To my absolute and utter horror, I did not receive an ARC of this one. Even though I adored her first book and promised all my worldly possessions, they shook their head disappointingly and clicked the deny button. So I preordered it instead and waited ever so patiently (not patiently in the slightest) for it to arrive.
Ireland posted on Twitter that this was her way of rewriting an event with her best friend after she lost her. I recently lost my best friend. He had been a part of my life for its entirety, so I can understand the level of pain she must have been feeling (and probably still feels).
Here’s the thing, Kelsie isn’t perfect. She’s a bit self-unaware. She isn’t great at picking up context clues and doesn’t often realize when she’s in the wrong. But she’s on a mission, even if that mission involves her mortal enemy, because we all need one of those in fiction. Kelsie misses her best friend, Bri, and doesn’t know why she ghosted her. She needs to get her best friend back, even if they now live on opposite sides of the country.
I was reading reviews before writing this, and quite a few people are angry at Bri. What Bri is doing is really crappy. But, if you look at her reasons from a teenage perspective, it may make more sense. Yes, it’s crappy, but it feels typical. However, I agree that the Bri/Kelsie angle resolved rather swiftly. I would have liked to see a bit more resolution with Bri and her mother because Bri looked downright miserable, and even though she’s acting a bit crappy, she deserves happiness.
Eric is close to perfect, if a bit too moony, because, as I said before, Kelsie is completely self-unaware. Bless him for carrying this crush as long as he does. But I liked him a lot, and in the long run, he can do great things for himself and Kelsie, who still has a lot of personal evolution to go through.
This book is adorable. The characters aren’t perfect, and that’s what makes it that much more relatable. The storyline is a lot of fun. Readers will really enjoy this one.
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About the Book
There’s no one Kelsie Miller hates more than Eric Mulvaney Ortiz—the homecoming king, captain of the football team, and academic archrival in her hyper-competitive prep school. But after Kelsie’s best friend, Briana, moves across the country and stops speaking to her, she’ll do anything, even talk to Eric, to find out why.
After they run into each other—literally—at the last high school party of the summer, Eric admits he’s been ghosted by his girlfriend, Jessica. Kelsie tells him she’s had zero contact from Briana since she left their upstate New York town.
Suddenly, a plan is formed: they’ll go on a road trip to the University of Pennsylvania the following week when both Briana and Jessica will be on campus. Together, they’ll do whatever it takes to win back their exes.
What could go wrong?
Used to succeeding in everything, Kelsie and Eric assume they’ll naturally figure out the details on the drive down. What they don’t expect is that the person they actually need may be the one sitting next to them.
Rae's Reading Lounge 
How dare they deny you this book! 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed it even if you had to wait a little bit longer
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