“It’s like we’re two trees secretly sharing nutrients underground, two stars orbiting around all the things there’s no language for.”

TL;DR Loved it! A pleasant spin on the usual YA insta-love filled with family, emotions, self-esteem, and teens wondering about their futures.

Lovely! The romance played it straight with the insta-love and fate. Rex and Carli’s love was fluffy, giddy, the slightest bit corny, and light-hearted.

I was surprised that romance wasn’t the only draw here. There was a lot of focus on family, upbringing, and the usual growing pains of becoming a young adult. Carli has loving parents who are divorcing for a reason unbeknownst to her, whereas Rex has a hands-off, single father who spends all his time away from home as a brain surgeon. Those different family dynamics definitely affected Carli and Rex in a lot of different ways. Just seeing how both of them handled emotions and their family situations really fleshed out their characters. For one point, Rex’s mom died in childbirth with him, which adds another layer of longing in him for love.

The characters aren’t perfect, and they have a lot of emotional outbursts. Carli was relatable with trying to narrow down her career/life purpose. I, too, hated having to have an idea of what you want to seemingly do for the rest of your life. For that reason, I struggled with picking a major for college. Carli’s also good at basketball, but it’s nothing she wholeheartedly loves. She had so many different interests from art to mythology to random trivia. I liked her! She was level-headed but still playful, just trying to figure life out.

I enjoyed that Rex wasn’t the typical playboy, ball hog star player. He got emotional and desperately yearned for love. He had an ingrained habit of hiding his hurt and pain down low within himself. Obviously, those feelings burst forth at some point. Unlike most YA leads, due to his lack of parenting, he desired a stricter upbringing. I wished at some point Rex went to therapy, a school counselor, or read a book or something. He kept bottling up a lot of his feelings, and he needed someone besides Carli to unload that on. He felt like a real person, and, at times, I wanted to slap him into next week when he acted a dee-diddle-fool. BUT I always get why he behaved a certain way. I like that. I don’t have to agree with a character’s actions, but I understand them.

Cole, Carli’s brother, is a goofy, hopeful romantic who was sensitive and majorly in touch with his feelings. Carli and he get along great. I always adore seeing sibling relationships where they don’t revolve solely around fighting.

Also, I loved Carli’s mom, Barbra. I get so tired of the long-suffering wife who puts up with all her husband’s foolery, so she was such a breath of fresh air.

I enjoyed reading this immensely! The narrative voice felt crisp and authentic. The whole relationship didn't just revolve around sex though there were a bit of some sexual shenanigans. The pacing was great, and I connected with the characters. I would definitely recommend reading this even for non-romance readers or non-sports fans! There is a lot of heart in this story. One thing, at times, Rex was creepyyyyy. Like, You “Joe” creepy. Still, read this!

ending spoiler: I'm glad they broke up. it was too much drama tho the ending is certainly hopeful. ( )