Hannah Grace

as an eldest daughter (and lover of taylor swift's folklore album), i feel SEEN. i already loved henry from seeing him in previous books, and i felt like we got to know halle so quickly, within the first few chapters of this one, which really made me connect so much more to their journey. the found family was, of course, found family-ing to hannah grace's usual extent. i think i've said this in previous reviews, but i want to be in this friendship group so bad!! what made this even better is show more it felt like a book for people who love books, so naturally, i was obsessed. show less

An utterly charming holiday romance. This is so sweet, and it celebrates generosity, independence, respect, and found family. I loved Clara and Jack, I saw reviews that said they have no chemistry, and I have to assume those readers like books where the MMCs kidnap and emotionally abuse their love interests. This is not violent, obsessive interaction; it is gentle and loving. A perfect holiday read as tomorrow the vacation ends, and I return to the real world where my country stages coups to show more ensure the profits of oil companies and I have to talk to students about regulatory structures in a time they no longer exist. Thank you Hannah for shoring up my happy before that. show less

I’ll be the first to admit this was much spicier than I prefer. (The Uber was 1000% unnecessary). But I did enjoy the story and the hilarity of the hockey house shenanigans.

While I am a fan of Nate, my affinity for Anastasia waned in the last 10-ish chapters. I hated her behavior and the superiority complex because she’d been to therapy so clearly she knew what she was doing. That felt gross. Especially considering the way Nate was written in those same chapters for no reason other than show more “plot”.

Still an enjoyable read if you don’t think about any of it too hard. show less

So, the romance between Anastasia and Nathan is perfectly executed textbook romance. They are thrown together by circumstances, he's kind, he's sweet, he thinks she's gorgeous, he respects her mind and her personality, they have a lot of sex, she is a little bit bratty and it's all a lot of fun.

Adorable as it is though, it's not that excitingly different, and doesn't really explain the viral popularity of this book. I think the things I found really interesting about this book were

- show more Anastasia's relationships with her parents, and her history of therapy. There are lots of 'I am a messed up overachiever because of the pressure my parents put on me' stories out there, I don't think I have ever seen one that is so clearly 'actually, my parents love me, and it's my own anxiety that is putting this pressure on me, how can I deal with this as a grown up and work it through'

- Anastasia and Aaron. For me, this is the story of the book. Nathan is adorable and sweet, but is basically a plot mcguffin for helping Anastasia work out what is going on with Aaron. Aaron is an amazingly well drawn modern bad guy, he is skin crawlingly awful with his gentle negging, his moods and sulks, never communicating what he wants, controlling Stassie's food and judging her weight, lying to hurt people who are getting too close to Stassie... I do feel sorry for Hannah Grace that she can write someone like this so well, I hope she's not working out her own history! Aaron has been part of Stassie's life for so long, and watching her detangle herself from him, while trying to be a good person, give him the benefit of the doubt and not sabotage her own skating dreams is really well drawn and interesting.

It comes so near being a perfect modern non-slut-shaming romance, where the relationship is healthy and full of consent and communication. It wobbled a bit for me when Nathan punches Aaron, much as he deserves it, and I didn't think the epilogue of blooming pregnant Stassie with her floppy golden dog and her happy ever after proposal was where I wanted her to end up It also veers into 'you only want to be non-exclusive if you don't know Real Love'. But if you want a world where the basic assumption is sex is fun, and love is fun, and you can have both or either but it should be up to you with no judging, this book will work for you. show less