i've been stuck in a reading slump for so many months that i absolutely forgot to read this book when it came out, even though i was looking forward to do so. i know that, for now, she only has three published books, but i would dare to say this one is ann liang's best.

let's start by focusing on the characters. i loved sadie, she is just like me: a chronic people pleaser who also used to be the smartest girl in class (in past tense bc i don't think there's a "smarter person" in college. also, i have always sucked at sports lol). so i totally related to her urge of always priorizing everyone else's happiness before hers and the urge to be liked by everyone and keeping her family happy by doing what she "needs" to do, aka getting the best grades she can. oh, and her abandonment issues were on point too. i annotated "she is so me" quite a lot while reading the book, lmao. 
as for julius, i honestly wish this had been a dual pov book because i was really curious to see a little insight of his life. i would have loved to see his reactions to sadie's letters and how he tried to keep his crush on her undercover. and, most importantly, i think he also deserved his own "healing" arc and a glimpse of how he deals with his family dynamic. 

i feel like the story had a good mix of rivalry, romance, fun scenes and sadie's introspection. some parts of the plot were maybe a bit predictable

(such as julius' obvious crush like... why else would he memorize ALL of sadie's emails... he is so pathetic and i love him for that lmaoo)

but idk i just loved it overall and even though im too old now to have an academic rivals-to-lovers trope, i hope someday i find someone who sees me and understands me as well as julius sees and understands sadie <3

ps. i would totally watch a movie adaptation, my hopeless romantic ass would love to giggle blush and kick her feet over these two losers once again <3