I hate writing negative reviews but this is my personal opinion and experience. Just because it didn’t work for me, it doesn’t mean it can’t work for you.

First of all, don’t let the pretty/cute cover fool you. This book is drama all over, nothing cute or funny about it.

My main issue with this book was the main character. Just because a character is slightly overweight and has insecurity issues, it doesn’t make her automatically relatable (in fact, if we’re talking about diversity, it’d be great to read more about characters who feel judged for being skinny/not having enough curves etc., we’re underrepresented, but that’s another topic). Stella needed so much more to make her “likeable”.

Sometimes a character is unlikeable and that might be a good thing if it makes sense for the plot. Other times a character might just make you feel nothing, it’s indifferent to you. However, in this case, Stella really bothered me somehow. The only time I empathised with Stella was during the time she was terminally ill. The rest of the time, she was either drowning in self-pity, always assuming the worst of everyone or just getting randomly lucky despite making zero effort.

Let’s see, the romance. In real life, we’d say this guy was either a stalker or had zero self-respect. In a book, we tend to think it’s all romantic. But is it, really? After receiving ultimatums and Stella had shown zero signs of trust (how can such a relationship survive or even be considered healthy?) he’s still there, waiting for her. Oh, and that’s after he was kicked out of the house and received the same ultimatum over and over again “Not yet? Then bye.” That’s a definition of a toxic relationship.

Even in the beginning, when Stella expected him to do all the chasing, I mean, maybe that’s the irony of it, but doesn’t this book send the wrong message then? Because Stella got zero consequences from her actions and always got what she wanted (mostly).

I’m not sure what could’ve made this book better because even the plot itself and the timeline dragged a bit for me. Overall, I’m sad to report that this book wasn’t for me.