Reviewed
by Christy
It's December 1999, and
Frankie and Ezra are headed back to their old stomping grounds to celebrate the
wedding of two college friends. But not together. They will actually be
delighted if they can avoid each other for the entirety of the festivities.
Ever since their messy, messy breakup on graduation day ten years prior, they
each desperately try not to think of the other. When they wake up the morning
of New Year's Eve in bed together and wearing wedding rings, they realize their
mission to ignore each other has failed spectacularly. The clock is ticking
down to ceremony time (and the new millennium!), and they would really like to
figure out just exactly what went down.
This
premise sounded so fun but I have to admit the first half really dragged for
me. Two people I don't know all that well (and don't particularly like)
constantly sniping at each other? Not enjoyable. I debated dropping it all
together, but the second half did
pick up when more of their backstory was slowly revealed. Unfortunately, that
couldn't save it for me. The writing was just fine but I never could get over
the initial hurdle of disliking them. There’s a thin line between witty banter
and sniping, and most of their interactions fell in the latter category. The bitterness
made more sense as I learned more about them as a young couple but by then I
literally had 11% left in the book. (Thank you, Kindle, for letting me know
this!) If the book was front-loaded with this information, I might've been more
understanding and empathetic to their situation from the start. As it was,
there were brief glimpses of emotions I could connect to, and for those I was appreciative.
But maybe the format of periodic flashbacks does this story a disservice. I
think there is a better book in here somewhere, one where the readers care
about the characters early on, and not when the book is almost over. But even
then, I had a hard time figuring out what these people saw in each other.
If
you like the Second Chance Romance trope and a little 90s nostalgia, this may
be worth checking out for you. But I think you can find more likable versions
elsewhere.
**I received an eARC from
Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**
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