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belle13's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
❤️Anxiety & grief rep
❤️He falls first and he falls HARD
❤️Funny group of friends
❤️Instant attraction
❤️Women in STEM (and absolutely excelling)
❤️Moving & emotional
❤️One big reminder to follow your heart not your head sometimes
Overall, this was a great read but I have one huge personal pet peeve to do with the representation of anxiety disorders. Anxiety does not equal bitchiness and I hate when it’s represented this way. As someone with an anxiety disorder I definitely don’t go around being kind of nasty to people and then writing it off as just part of my anxiety which is how Harper was written.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, let’s talk about the good stuff. I adore their friend group and thought they were all hilarious and honestly, I think that made the whole book for me. It was also more emotional and the content was a lot heavier than I was expecting which I think actually made me enjoy it even more. I would recommend you check the CWs however, because some of the themes and topics will definitely be triggering for some people, especially those who have been impacted by debilitating anxiety.
I would recommend it if you love a hilarious friend group, a MMC who falls so hard he’s practically tripping over his own feet and a complex, go-getter FMC.
Amount of spice:🔥1-2 scenes
Explicitness: 🌶️🌶️🌶️Open door and explicit
❤️He falls first and he falls HARD
❤️Funny group of friends
❤️Instant attraction
❤️Women in STEM (and absolutely excelling)
❤️Moving & emotional
❤️One big reminder to follow your heart not your head sometimes
Overall, this was a great read but I have one huge personal pet peeve to do with the representation of anxiety disorders. Anxiety does not equal bitchiness and I hate when it’s represented this way. As someone with an anxiety disorder I definitely don’t go around being kind of nasty to people and then writing it off as just part of my anxiety which is how Harper was written.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, let’s talk about the good stuff. I adore their friend group and thought they were all hilarious and honestly, I think that made the whole book for me. It was also more emotional and the content was a lot heavier than I was expecting which I think actually made me enjoy it even more. I would recommend you check the CWs however, because some of the themes and topics will definitely be triggering for some people, especially those who have been impacted by debilitating anxiety.
I would recommend it if you love a hilarious friend group, a MMC who falls so hard he’s practically tripping over his own feet and a complex, go-getter FMC.
Amount of spice:🔥1-2 scenes
Explicitness: 🌶️🌶️🌶️Open door and explicit
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief
Moderate: Misogyny and Death of parent
lovetlr's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent
Moderate: Misogyny
clairew97's review against another edition
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent
beccaand's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, and Car accident
beckyyreadss's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I wanted to read this book as I've seen this all over the book community. I enjoyed this book but it did take me a while to get into this book and I felt like it was missing something.
This book has two points of view, the first one is Harper Horowitz, she is anxiously awaiting placement into a top oral surgery residency program when she crashes literally into Dan. Harper would rather endure a Novocaine-free root canal than face any distractions, even if he is super gorgeous. The second point of view is Dan Craige, he is a first-year dental student with a family legacy to contend with, Dan doesn’t have the same passion for pulling teeth that Harper does. Though he finds himself falling for her, he is willing to play by Harper’s rules. So both of them agree to “Just be friends”, but as they get to know each other better, Harper fears that trading fillings for feelings may make her lose control and she can’t risk her carefully ordered life coming undone, no matter how drool-worthy Dan is.
I like academic romances with dual POVs. I like our two MCs. I can relate a lot to Harper and her struggles with her anxiety. I liked how both of the characters struggles were written without romanticing them. I liked that there wasn’t any miscommunication in this book and that the communication was clear and helped show Harper that people can support you if you let them. I liked Dan, I think Dan was sweet and I would have loved for him to have a bit more depth and maybe a sibling, because from what I could tell he was an only child. It think the only character that sort of saved this book (when the author needed to move the story along) was Thu, I wanted more of Thu, I want Thu to have her own book, I wanted more of her during this book. She saved this from me and made me change my rating from 2 stars to 3 stars.
