I wanted to read this book because I have enjoyed Lynn Painter’s previous work. At the end of my review for Better than the Movies, I said “I love this book; I would love for her to write a book with Liz and Wes as adult being friends with Michael and Laney with them living in California or something and being adults.” and I did the thing of going into this book blind because the foundation should have already been built with the first book, however, it was like the first book didn’t exist and it made me dislike Wes and Liz. So, if you like the first book, I wouldn’t read this one. 

This book is based on Wes and Liz who we met in the first book. For a few beautiful months, Wes had his dream girl: strong-willed girl-next door Liz. But right as the two of them were about to set off to UCLA to start their freshman year together, tragedy stuck. Wes was left dealing with the fallout, which ultimately meant losing Liz in the process. Flash forward to now and Wes and Liz find themselves in college, together and in a healthier place. But Wes knows he broke Liz’s heart when he ended things, but he is determined to make her fall back in love with him. Wes knows Liz better than anyone, and he has a foolproof plan to win her back with the rom-com worthy big gestures she loves. Only Liz wants none of it. Wes has a scheme like a rom-com hero to figure out how to see her. Even worse, Liz has a new guy friend. Still, Wes isn’t giving up, adapting his clever plans and going hard to get Liz’s attention and win back her affection. But after his best efforts get him nowhere, Wes is wondering if their relationship is over for good. 

I liked the side characters in this book more than our main characters. I would have loved for this to have been about Wes’s sister, and I loved that the friendships knew what was going on from Wes and Liz’s old friendship group back in the small town and the baseball guys and Liz’s roommates. I loved them, I wanted them more than Wes and Liz. I would have loved for this book to be about Wes’s sister because the way she was talking about Wes’s friend, it could have been a great friends-to-lovers story. I loved the movie quotes still and how they related to the chapters; it was so sweet, and it gave me more of movie recommendations because I hadn’t seen half of them.  

This book drove me nuts though, I would have liked this book to have started where it ended with them going to UCLA and Wes’s father passing, I would have loved for it to be about that event and Liz helping him with the grief. The jump and the flashbacks annoyed me especially with how much Wes didn’t communication and Lynn could have used this as a perfect opportunity to discuss heavy subjects that she mentioned in the first book in more details and a way to talk about Wes’s mental health at a young age and what he went through. However, I would never want to go what Wes through, but he did miscommunicate the hell out of in book, he could have been straight up with Liz and been happy for her successes but also should have been honest about the fact that he was struggling and couldn’t see himself going back to college and to see how things were in a year or something instead he was a walking red flag who was jealous that Liz had changed and didn’t like that she was different, but college is the time for people to change and also told Liz he cheated when he didn’t so that Liz would move on but then was unhappy when Liz was doing exactly that. Liz isn’t get off the hook either, I understand that she was trying to help him and also live her life, but she was acting like a twelve-year-old like she was acting like a high schooler and an adult but wasn’t happy with either, also she only ended up forgiving Wes because he got a baseball to his chest and thought he was going to die. It was jumping between I need space and to be alone to forget about it I'm in love with you. Both were giving me whiplash.  

There was barely any romance in this book or character growth. The pop culture references were over the top and as someone who isn’t a Taylor Swift fan, I was getting sick of those references. This book just wasn’t needed whatsoever. I wanted to love this book and was rooting for them, but it just started on the wrong foot especially with Wes giving me a whiplash within the first chapter and it starts on a breakup. I struggle with second chances romances, but I shouldn’t have struggled with this one because the foundation has been built. But it’s like this foundation just got crushed within the first couple of chapters.