Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.
This sadly was not as good as Blackout was. Probably because the main couple we follow in this one didn’t read as romantic to me at all. They (Sola and Stevie) read as very immature and honestly I got really tired of Stevie mighty quick. I didn’t find that whole dinner party thing realistic at all because Stevie is supposed to be really smart, but takes something that she doesn’t realize would have her entirely out of it? Come on. And after that I felt eh about the rest of the stories too. I didn’t have the rush to get to the end like I did with Blackout. I just found most of the stories not very realistic and thought some of the characters should have been aged up. Maybe that would have worked more? Because anyone saying yes Stevie and Sola are couple goals and who they go to for advice had me wondering if I was reading an entirely other book. Also too many of the storylines felt unfinished.
Breaking down chapters/people again. I can’t tell you which author wrote which chapters because this is an ARC and it doesn’t say. So going to just breakdown the stories.
“Stevie”-We don’t know what happened (yet) but know that Stevie wants to make things up with their (fingers crossed) not ex-girlfriend Sola. They have something really big planned but needs their friends to help them out. Too bad Atlanta is getting hit with snow that is shutting down everything. We find out through some word choices that Stevie I think is non-binary. Don’t know when this was announced, but appears their father is still getting used to it. Stevie is grounded because of events that are still unknown. Chapter three, seven, nine, and eleven follows Stevie.
“Kaz”-I got real tired of Kaz’s best friend Porsha. The two of them are hitting the Lenox (mall in Atlanta) to obtain something for Stevie’s plan. We find out real quick that Kaz has feelings for Porsha and has plans to reveal himself after advice from Sola. This slowed down things considerably. I wish that this book had done what Blackout had which is to give us the other person’s point of view when possible. I really didn’t buy Kaz or Porsha’s feelings. I also thought Porsha’s reasonings why she never celebrated Kaz’s holidays (Ramadan/Eid) to be really really dumb.
“E.R.”-Absolutely not. This whole storyline was a mess and I hated it.
“Sola”-I felt sorry for Sola and honestly wondered what she saw in Stevie. Because even with the additional chapters we get following Stevie, I got why they were into Sola. It seems like Sola was constantly begging for signs to see how much Stevie loved them. I don’t know. Once you find out what happened and why Sola was done I would have been too. Also there’s still some plot holes left open regarding this incident and Stevie’s whole grounding thing. Why I said at the beginning this whole book read as unfinished.
“Jordyn”-This was the only story that got me honestly. And I felt a bit annoyed we don’t get to see how Jordyn’s complicated feelings for her “egg donor” are resolved.
“Jimi’-Jordyn’s younger sister. I thought this whole storyline was not realistic. Sorry.
“Ava & Mason”-I still don’t even know what was going on here. This felt like a stuck on story that didn’t build up on other sections at all. I honestly was like was Ava or Mason ever mentioned in any of the other stories? I do a search and Ava was, but honestly I don’t even recall it.