I feel like I struggle with this book at time due to how slow it was at times, it kept going from fast-paced to slow-paced with kept hurting my head. I understood why the author did it at times but it was just messing with the flow a bit. I wish this book had more, more relationship development, I would have loved to seen the personal development between the therapists and the MCs. I also think that the side characters were only there when they were needed rather than in the storyline. I would have loved for Harper to pick up on Alex and Thu’s growing relationship. I didn’t like the insta love that Dan seemed to have for Harper I would have loved to have seen a slow burn in this book, especially as this book was like he insta loves her and then she drags out the growth and then tries to become a slow, if it was going to be an insta love book, then make it an insta love book but it was just sort of all over the place.
This book was fun and cute but I just wanted more and whilst writing this review, I've just seen that it’s part of a series so hopefully I will like the next one more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Vomit
dariasreading's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent
drealovesbooks's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content
rachkait's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
definitely a little cheesy at times as other reviews have mentioned, but that only added to me liking it. I went into this with little to no expectations and I think that overall helped because I liked it way more than I thought I was going to. I enjoyed the anxiety representation and the discussions that are had regarding Harpers struggles with it. I do wish there was more of a discussion between Harper and Dan at the end about the things that were said to one another rather than automatic forgiveness because they love one another, but I they do seem like the types to have that kind of conversation so in my mind it just happened off page.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, and Sexual content
Moderate: Car accident and Death of parent
milesc's review
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident, and Death of parent
Moderate: Misogyny
elizabeth_delozier's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
5 stars, hands down.
I went into this blind. I had heard only snippets of how this book was adorable with just a dash of spice. I was expecting something terribly cheesy. Let me just say, what a pleasant surprise.
This book was all-around delightful. A rom-com (And yes, I do mean rom-com...I laughed out loud a lot throughout this book) set in a dentistry doctoral program. Our FMC is an extremely anxious overachieving type, who works herself so hard she doesn't give herself much room for a personal life. Our MMC is a non-traditional first year legacy at the school and is currently working through complicated grief of both his recently departed father and the life he left behind to help with the family dentistry practice. While more laid back in nature than the FMC, he is still very driven...just not for dentistry.
The story touches on aspects of complicated grief, severe generalized anxiety disorder, general mental health, the importance of a support system, and the overwhelming stress put graduate students.
While covering these topics, the story also provides a fun romance with delicious spice as well as my favorite women friendship groups I have ever read about. The amount of true support and love shown among that friendship group is so heart-warming, you'll wish they were your own friends.
I loved everything about this book, including the main character's Maine Coon. I want one.
Please go read this now. Tell your friends. Shout it from the roof tops.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Emily Lawrence and Vikas Adam, via NetGalley. An advanced reader's copy of this audiobook was provided to me via NetGalley by Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review.
I went into this blind. I had heard only snippets of how this book was adorable with just a dash of spice. I was expecting something terribly cheesy. Let me just say, what a pleasant surprise.
This book was all-around delightful. A rom-com (And yes, I do mean rom-com...I laughed out loud a lot throughout this book) set in a dentistry doctoral program. Our FMC is an extremely anxious overachieving type, who works herself so hard she doesn't give herself much room for a personal life. Our MMC is a non-traditional first year legacy at the school and is currently working through complicated grief of both his recently departed father and the life he left behind to help with the family dentistry practice. While more laid back in nature than the FMC, he is still very driven...just not for dentistry.
The story touches on aspects of complicated grief, severe generalized anxiety disorder, general mental health, the importance of a support system, and the overwhelming stress put graduate students.
While covering these topics, the story also provides a fun romance with delicious spice as well as my favorite women friendship groups I have ever read about. The amount of true support and love shown among that friendship group is so heart-warming, you'll wish they were your own friends.
I loved everything about this book, including the main character's Maine Coon. I want one.
Please go read this now. Tell your friends. Shout it from the roof tops.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Emily Lawrence and Vikas Adam, via NetGalley. An advanced reader's copy of this audiobook was provided to me via NetGalley by Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Death of parent