This book was not at all what I expected. I don’t know if it was he cute blue cover with the pink spine and yellow lettering, but I didn’t expect this to get as sexual as it did, as soon as it did. And I’m not necessarily complaining. Just know, this isn’t YA, and be careful if you were expecting something else.
This book is a romance novel, and as all romance novels, it has a lot of romance novel clichés. I honestly guessed most of the plot after the first three chapters. That said, don’t blame the book for this because in spite of it all. If anything, I really enjoyed reading it.
I have a love-hate relationship with romance novels. I actually don’t read very many of them because I find most of them to be cliche and the relationships within them to be extremely superficial. Maybe I’m old fashioned but I think that being in love with someone means knowing more than just the physical and superficial details. It’s more than knowing how they think, it’s understanding why they think it. I also think that a lot of romance novels skip this part for more of the physical.
The characters in this book, Michael and Stella, had that certain connection. They understood each other and accepted each other. They went out of their way to see the world from the other’s point of view and really try to make each other happy. They were people that were accepting and loving to one another.
Another thing this book did wonderfully, was represent an Autistic main character. I feel like we never see this is in books, especially not in romance. Romance is usually between to perfect people who usually have a single flaw that they have to work out with their partner throughout the story.
Michael and Stella had a lot of flaws. On Stella’s part, most of her “flaws” weren’t even flaws at all, just ways she behaved that no one understood or took the time to understand.
I think the book portrayed Stella in a way that was strong and yet vulnerable all at once. She wasn’t a character to be pitied for her autism. She wasn’t a person to be laughed at or be annoyed with either. Her character arc was defined by things other than disorder. Then there was Michael, who turned out to be nothing like what I had expected. In fact, he was so much better.
I liked the emphasis the book made on the subject of consent. I also liked the commentary on the role of money and status in a relationship. Another thing is that this was an own voices novel as much like Stella, the author is also on the autism spectrum. Basically, it has a lot of great things.
So, why not a higher rating? Well, it just didn’t have that spark I wanted. I didn’t fall in love with the book the way I would have wanted to. But, if you’re into romance novels and this is the kind of book you might be interested in, I highly recommend it. It was a pretty quick read, I went through it in one sitting and it was pretty entertaining.