Did I see the twist in this book coming like a third of the way in? Yes. But did it still almost make me tear up when I finally got the payoff? Absolutely. What can I say? I am not immune to a dual narrative queer coming-of-age story with a tragic sapphic love story. I do wish that we'd gotten a little more of Decklee's story, because there was A LOT of ground to cover in not that many chapters (and bc she starts her rise to stardom by

locking her lover in a closet

and then only gets worse from there. I love a woman with ambition lmao)

This also doesn't affect my rating really, but I need to say it: jail time for Jenna Voris for making me have to pretend that names like Decklee and McKenlee belong on rising stars in the country music scene in the 60s instead of in a classroom full of 7th graders born in 2012 whose parents named them like that white lady with the chalkboard who named her kid Lakynn after a road sign. I think about her a lot.

Overall, though, this was SUCH a fantastic book. I've been in a bit of a reading slump recently, and this was exactly the kind of thing I needed to break it. I flew through it in a single evening, and I feel like I'll definitely be coming back to this one again and again. <3