Oh man. So much cringe. I should have quit when she was seriously flirting with another guy at her own engagement party, away from other people!! That was not okay. But it's ok since her fiance proposed to her after dating for two months and they had hooked up on the first date. I didn't like any of the main characters.
I didn't like Athena. I felt like she did not act like she was 37. She needed to get her life together. In my opinion, she was too impulsive and reckless and just wasted a lot of other peoples time and money. On the one hand I applaud her for trying to stick with what she liked, on the other hand, GIRL you need to grow up. Part of being an adult is dealing with it and making better decisions. She was babied throughout the book and I think that encouraged her flighty behaviors. Her pranks really annoyed me and solidified her immaturity. I mean, how much satisfaction can you get by rearranging the numbers on someone's address when your life is in shambles? I'm still trying to wrap my head around her actually buying him a house as a wedding gift (besides being a plot device), because homie brought absolutely nothing to the table. His brother and her parents paid for everything. Did they not have a talk about finances at all? 😭
Matthew was a stick in the mud. So fuddy duddy. And he kept referring to himself as his brother's dad, which in this story, just made it worse. He fought hard for them to break up only for him to swoop in. This would have worked better had they been besties or even cousins. They tried to paint the younger brother as the immature one and the one at fault, which was not the case. He was weak, yeah, but the other two had their own set of massive problems.
I also hated all the Internet meme talk. It just did not fit at all with anything and could have been left out. I know it was meant to show how much of a fuddy duddy he was (see his reaction to her screaming "you get a certificate(?) and you get a certificate(?), everyone gets a...". His response was supposed to be endearing" but you did not get a certificate(?), would you like one?". To someone who had no idea what she was referring to, a normal response at most would have been at most a smile or complaint about everyone getting a prize. She's not 5, remember? She's a grown woman.) Anyway, it was all cheese and I wish the reddit references had been left out.
I didn't like it at all, but I didn't hate it. I would read more by the author. I did enjoy the townspeople and how welcoming and friendly they were.