I found it hard to get as invested in the story and characters of this book as I would have liked.
I enjoyed the complexity and messiness of the various relationships (romantic, platonic, and familial) that the main character, Aria, is involved in. The sense that she was changing and developing as a person in this sort of bubble away from her normal life and that she won't be able to stay and she might not be able to share this with other people in her life was relatable.
However, I found it hard to care much for Aria or her relationship with Steph. Aside from it being her gay awakening there wasn't much to it to make it interesting and the cheating aspect meant it was never going to be something I could just find cute in a surface level sort of way. This might have been different if the ending had provided more closure or at least given a little more time to wrap up the various plot threads. Aria's foray into art fell to the wayside and never fully connected with the rest of the story until the 2023 epilogue where it was suddenly a major part of her life. Her relationship with Steph fell apart as it was doomed to, but the fallout from that, Aria's feelings about breaking things off with the first girl she was ever interested in, gets overshadowed so much by her grandmother's death that it almost doesn't seem to matter. I just wish there had been a little bit more breathing room for everything.
I enjoyed the complexity and messiness of the various relationships (romantic, platonic, and familial) that the main character, Aria, is involved in. The sense that she was changing and developing as a person in this sort of bubble away from her normal life and that she won't be able to stay and she might not be able to share this with other people in her life was relatable.
However, I found it hard to care much for Aria or her relationship with Steph. Aside from it being her gay awakening there wasn't much to it to make it interesting and the cheating aspect meant it was never going to be something I could just find cute in a surface level sort of way. This might have been different if the ending had provided more closure or at least given a little more time to wrap up the various plot threads. Aria's foray into art fell to the wayside and never fully connected with the rest of the story until the 2023 epilogue where it was suddenly a major part of her life. Her relationship with Steph fell apart as it was doomed to, but the fallout from that, Aria's feelings about breaking things off with the first girl she was ever interested in, gets overshadowed so much by her grandmother's death that it almost doesn't seem to matter. I just wish there had been a little bit more breathing room for everything.