This could easily have been a 4 star read, maybe even 4,5 since I enjoy Kasie West’s writing style, the slow pace and her characters.
But Cooper ruined everything.

Okay, I’m being a bit dramatic, but I surely didn’t like him as Abby’s love interest. He wasn’t a good friend, not at all and he only apologizes for the really big mess up he did near the end.

Everybody makes mistakes, so the one time he totally let Abby down and the big night turned out to be a big disappointment not at least because of him, he is very sorry and I think it’s absolutely fine that Abby forgives him at one point - BUT - his behavior towards Abby for the last year is just awful and not even mentioned once.

--- Minor spoilers... ---

I was so angry when the book ended. Seriously - Cooper KNEW for at least a year that Abby was in love with him. He not only didn’t talk to her about it, he constantly flirted with her, touched and tickled her, spent a lot of alone time with her and begged her to come to each and every one of his races.

He even invited the girl he dated to the same events without talking to Abby (btw, “Ris” is not cute, please don’t shorten names which are not supposed to be …).
Even if Abby wasn’t into Cooper I think it’s not nice, but she was and I repeat - Cooper knew…

Okay - rant over. I think I made my point. Cooper wasn’t that interesting to begin with, but the ending, no excuse for the last year and especially how Abby reacted - I really didn’t like it.
She did the exact same thing to Elijah what Cooper did to her - ditched her friend on a planned appointment for her love interest. Urgh…

---end spoilers---

And then they claim that friendship is so important … Yeah, no. The book left me feeling quite icky and agitated.

But I loved Abby’s grandfather and even the relationship between her parents. At least one star for gramps… ( )

This book was super cute. I really loved the heart list that drove this book from page one to the end. It really was a strong book that really focused on the self discovery parts of both lead characters of abby and cooper. I really liked cooper as a character and how there story came to a end. It also dealt with harder issues like her mothers issues of leaving the house and also making your art more engaging. It was hard to put this book done and it is my new favorite kassie west novel. If you liked since you've been gone, I think this book would be right up your alley. ( )

This book was super cute. I really loved the heart list that drove this book from page one to the end. It really was a strong book that really focused on the self discovery parts of both lead characters of abby and cooper. I really liked cooper as a character and how there story came to a end. It also dealt with harder issues like her mothers issues of leaving the house and also making your art more engaging. It was hard to put this book done and it is my new favorite kassie west novel. If you liked since you've been gone, I think this book would be right up your alley. ( )

Super cute friends to lovers romance where Abbie has had a crush on her best friend Cooper for years, but when she tried to tell him last summer, he didn’t feel the same. So they’ve stayed best friends, but when Cooper starts dating someone else even while hanging out with her 7 days a week, Abbie knows she has to tell him how she really feels, even if it means risking their friendship. I also enjoyed the family relationships in this one. Abbie’s mom suffers from agoraphobia, her dad is deployed, and grandpa lives with them. They had a very interesting dynamic!

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. ( )

I listened to the audio book of this. I went into this book expecting it to be a 3 or a 3.5 for me, but I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I really like the idea of a heart list. This story was super cute. It is about a girl that is an artist and she really wants to get her art displayed in this show, but the person in charge of picking who gets to be in the show tells her that though her work is technically good it lacks heart and life experience and wasn't good enough for the show. So she creates this heart list of things/experiences that she could try to help her grow as an artist. It seems to be working....or is it? ( )