The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

★★★★☆

This book moved way too quickly. Enemies to lovers should be a very slow burn. But despite the fact that they kissed on page 65, overall, it was painfully charming and lovable. I appreciated the subplots and the ridiculous tropes because they weren't awful—they weren't done amazingly, but well enough to be tolerable—but I just can't get over the fact that the build-up was so freaking short. It nearly ruined the well-developed characters and their relationships: the narrator went on and on about her rivalry with her coworker and none of that rivalry was shown in their actions. The first hundred pages were a burden to get through, but once The Paintball Scene happened, it was thoroughly enjoyable and adorable, and I hate to admit that I am really excited to see the movie. 

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren*

★★☆☆☆

A very solid eh. There was a lot of potential in this scenario! Unfortunately, it was not executed well. It was actually executed really poorly. I rooted for the main characters all the way through, but there was so much miscommunication it was unbearable. Everything could've been solved if the characters had just had a conversation! I'm a big advocate for writing however you want, but I have yet to find a book authored by two people that I've actually enjoyed.

*Note: Christina Lauren is the pen name for writing duo Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings.

Beach Read by Emily Henry

★★★★★

It was somewhat cheesy with some somewhat incredibly overused tropes, but it was so addicting and well-written I forgot all about them; I finished it in one sitting (on the beach, of course). The characters were enamoring and their relationships both realistic and endearing. My sole criticism, besides the decently unnecessary backstory for the male love interest—nothing would've changed about the book or his personality or their relationship if he didn't have a Traumatic Backstory™—is that it wasn't really set on a beach; in fact, there's only one or two scenes on the actual beach. A facile criticism, I know, and the title was clever given the fact that both main characters were writers, trying to draft a new novel at their lake houses, but it kind of bugged me that there was no actual ocean! Nevertheless, I am beyond excited to read Henry's next beachy rom-com, which I'm saving for next summer. 

Party of Two by Jasmine Guilroy

★☆☆☆☆

Dear God, I could barely get through this book. Nothing was rewarding: the conflict was shallow, the characters were straight archetypes with no nuance, and they weren't necessarily likable, either: they had virtually no depth, and their big fight could have been resolved with such a simple conversation. Frankly, I did not care, at all, about any of the characters or their relationships. 

Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn

★★☆☆☆

The author attempted to use fonts as a metaphor. Yes, fonts, like Helvetica and Times New Roman. It was bizarre and cringey every single time and I do not understand what she was trying to do with that. Although it was very average and unmemorable, the book was overall decently enjoyable, despite some of the dialogue and writing being obscenely horrible. I wouldn't pay more than $3 for it, which is exactly what I paid.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

★★★★★

It wasn't the best book I've ever read, but as far as rom-coms go, it was a damn good one. There was nothing structurally I disliked about it; the setting was gorgeous and such a beautiful depiction of early-twenties life in a big city, with too many roommates in a crappy apartment, a part-time job on top of college, and everything else I've heard my cousins and parents and friends describe about that era of their lives. One of the cover reviews called it a love letter to New York City, and I couldn't agree more. McQuiston clearly loves New York and it shows through descriptions that make you nostalgic for a time and place you were never there for. The characters were hilarious, of course; every character Casey McQuiston touches turns into gold. They were charming, witty, and so well-developed you wished that you could read a whole other book just about them. The vague magical-realism aspect was intriguing, to say the least, but at the heart of it all, it was a romantic comedy, so does it really all have to make sense? I think not. 

Unconventionally Yours by Annabeth Albert

★★★☆☆

The romance itself was cute, but the amount of pop culture references really threw me off. The novel was based around the fact that the characters were rivals in a group of friends who played a game reminiscent of Dungeons and Dragons—at least from my perspective as someone who collected Pokémon cards in elementary school simply because the pokémon were cute. And yet, the attempt to modernize the language and characters was cringey and really made it seem as if the author was trying to write about a generation younger than theirs that they had never interacted with. Aside from this, the fact that there were virtually no explicitly non-white characters was questionable, to say the least. Even the characters who could've been interpreted as POC, based on the lack of physical description, were canonized as white because of the weird drawings that were at the beginning of some chapters. That was another really bizarre thing: there were drawings of pictures and scenes taking place throughout the story. I've never seen that before outside of picture books, and it caught me very much off-guard. I also wasn't into the fact that it was advertised as full-blown enemies to lovers, when it really was more frenemies to lovers. They never truly hated each other. However, the development into their relationship was very well done; it really didn't feel like a slow-burn at all even though it very much was. But the foundation of their relationship was so flimsy that I found myself groaning at the crux of the conflict because it could have so easily been solved with a simple conversation.