This RITA® Reader Challenge 2017 review was written by Shannon B. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Best First Book, YA Romance category.

Here is Shannon B.'s review:

First off, I am absolutely smitten with the heroine, Wil. She is pretty much everything I wish I was at seventeen. To be honest, she’s pretty much everything I wish I was today at twenty-seven. She is strong-willed and so incredibly clever and cheeky. Woods definitely has a way with providing so much of her character just through Wil’s incredible internal dialogue – I caught myself I giggling out loud many times.

Butts aren’t meant to be seen moving at this velocity.

Then it hits me. I could die!

And here I am, traveling at the speed of ass, and I can’t form a single profound though. Pray. Yeah, I should pray…

I mean, C’MON. I wish my internal dialogue were that clever.

Wil is curvy and loves vintage dresses. She comes across as just truly being herself and stays true to those traits and values. She is just trying to navigate the world as she knows it in the best way (and perhaps the only way) that she knows how – based on the star chart that her mother put together for her before she passed away. And really, this is the catalyst for pretty much everything.

Then you have the Walker brothers, Grant and Seth. We meet Grant early on and I pretty much fall for him as a character straight away. He’s pretty much the teenage equivalent of tall, dark, and handsome, with a healthy dash of broody. But after Wil and her best friend, Irina, embark on a mission that takes them to a local nightclub, they run into Grant’s younger brother Seth – a charming smooth-talker who also takes a quick liking to Wil and her quirky-ness. Cue the love triangle plot line.

To be honest, I can totally see why someone might not like this book – if we knew certain characters’ star signs from the get-go, this book probably would have been wrapped in just a few chapters. While that is usually something that bothers me in a book, Woods has a talent for putting together a story that captures your attention and interest. Even though assumptions could be made, I was still delighted to keep reading and see how everything played out for each person involved. And Woods certainly has a way with writing the romantic interactions – she can sure write a kiss!

But I think this kind of fate-like plot is just a specific catnip for me. Do you remember the 2003 ABC Family original movie Lucky 7? The plot pretty much revolves around a girl who navigates her love life through the timeline that her mom put together before she passed away. She puts so much value in this timeline that she feels the need to make sure that the man she does end up falling in love with is number seven, just as the timeline predicted.

If you understand and love this movie as I do, you will understand and love this book.

If you understand that this is a grief coping mechanism, you find your heart feeling all the feels for this seventeen year old just trying to navigate one of the most complicated parts of life – love and relationships. You can understand that she is just trying to figure everything out while still feeling like she’s respecting and honoring her mother.

But what I really loved about this book were all of the relationships that surround Wil, not just the romantic ones. I find myself enjoying secondary characters more and more in stories and the ones in this book are gems. We have Irina, the fiery best friend who takes no shit. We have Gram who is equally fiery with a little bit of feisty and a whole lot of love for Wil. Even smaller characters like Crate the tattoo shop owner and Manny, Grant’s best friend, bring so much life and color to the few pages that they occupy. Everyone just feels so fleshed out and whole. And everyone is just trying to do what they think is right for the ones that they love.

This book includes everything I love in a YA romance but while this book has found it’s way onto my favorite list, it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Although, I do believe that it makes a perfect summer read and I think that many people will find it as lovely and endearing as I have.