She thinks she's kissing Jeremy, the totally hot basketball player she's been crushing on. And the kiss...it's amazing. Heart-stopping, world-changing, toe-curling. The kiss makes her forget about her overbearing mother, the next-door neighbor's drama, and the probability that she'll fail her senior year. The best kiss of her life makes all that fall away.
Until her blindfold falls off, and she realizes that instead of kissing her crush, she's kissing Elijah, her best friend since third grade.
Though she manages to convince Elijah that he was kissing his girlfriend, Remi can't get the thought of his lips on hers out of her head. As things between them grow more and more complicated--because it turns out her fantasizing about his mouth is more of a problem than it sounds--Remi has to make a choice: does she live the rest of her life loving her best friend in secret? Or does she tell the truth and risk ruining their friendship forever?. (Pub Date: Jan 14, 2020)
Upon reading the summary, I just had to get my hands on this book! And yet, I didn't expect to enjoy it this much.
The plot goes as you can predict, the main characters have been best friends for a long time to the point Elijah helps Remi shop for underwear. Their dynamics change when Elijah gets a girlfriend who, as expected, frowns upon their proximity. But the real change occurs when Remi accidentally kisses Elijah in a dark room, while he thinks it's his girlfriend.
I like that this budding romance between friends is the main plot, but we also get all kinds of layers as the story progresses, Remi is almost failing Art, but she doesn't want to acknowledge it. Also, her parents are divorced and we get to experience a healthy divorced parents situation. I really liked how her world was built. Elijah also has his stuff to deal with, especially with his older brother in jail and how he's unable to talk about it even with his best friend. It's a lot of things happening, but it doesn't take the focus out of the romance. It felt real but not messy. I'm not into stories that sell themselves as romances but will focus on everything else but, and of course people don't live in bubbles so stories that are only about their romance feel too hard to relate.
I also fell in love with the characters. Remi's denial of how critical her situation is at school was too real, although it did make me anxious how she'd procrastinate instead of doing her assignments haha. Eli is a sweet book boyfriend and I wish I could take home, he does makes mistakes but he also acknowledges it and makes his best to improve. The parents, especially Remi's, were also well-written to a point I don't know if I want them for me but I do know they were perfect for her.
This book surely has flaws. It's still your everyday contemporary YA, I'd say it fares better than what I expected from the summary but it doesn't go much beyond and that's why I wouldn't give it five stars. Nonetheless, it was very fun and easy to read, I don't even know why it didn't receive more attention because I recommend to anyone looking for a cute YA romance. In fact, I've become a fan of this writer and will keep an eye on her next releases.
Honest review based on an ARC provided by the author through Xpresso Book Tours. Many thanks for this opportunity.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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