Beck Medina

I have a habit of thinking of what to write in my review the moment I start a book. It's good to have first impressions and all but sometimes it ruins my enjoyment for the rest of the books as that first impression just kinda sticks. But I think it's amazing how my review for this at 75% did a complete 180 degree backflip 5% later and a 180 degree flip forward another 5% later. All in all, I really liked this book. It's a really cute contemporary that is simple to understand and easily enjoyable. I believe that sometimes we all need some simplicity in our life.

~4 stars~

―WHAT I LIKED―

1. Just enough problems without getting too dramatic

Millie certainly has quite a few problems of her own: her roommate/best friend has moved out to live with her sister, her father who left them when she was 2 years old wants to make amends with her, and she has yet to decide what she wants to do after she graduates. This is in part due to Millie's personality. Everyone has a breaking point, and when Millie reached hers, it was so sudden because all this while she has been keeping all these problems to herself, putting on a courageous façade and pretending that everything's fine and that she doesn't think much about these things.

“Millie was really sick of everyone's rules. Rules were the reason Sam couldn't kiss her. She wanted to live her life restriction-free.”

2. ALL THE GOALS

I was mentally just screaming “GOALS” throughout most of the book. Friendship goals, family goals and relationship goals.

I'm probably being slightly insensitive when I say this but, I would rather have an estranged relationship with my dad but be close to my mom and grandparents rather than be distant from all of them.

[about Millie and her grandpa]
“It was their special way of communicating, two people who really lacked in the sentimental department and would rather say nothing but knew deep down that doing something was enough.
She wished everyone was in on this secret.”

Now, let's talk about my favourite part of this book: MILLIE AND SAM. Every scene they spent together as a couple was just fluffiness and sweetness overload. They lie in bed and marathon Black Hole Mystery Theater, they talk about mundane stuff like favourite colours and they WRITE LETTERS TO EACH OTHER. If that isn't cool I don't know what is.

[Sam] “And I knew exactly what it means to feel your own existence. It's how I feel when I'm laying on your bed and I can't focus on Black Hole Mystery Theater because all I'm thinking about is you laying right there next to me living and breathing and stuff.”

Though this is partially due to Sam being unsure of his feelings towards Millie and not wanting to take things further but it still doesn't deny the fact that they are cute together.

[Millie] “I haven't showered in a week.”
[Sam] “Please stop talking dirty to me. I simply cannot handle it.”

―WHAT IRKED ME―

1. The dialogue

For the most part, I enjoyed reading the dialogue. It was humourous and interesting, but there were times where it was formatted like this:

Millie: “Upstairs.”
Sam: “What's upstairs?”
Millie: “Nothing interesting.”
Sam: “You seemed upset.”
Millie: “I wasn't.”

I've seen this numerous times in fanfictions, and it never fails to annoy me. But seeing it in a published book not once, not twice, but TWELVE times just makes me want to rip the pages out. Alas, I read on an e-reader. (Even if I didn't, don't worry, I won't, it's a waste of energy and paper. After all, we must save the Earth, no?). If you really don't want to keep repeating “he/she says” five times in a row, I'd rather you simply format it like this:

“Upstairs.”
“What's upstairs?”
“Nothing interesting.”
“You seemed upset.”
“I wasn't.”

2. Rodney's role in the book

Rodney has always been a pretty vague character from the start. He appears to be sending some love signals in Millie's direction but he's a professor and she's a student and this obviously isn't an anime so they aren't gonna get intimate with each other, right? Okay I was kinda hoping they'd get together for awhile, if not permanently, because that would be really interesting. But instead, he acted as some kind of backup guy while (view spoiler) He barely has a presence in the book other than Millie obsessing over how well written his book is and freaking out over accidentally liking a picture he posted over a hundred weeks on Filtergram, then he comes back to simply be a BACKUP PLAN????… (lisätietoja)