Quick Synopsis – Kit and Julie were best friends in high school, but after their friendship becomes romantic during the summer before college, Kit runs away breaking Julia’s heart. Now, they’re both adults who come crashing together at a wedding outside of Joshua Tree. Is their love in the cards?

Song This Reminds Me Of – This Love – Taylor Swift

Publication Date – Sept. 24, 2024

Content Notes – There is some internalized homophobia and some light good old-fashioned homophobia throughout the book. There is emotional abuse, gaslighting, cheating (not main characters), and depictions of anxiety/panic attacks. There is also a character that outs another character.

Spicy Rating – 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Overall Rating – ⭐⭐⭐ out of 5

Review – Give me more coming out when you’re in your 20s or 30s stories. Give me more bisexual chaos. I liked this book because it was messy and really felt multifaceted in how it explores queerness. The main character, Kit, really struggles with her sexuality not necessarily because she’s afraid the people in her life won’t love and accept her. Her fear is more based on letting go of what she always envisioned as her perfect Rom Com happily ever after. Being queer never fit in that imaginary future so she forced herself into a box of heteronormativity. Julia is more comfortable with her sexuality, but she got out of a toxic relationship where her partner Piper was firmly in the closet and was happy to shove Julia into whatever box best suited Piper.

Kit and Julia were best friends in high school and their friendship ended when Kit broke Julia’s heart. Now they’re forced to work together on a wedding. Julia is the no-nonsense wedding planner and Kit is Mystic Maven, a tarot card reader. And of course, to add an extra wrench into the mix, Piper (Julia’s closeted ex) is a bridesmaid. The evolution of Kit and Julia mending their friendship is so lovely and it felt natural. The romantic nature is a little sped up to me, but to be fair they are sequestered in the desert for a weekend. Forced proximity does tend to make things work out.

The reason this wasn’t a 5-star read for me is that a lot of the inner dialogue, especially for Kit, was so immature to me. It just felt like we were supposed to watch Kit grow in comfortability in her sexuality, but she felt so juvenile it was hard for me to relate or really like her as a character. Julia really stood out more as a fleshed-out character. She had actually overcome obstacles and grown, where Kit felt still stuck in high school.

Overall, this is a cute sapphic friends to lover’s story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.