2.5/5 stars.

Mia is a 15 year old highschooler with a huge crush on the starplayer of the basketball team: Rob Starr. After his mom gets into an accident, Rob and his siblings move into Mia's home. And so the drama starts.

Okay. Wow. This book sure was a rollercoaster. I'm absolutely and completely emotionally drained from reading this. Based on the description of the book I did not expect it to handle such heavy themes. Definitely not a feel good read. I think the messages of self-love at the end are very important messages, and some of those will stick with me for quite some time. I already have some beautiful quotes written down!

The book is written from Mia's POV, so you're basically listening to a very stereotypical 15 year old highschool misfit. A very important note to make is that in the introduction it says the book was written for teenagers, not adult. Seeing as I'm 23 years old I definitely don't fit into the target audience. Nonetheless I do still remember highschool (shocker) and did not find this book relatable whatsoever.

From the get-go Mia was portrayed as a very shallow person. All she thinks about is herself and how to get Rob to like her. Of course, this is exactly what the book is about but I did not expect the main character to be so unlikable. We're supposed to feel sympathetic towards her, right? I did not. At all (okay maybe a bit in the last 10 pages). This isn't exactly a bad thing! Complex characters are an important part of literature, especially literature for young-adults.

I think I mainly enjoyed the book because of the drama and... Not to sound like a bad person, but I was really looking forward to finding out what bad things had happened to Mia. Also I have to admit I actually laughed out loud once, which is quite rare for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC, my review is 100% brutally honest.

Wow. This was one of the heavier reads I’ve done in a while, especially for YA. A little out of my usual romance comfort zone, but I found it an incredibly important story of self-love and self-respect. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up on many school reading lists.

Things I liked:
- I thought the author really nailed the 15yo narration, and I could feel Mia’s angst and obsession.
- Rob was despicable. As an adult reading this, I felt this viscerally. It was impressive how the manipulation and lies were palpable on the page
- The epilogue was really important - talking to parents, getting therapy etc. I would have been disappointed if this hadn’t been featured in such a heavy story

Things I didn’t like:
- I’m 33, and my own child is 2.5, so I found it hard to imagine behaviour like this being real (especially the party set up). But I’m sure it is
- I think more build up towards the sweet reveal in the epilogue would have been nice - but this is the YA romance enthusiast in me speaking!

Note - there were some minor typos e.g. missing quotation mark, “your” instead of “you’re” - just flagging this ahead of publication.

In short: I couldn’t put this down. It was tough to take at times, but a significant read I won’t forget.

I really enjoyed this one, it was heart wrenching at times, it was funny and above all it was relatable which I think is really important for ya fiction.

What a great book on first love, heartbreak,peer pressure and loving your self.. This was a great book depicting teenage relationships. I enjoyed this book ,although Mia made me mad allowing Rob to treat her that way. However she learned to love herself.