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What happens to you doesn’t define who you are.

What did I just read? 💔💔 How am I supposed to wait until after finals to start the second book? Nope. The moment I finished writing this review, I’m sprinting to the book two. Finals can wait.

If you know me, you know there is nothing I love more than childhood friends to lovers 🥰🥰 This trope owns my soul, so I went in knowing I’d like this book. What I didn’t know was that it would completely destroy me and leave my heart shattered on the floor without even trying to put it back together 😭😭

The story is about Noah Sorensen and his best friend, Kaj Larsen. Noah is the new kid in town and the target of bullies. One day, Kaj saves him, and from then on, they become inseparable. With some of Kaj's friends, they even start a band. Life is going great for Noah, and he isn’t alone anymore. But over time, what started as a friendship slowly turns into a crush, then love. It takes some time, but eventually, they get together. They were so cute and precious. The author did an awesome job writing their teenage love in a realistic way without making it cringey 👍👍

One of the reasons I adore this trope is watching characters grow up together—learning who they are, setting boundaries, and discovering love alongside the person who means the most to them. This book does exactly that. You watch these boys grow from innocent kids into flawed teenagers shaped by their experiences, both good and bad. Before you even realize it, you’re deeply invested, desperate to protect them from everything life might throw their way—which makes their downfall so much more devastating 🤧🤧

“Say it’ll forever be us against the world.” Noah had never seen Kaj so naked, so vulnerable. He wanted to wrap him in the softest blanket and embrace him until the day they died. Crawling up the bed, he straddled his hips and pressed a kiss to his lips to seal the promise. “Always and forever.”

From the very first moment you open the book, you know that something horrible is going to happen to these boys, but that knowledge doesn’t make it hurt any less when it finally does 😔😔 The disaster that caused Noah and Kaj to break up—and what Kaj couldn’t bring himself to say to Noah—was painfully clear to me the moment I read that scene, and it hurt so much 😭😭 The hardest part was that I understood both of them, and both of their reactions felt completely justified. As an adult, I could see exactly how and why everything fell apart—but they were just hormonal teenagers dreaming of a life together, completely unprepared for the disaster they never saw coming. Life threw one disaster after another at them, and their relationship wasn’t strong enough to survive all of it at such a young age ⚔️ ⚔️

From that moment until the end of the book, I suffered—not because it was bad, but because seeing what they became hurt so much. These boys had always been each other’s safe place, and watching them hurt one another, both emotionally and physically, was incredibly painful. All I wanted was to make them sit down and force them to talk to each other, but they weren’t ready for that—at least, not yet 😔😔

I don’t even know how to describe the emotional damage caused by the prologue, epilogue, and their final meeting. I cried, then stared at the ceiling trying to recover 😖😖 They were becoming—if not already—too toxic, and even though it broke my heart, they needed to walk away. They couldn’t be each other’s cure when they hadn’t healed their own wounds 💝💝

“If I were to die, would you miss me?”

“If you died, I’d die with you.”

I’m so, so glad I waited for the second book to be published before starting this one. Now that we’ve talked enough about our MMCs (and trust me, I could talk about them endlessly—these boys are going to live in my mind forever), let me touch on a few other things.

First, I really loved how supportive and understanding both Noah’s mom and Kaj’s dad were toward their children. They loved them unconditionally and accepted them for who they are 💯💯 The same goes for their friends, Theo and Val. Their acceptance of Noah and Kaj’s sexuality and relationship was so comforting. I really hope they stay in touch even after Noah leaves for his education.

Second, I didn’t enjoy reading Noah’s sex scenes with Zach 🙅‍♀️🙅‍♀️ I skimmed through those parts pretty quickly. Considering how phenomenal the book is overall, this wasn’t a major issue, but I wanted to mention it. This book didn’t just live up to my expectations—it exceeded them. It was heartbreakingly beautiful. I tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible for anyone still on the fence, so all I’ll say is this: give it a chance. You won’t regret it 🔥🔥