When her dad left and her mom fell apart, Ava cut everything out of her life that reminded either of them of his betrayal. That meant giving up all of her cosplaying and convention attendance and, hardest of all, her best friend Declan. Now it's five years later and she's never stopped missing him. Declan wishes he could forget Ava, but he's always wanted to be her friend again. And maybe more. So when they are thrown together to work on a costume workshop for a local con, he's completely conflicted. Worried she'll hurt him again but thrilled to have his friend back. Ava is trying to hold everything together, but does she want to give into the feelings Declan is stirring up or will it bring up all the things she's been running away from since her dad left?

This book is the absolute cutest! I adored the characters - every single one of them. I laughed a lot. Like a lot a lot. And then I completely bawled my eyes out. I sat down and read this in one shot because I was so engrossed in the story. And even though it's the sweetest, it also deals with some pretty challenging themes. And watching, especially Ava, work through things was so great and felt realistic and I just really appreciated the strong friend support group she had. Also, I am 100% here for a friends to lovers, they are reuniting after years apart, one of them is trying to deflect and says something bad about the other and then slo-mo turns and the other is there tropes but also *chef's kiss* for not having a real miscommunication trope. All the nerdy references and ah! I just really loved this book. So go pre-order it. And the Whimsical special edition with sprayed edges looks gorgeous.

I think anyone who's into anime, or cosplaying making would like this book. We start with Ava and Declan years after their friendship ended, and Ava's father left her and her mom for another woman the story goes from there, and then the two of them end up working on a project together. The mention of anime and cosplaying really kept me reading and going along with the story the writing was a little off, stilted, at the beginning, but it got better. Ava and Declan were strong characters they were rightfully flawed and you identified with them. It had enough conflict that kept you reading, the side characters were well developed too they added so much to Ava's and Declan's character, and they felt realistic too I really liked reading this and I had a good time reading it.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher for the arc.