break, where they finally speak to one another after both observing each other from across the hall. Kal isn't just the fuckboi Asha believes him to be, and Asha isn't just the quiet, recluse Kal thinks she is. I just really loved how the author slowly brought these two together.

Kal's Olympic running ambitions and the feelings he experiences while running felt so utterly captivating (I used to run, and he almost made me miss it lol). I loved that it was also something that Asha and Kal began to do together.

Beyond the central romance, we also get to see how Kal copes with his father, who is incarcerated and suddenly after many years, allows Kal to visit him, and what Asha's 'big secret' why she was absent for a whole semester is. I thought both aspects were important driving factors to the central romance, and also lovingly handled. I do wish more retribution had been reigned upon that professor, but we can't have it all.

I can't say enough nice things (but some details have slipped because I slacked on writing my review) so just go ahead and get this one you won't be sad.

content notes: Kal is a Black young man, a track star; Asha is a light skinned young Black woman. Miscarriage mention; inappropriate professor/student relationship discussed; Kal's father is incarcerated