Jeff Sexton
Solid Series Continuation, Maybe Slightly More For the Zoomer Set. As is my custom, I went in and read a lot of reviews of this book *after* I read the book myself. In a bit of an unusual move, I *also* actually went back and read my own review of Book 1 of this series - which I read roughly 200+ book ago. Here, La Rosa continues a lot of the things that made the first book so good - she isn't afraid to shy away from far deeper issues, but also tries to make sure that they don't overly weigh down the book (and for the most part, succeeds quite well there). She also uses various social media platforms - in this particular case, primarily current "darling" TikTok - to further the overall story, both in the actual plot and in the comments and DMs related to the various videos. Yes, that means that at some point this book will be quite dated - but it also means that it will serve as a bit of a time capsule for what this particular era really was like. So again, it actually works quite a bit better than its detractors in other reviews claim.
Now, about the Zoomer bit - our female lead is openly bisexual, her former partner is a lesbian, and there are a fairly good mix of sexualities, genders, and most other demographics present in this book. La Rosa actually used them quite well within the world she created here, though yes, depending on where you, the reader of my review lives and the life you lead... maybe this isn't as expressive of the world you've created for yourself. Further, I know nothing of La Rosa beyond her pen name and her general writing style. So while others may want to critique her on not being "real" or not being "own voices" or "authentic" or some other bullshit... I truly don't give a flying fuck about an author's demographics, and the story La Rosa has crafted here is genuinely *good*. So complaining about those things, to me, speaks more about your own issues than La Rosa's storytelling abilities.
Finally, the substance abuse angle. Yes, it is prominent. And yes, it likely doesn't follow the path of real-world recommendations, particularly in the last chapters of the book when it comes to a head. There again, the dominant real-world recommendations aren't the only ones, and there are many who have real-world problems with the real-world dominant recommendations. So the fact that La Rosa chose to craft a *fictional romance tale* the way she did... doesn't bother me as much. And to be clear, I say this as the grandson of an alcoholic and the cousin of more than a few drug abusers, in addition to all the other areas of my life I've worked with those affected by these choices. But there again, if this is a topic that is going to be particularly sensitive to you, it says more about you and your issues than it does about La Rosa's storytelling when you complain about these things in your review. So if you, the reader of my review, thinks this issue will be a problem for you... maybe spare yourself the hurt and La Rosa the 1* and just skip this book? No harm, no foul, and I wish you the best in your own struggles.
Overall, truly a solid sequel, and I'm truly looking forward to seeing how this series progresses. Very much recommended.