A really nice YA book

It’s Halloween eve right now and instead of ghosts, vampires, and witches, I’m thinking about skiing, Winter Olympics, and first real love, and that just shows the power of E.J. Noyes because there is no other author that could have made me abandoned my spooky movies and books, right before Halloween, to make me read a feel-good romance.

I was really excited to see that this was going to be a YA book. One of the things I love about Noyes is that she really mixes it up and tries all different genres and since YA is one of my favorites, I was all in. I also liked that this was a romance told in first person but from two different POVs. It’s a nice way to get to really know both main characters. I do want to point out that you can read this book as a standalone. However, this is a sequel to Noyes’ book Gold. If you read Gold first, you will get to know all the characters a lot better, and I believe it will improve your reading experience. It is still a good book on its own, but the book is more meaningful if you know the whole history of all the characters, so it is up to you.

While I still think this is a YA book, it is on the New Adult side romantically. The characters are 18 and 20 and this is a best-friends-to-lovers romance. The sex scenes are explicit, but also sweet and done in a way that is realistic for young love. There was some relationship angst, but it’s pretty mild overall and these two communicate more than most 35-year-olds do, so the romance is mostly feel-good.

While I liked everything I read, and I found that I flew through the book, I just found that it was missing something. Noyes, often adds these little twists or action scenes that you don’t expect, like what happened to Sab in Ask, Tell or what happened in Gold, and I found that I kept waiting for something to happen in this book, and I was disappointed when nothing else did. I know it could not copy the excitement of Gold, but with Stacey’s career, I just wish maybe we could have fast-forwarded and added something more. It’s odd now because I feel like this series almost needs a third book for the next Winter Olympics. 4.25 Stars.

TLDR: This was a really nice YA book, it was just missing that spark it needed to push it over into a 5-star territory IMHO. The romance has only mild angst, but it fits much more in the New Adult category. You can read this as a standalone, but I would recommend reading Gold first to get a better enjoyment out of all the characters. It’s a Noyes book so it was still a lovely read, and she captured the feeling of first real love perfectly.