seriously romantic: love and other secrets by christina mandelski

here's the thing, i loved this book. alex and bailey are 100% perfect for each other, and a huge part of that is their incredible friendship. their problem is that they keep too much to themselves. the failure to communicate in love and other secrets is spectacular.

it's so frustrating. because they keep talking at cross-purposes and assuming the wrong thing, and i blame this a little more on bailey than alex who is a stupid boy in love with his best friend and as a stupid boy already starts with a handicap when it comes to communicating. but bailey keeps assuming she knows what he's going to say and says the worst possible thing all the time. honestly, it's a wonder these two get past it because the all the cross-talk is seriously super stressful.

but they are such great characters. so even though alex is a completely stupid boy and bailey is a crazy insecure girl they absolutely belong together and when they get it right it's so delightful. also, alex's parents are the worst and i feel like there wasn't enough acknowledgment about how terrible they were and that his bad behavior was a symptom of their abandonment and neglect. like when they finally try it's way too late and a little bit too over the top. because they'd basically left a seventeen-year-old to parent himself and lost the right to be actual parents, at least morally speaking.

**love and other secrets will publish on september 3, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/entangled publishing (crush) in exchange for my honest review.