I received an eARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I’ll admit that at times I was so frustrated with the character of Leon that I just wanted to put the book down, and I was deeply uncomfortable with the ways he didn’t seek consent from Jadon never being challenged in any way, especially when it was juxtaposed with all the ways Jadon constantly sought Reiss’s consent. I’m so glad I didn’t though.
I really loved Jadon’s story and watching him grow from feeling forced to maintain the neutrality his role required to coming into his own and deciding who he wanted to be and what things were worth raising his voice and dropping the carefully maintained neutrality. I thought the moment that he sees himself in Grace and decides to fully commit to being himself to show her that there was another path was so lovely and showed exactly how much he grew over the course of the novel. Overall this was a really sweet love story with a love interest after my own film-nerd heart, while also navigating how we all negotiate with the intersections of our identities and choose how we want to be seen existing in the world. Julian Winters is an author who I’ve been meaning to pick up his books for a long time and just never got around to, but I’m so glad I took the chance on this book. I’m so excited to see it find its audience, and hope it finds more people who love it as much as I did.