e-Audio, 10:38:34
Narrated by: Laila Kharouba
Release Date: May 20, 2025
Published by: Tundra Book Group
Read from: May 13-14, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: Libro FM (I received a free e-ALC from the publisher & Libro FM. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Panic Attacks/Disorders, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Mental Illness, Toxic Relationship, Car Accident, Child Abuse, Death, Cheating
For Readers Interested In: Audio, Contemporary Romance, Sparkly Covers, Most Anticipated, Racial/Ethnic Diversity (Arab), Realistic Fiction, Romance, Neurodiverse, YABetter Than the Movies meets Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR, a new YA romance from Something More author, Jackie Khalilieh.
Seventeen-year-old Jamie Taher-Foster has big plans for Senior Year. She’s made a list of things and places in Toronto she and her boyfriend of three years, Ben Cameron, need to check off before graduating. And the biggest plan of all: a very special night for the two of them at the upcoming Winter Formal. But then Ben arrives back home after a summer away with an unthinkable announcement: he wants to break up.
And when Jamie discovers him with Olivia Chen the next day, she is determined to get him back. Even if that means fake dating the younger, curly-haired, TikTok dancer, Axel Dahini, whose bicycle she accidentally ran over.
Though she and Axel have nothing in common aside from their shared Arab heritage—she’s a messy, type A with anxiety, he’s carefree but meticulous—their forced time together brings them to better understand one another. And for Jamie, it just might mean learning that not all experiences or people need to be crossed off a list.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I knew this was going to be good when I realized I was screaming at them like I was their IRL librarian. And I’m not talking just one of them, I mean ALL OF THEM. lol They were all a mess, but I gotta say, that made for a good reading experience lol
So the characters in this were my favorite part. Jamie was SO RELATEABLE. I wasn’t proud of some of the things she did (like the way she treated someone at one point) but for the most part I know the WHY. And it was a bit like she was forced into some of this because listen, I know me and I know that I also would have been filming someone dancing just to piss someone else off lol Now Ben was the one who really got me pissed off. This boy had a lot of nerve. But I won’t spoil anything. Just know that I didn’t like him as soon as I met him lol
This book had EVERYTHING I liked about the fake dating trope. For one thing, the whole embarrassing situation that causes them to fake date?! 1000% flawless lol And I have to say I can say that I would have done the very same thing that Jamie did lol And let me just say, Axel is a real one lol Because he did exactly what he was supposed to and I applaud him for that. Then with the third act, I was disappointed that her grand gesture was cut short, but I was proud that she even tried to do one. Fake dating and fighting feelings are hard work.
This book was messy AF, but I will say it was a lot of fun. All of these kids needed some time to themselves in my opinion, but I was glad to see the way they got things to work out. It was actually a pretty solid and mature ending for what started out as a hot mess lol
Overall, I give this
