Apparently it also got made into a movie! Not sure if I wanna watch it since I was pretty disapointed in the book.

Meet free-spirited Poppy, quirky, outgoing, social. And her BFF Alex, quiet, introverted, teacher material. They form an unlikely friendship which is made stronger by annual summer vacations in different corners of the world. In true “About Time” style, they are never together but dating other people while trying to ignore their mutual attraction in hopes it won’t destroy their strong friendship.

I would have loved this book under any other circumstance but I found Poppy to be freaking annoying and Alex, 12 years on, cold and detached. I never could have forseen them getting together if it weren’t for the fact that “fate” made them share a small studio with one bed and one recliner, hot temperatures got them nearly naked and the shitty holiday season got them talking about why they never dated each other despite them getting along.

Also add in a wedding and a fabricated reason to misunderstand each other and you got this shambles of a book. It does have its funny moments, some heartfelt discussions about what it means to be a true friend first, but if you know anything about r/relationships, there will always be issues with a guy with a female BFF who doesn’t know how to keep her distance. Poor guy was so friendzoned, he didn’t even know he was friendzoned. And the freaking “Sad Puppy Dog” eyes repeating itself over and over until I felt like I needed to fake barf.

Poor Alex is described as an outcast, who can never really fit in. “Despite the eighty-something-degree weather and one-million-percent humidity, he’s dressed in a rumpled long-sleeve button-up and navy blue trousers. He’s also suspiciously devoid of a tan, as well as any laughter, mirth, levity, etc” while Poppy is what you can call “strong dog energy“

Poppy is this way because of her very quirky family. So quirky that it chased off some potential dates she brought back home (for some reason all tattooed, band members, no diplomas and no jobs).

“I’m not used to silence!” I say, defensive, when he looks at me.
It’s the understatement of the century. I grew up in a house with three big dogs, a cat with the lungs of an opera singer, two brothers who played the trumpet, and parents who found the background noise of the Home Shopping Network “soothing.”

The Nilsens aren’t a huggy bunch, as opposed to the Wrights, who are known to grab, elbow, slap, rustle, squeeze, and nudge for emphasis during any conversation, no matter how mundane. Touching is such second nature to me that once I accidentally hugged my dishwasher repairman when I let him out of the apartment, at which point he graciously told me he was married, and I congratulated him.

I don’t know. I just found Poppy to be desperate enough to slide into Alex’s DMs after two years of non-comms and invite him on a holiday in order to forcibly remind him how much fun they used to have together and what buddies they were. All while eyeing him undress, admire his morning wood and just about cross every personal boundary that poor guy could have asked for in private.

 There’s nothing so off-putting to some people as someone who seems not to care whether 
 anyone else approves of them.

Bingo.

Otherwise, the book can act like a travel blog, describing different locations, adventures, people they met and kissed, people who they met again years later, the influencer lifestyle (trying to nab freebies and discounted accomodations) and just living in the moment.

This is what I want for the rest of my life. To see new places. To meet new people. To try new things. I don’t feel lost or out of place here. There’s no Linfield to escape or long, boring classes to dread going back to. I’m anchored only in this moment.

The sex scenes are mediocre and I had to laugh at the innuendos

His laugh shivers through me, goose bumps chasing it down my spine, 
and the heat of the apartment sinks into my skin, gathers between my legs.

And the cringe flirting:

“This place is horrible,” he says. “You love it, don’t you?”
I nod, and he grins. We have to stand so close I have to tip my head all the way back to see 
him at all. He brushes my hair from my eyes and cups the back of my neck, as if to stabilize it. 
“I’m sorry for being so tall,” he says over the metal music thrumming through the bar.
“I’m sorry for being so short,” I say.
“I like you short,” he says. “Never apologize for being short.”

It’s only at the 68% mark in the book they have sex. I was so bored until then thinking wtf are they doing? what was the reason they didn’t speak for two years? why did they never try dating? why? and how … if you’re that close to someone to know what they are thinking and what they are feeling, not realize sooner that there was love in the air? … and if he was more like brotherly to her in order to keep his distance, them having sex feels kinda incestuous? Or if he was always pining for her, why the hell would he entertain another relationship? Wasting Sarah’s time?

And I’m happy, because I never want to lose this.
I would rather have one tiny sliver of him forever than have all of him for just a moment and know I’d have to relinquish all of it when we were through. I could never lose Alex. I couldn’t. And so this is good, this peaceful, sparkless dance. This sparkless trip.

I wish they didn’t get together. She’s going to ruin him. Or she’ll cheat when the novelty of the “guy I haven’t had sex with” goes away. She did have a type – a roaming kind of guy, risk takers, tattoos, loser energy. And Alex will be like that dad from Pleasantville trapped in a marriage he wanted but can’t get out of.

You can love someone and still know the future you’d have with them wouldn’t work for you, or for them, or maybe even for both of you.
“But do any of those relationships really work out?” Sarah asks.
“Most don’t,” I admit. “But that’s not the point. You watch someone date all these people, and you see how different they are with each of them, and then you watch them choose. Some people choose the person they have the best chemistry with, or that they have the most fun with, and some choose the one they think will make an amazing father, or who they’ve felt the safest opening up to. It’s fascinating. How so much of love is about who you are with someone.”