I received an advance copy of this book courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was the first book I’ve read by this author, and while I liked it well enough, I didn’t totally love it. I liked the message and the look at the role that childhood trauma plays in our lives and the effects it has on our relationships (both with ourselves and with others) when we are adults, but after a while, it felt more like I was reading a therapy handbook than a novel.

At the heart of the book is Logan Gray, the Hollywood bad boy bogged down by childhood trauma he never addressed, and Mattie Cole, a rising star plagued by self-doubt. Logan has had years of acting experience, while Mattie only has a single movie under his belt. He and Logan are supposed to lead what many believe will be the hot-ticket rom-com of the year, but can they really pull this off? Logan and his antics are a PR nightmare. After insinuating that Mattie is nothing more than a mediocre wannabe and the sweetheart of the day, the likelihood that the fans will buy into their chemistry on screen is slim to none. So what do we do? The producers dream up a plan to make it look as though Mattie and Logan are dating for real. They give them a timeline and specific dates plotting when and where they’ll be seen together, how they should portray their relationship, and eventually, the date they will break up.

The two go along with it, and as one would expect, they begin to see each other for who they really are, and feelings begin to develop. Still, these feelings are complicated by past, unresolved traumas – mostly on Logan’s side – threatening the relationship’s happy ending.

The author does a great job at delving into the struggles faced by Logan and Mattie as they navigate their careers, the pressures of fame, the weight of societal expectations, and the backlash from social media. We get dual points of view – alternating between Logan and Mattie, but then peppered amongst the pages are comments from social media posts, transcripts from YouTube channels, and even some fan fiction about Mattie and Logan. I can see what the author was going for here, and honestly, it kind of worked, though I felt the fan fiction was totally out of place. It just felt… weird.

Here’s another shocker you probably won’t expect me to say – I wanted a little less drama and a little more romance. The tone of the book was much more serious than I expected. That’s not really a bad thing. I felt the author handled the topics of childhood sexual abuse very well and did a great job at showing how those unresolved traumas carry over and really fuck one up as an adult. While I appreciated the approach, it just started to feel a little too heavy for me after a while.

Also, I didn’t like that the book was tied up in a pretty little bow. It didn’t need that. This is an adult novel, and had the author left us on a hopeful but slightly unfinished note, I would have been more on board with it.

That said, minor problems aside, the book is entertaining and thought-provoking. I would recommend it to someone who isn’t afraid of romance with a side of childhood trauma.