This was a fun enemies to lovers rom com that I breezed through quickly. It’s light and fun and hits lots of the iconic rom-com moments from movies that Liz loves so much. For me personally I found it a little too surface level, unlike Betting on You the characters didn’t have the same chemistry and tension. This feels younger than Betting on You, (which I loved) which I think is what threw me off. This feels very much younger YA compared to Betting on You and I think that if I had read this one earlier I may have enjoyed it more.

There were just too many things that annoyed me with this book. I felt like Liz changed herself massively for Wes, and in pursuit of the other guy, which I always hate. This was published in the 2020s, we should be over the Girl Changes Herself trope, yet that was a huge part of this book and yet nobody questioned it? Wes was just happy to change her from the ‘odd’ outfits she wore before and enjoyed shopping with her? I think this was supposed to be a cute moment but no. Just no.

I also hated that the childhood friends-to-lovers i was promised was more bullies to lovers. Wes and Liz’s prank war could have been fun if it was in good humour, but Liz wasn’t enjoying it and he was escalating the pranks to a ridiculous degree like duct taping up her car so she couldn’t get to school. It just did not hit well at all, and I am not going to read the sequel because what was this?

If you want to read Lynn Painter I would recommend Betting on You more because it just hit so much harder for me and the romance was sizzling off the pages even when nothing romantic was happening!  

Romance – Sweet – 1/5 – its a no from me.

World – 3/5 – its our world but very high school rom-com energy.

Characters – 4/5

Plot –  3/5 – it does what every rom-com plot should, and I cant complain of anything but there just wasn’t anything that really reached out to me and stood out from the other rom-coms I’ve read.

Content Warnings: mothers death, several years prior.

Romance Rating: Sweet – kisses, some making out but nothing close to any doors closed or otherwise.

Violence Rating: Level 1