This is not your typical enemies-to-lovers story. Sydney is grieving the loss of her twin brother & suffering from a form of survivor’s guilt. Jeremiah was the best friend of both, and he’s grieving, too.

The story is actually a good illustration of how everyone grieves in their own way. Sydney is full of frustrated anger as she’s struggling to deal with her own grief as well as that of her parents whose marriage is falling apart. Frankly, their whole family needed to get grief counseling.

There’s a romance mixed in there but it’s struggling to survive, & Sydney is in a bit of a self-destructive mode where poor Jeremiah is often the target.

Thankfully, she does eventually acknowledge what she’s doing – and Jeremiah is wonderfully understanding, though understandably, not always in the moment.

*SPOILER*: It didn’t seem believable to me that Jere was going to run the marathon, too, but didn’t tell Sydney when he found out she was going. *END SPOILER*

There is healing at the end of the story, and the book ends positively with a lot of good things happening so there is a happy for the ever after!

*Clean romance level: sweet kisses

[The narrator has a pleasant voice and is good for depicting a young adult. She also does a great job distinguishing the characters’ voices]