thank you shania veronica for providing me with an arc in return for an honest review <3 eek baby’s first arc from the author themselves i can’t believe it. and my god what a perfect book.

now, i want to start off by saying: i wouldn’t say romance is my favourite genre. sure i like books where there is romance, but usually it’s a subplot. so i’ll be honest and say i was a bit worried i wouldn’t enjoy this. well lucky this book proved me wrong!!!!!!!

never before in a book have my emotions followed the main character so closely. at the beginning of the book i was right there with jaslene with hating marlon, and ended the book literally kicking and squealing because THEYRE JUST SO CUTE!!!!!!! like my god. some of the scenes in this book with the two of them?????? who do i need to sell my soul to to get a female-marlon in real life. please i beg universe.

jaslene herself as a character is so relatable it almost hurts. and it’s not even in a try-hard way that some books have the mc be relatable and quirky. nope! jaslene feels so authentic, like i feel like i know this girl. i’ve walked past her. i went to school with her. the way she is written is so realistic, and that extends to every other character. her family’s dynamics, marlon, even rita felt like people i know. i think some of that can be attributed to veronica’s writing style, as homegirl was whipping out kpop & book references like it was nobody’s business. mind you im not knocking it!!!! i’m so autistic about until dawn im not kidding when i say reading a line about it in this book literally had my apple watch alerting me because i was so excited. DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IVE BEEN WAITING FOR A BOOK TO REFERENCE UNTIL DAWN??????? a million brownie points from me for that. and i mean hello all the other references just kept adding to the brownie pile.

i do find that sometimes romance books can use tropes as a bit of a crutch, and i was worried this book would. but IT DIDNT!!!!!! like cmon now the fake dating trope was so cute here, especially with how it ties in to the general plot (as in, how it starts). sometimes i find fake dating to feel a bit hamfisted but the reason for this book’s fake dating worked so well. and that goes for every other “trope”in this book. veronica sets it up, and then delightfully grows and expands beyond tropes. i loved it.

i also need to shout out marlon’s writing cuz thank GODDD his characterisation at the beginning wasn’t something like he’s an actual asshole, i liked that it was lowkey both of them just being stubborn and enjoying fighting with each other 💀💀💀 godddd i relate to jaslene SO HARD.

anyways, tldr; pick up this god damn book.