What do I even say about this book? It definitely took me somewhere different than I thought it would. I remember the first part of this book thinking “how cliché and tacky will this be?” and I know my opinion of the scene I was reading in that moment heavily depended on the answer. The beginning really wasn’t anything extraordinary, but somewhere beyond the halfway point I couldn’t put the book down. I am happy with a lot this book did. I think this book was very aware of what it was doing. The directions it was going and the conclusions later on made about it. I was happy that this happened instead of going the lighthearted route that avoids the problems that arose. This way the problems I noticed made me realise they were very much intentional and were addressed later on. I would have wished the addressing of these problems would have been in a more elaborate manner but I also realise that Kacen isn’t a therapist. 

I didn’t really see the point in adding so much about the movie they were making into the story. At no point did I start caring for the movie and its plot, but perhaps there was a reason for adding so much that I am missing.

In the last chapters Mattie says that he learned to unlock emotions and feel more through acting. But that many scenes were not needed to make that point and not that much emotional development is actually visible on page.

This is a serious book. A lot more serious than I thought it would be. Many romance novels have characters with mental health struggles, but rarely you see that being the main plot point.
I come into this book with an odd perspective as I am considering becoming a trauma therapist. I think that makes it very hard to judge how much I enjoyed reading this book because I was thinking a lot. Since I use romance as a fluffy escape, this really wasn’t what I expected from this reading experience. I can’t say I fully enjoyed reading this book, particularly the first parts, but I think a lot was well done.