It is not a simple thing to write a character who is religious, repressed, and challenged, and keep it respectful. It is not easy to write a character who is nearly as repressed, in wildly different ways, and keep it respectful, too. All five stars for this. All. Five. ( )

Annabeth Albert has written better...but this is not by any stretch of the imagination, a bad or uninteresting book. I just couldn't work up much appreciation for the background of the story or the characters, although I began to like the two main characters more as the story went on. I was happy to see that Cody and Lucas cared enough about one another to try to work together to strengthen their budding attraction and relationship and that Lucas had the strength of his conviction to stand up to his unreasonably demanding parents. The parents were quiet a pair and it was commendable of Lucus and Cody to face them without completely alienating them. Annabeth Albert's books usually get much higher ratings from me, but I felt that while the story and the characters were good it took a bit too long to get started. I do intend to finish the series with books 2 & 3. ( )

This was a good intro to the series but the next two books are much better. This book is a friends to lovers and I feel like it was missing the scene where they move into a relationship. At first its just physical and then suddenly they are calling each other boyfriends. I went back a few pages in my kindle because I honestly thought I missed a scene. ( )

Review to come. ( )