Adult – ★★★★☆ – Goodreads – Amazon – B&N – iBooks

I was always a sucker for this cover. And god, did the story match *heart eyes*!!!

This book in one sentence: This pact drove me up the wall and I wasn’t even involved in it. 

In a nutshell this story takes place in my favorite city and it follows two pretty interesting characters that have jokingly, but seriously, made a pact that if they are not married by 30, they will marry each other. If it were only that simple. The story follows both Stephanie and Linden over a number of years

Both Stephanie and Linden are pretty interesting characters. Stephanie is a creative spirit who dreams of one day opening her own clothing store. She’s a very likable character, someone you root for, and the things she said made me smile.

A clothing store was never part of that agenda. But it’s what I wanted, even if they didn’t. And ever since Linden started harping on me about it, I decided to go at it full-on, tits out, and all that jazz.

I’m paranoid she may pick up the empty beer bottle beside her and throw it at me. I know if she did, Penny would have my back in a second, but still. It could break my nose and my nose is cute.

Stephanie was super real to me and reading from her point of view was pleasant. When it comes to Stephanie and her relationship with Linden, she had a long lasting crush on him, but she surely believed that Linden was not interested in her because he makes himself seem like a player. She still thinks about him and thinks about being with him.

Linden was a funny, and sometimes inappropriate guy and a pilot in training who knew he wanted Stephanie but was afraid to go after her in fear that the entire friendship would be lost. I mean throughout the entire book, I was screaming internally for him to just go after her and tell him what he really felt! (Why does this sound like Stephanie?). I thought the tension between them was drawn out but in a good way.

This story is almost like a tug-of-war type of situation, a mix of bad timing and miscommunication. It was interesting to read and at time hair pulling. The reason this book didn’t get a perfect score for me is because at some points, it felt like this story was dragging on. But in the end, I’m glad I read this one.

“Life leaves scars. Sometimes you don’t see them until later. Sometimes you don’t know where they’ve come from. Sometimes they fade before your eyes. But the world leaves its marks on us.”