Would You Rather

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DISCLAIMER: I am not a seasoned romance reader, so if you are a romcom vet, you may feel very differently about this book.

They finally decide to give a chance to marriage. But when they start to share the same household, the lines between friendship and true intimacy are getting blurrier. Ashley also did a great job of portraying chronic illness, and really showcasing the negative effects it has not only on your physical health, but on your mental health as well. It can seem a bit annoying at times that she feels she is a burden, but the fact of the matter is, when you suffer from a debilitating chronic illness, this is how you feel. End of story.Fake marriage- friends to lovers tropes blended in extremely heartwarming, inspirational, genuine love story! You shouldn’t miss Mia and Noah’s amazing story! But, when she shares her news with Noah, he provides a new solution that may solve all of Mia’s problems: marry him so she can quit her job and be covered under his work insurance. I think we all know by now that friends to lovers is my favorite trope, so I was pretty sure I was going to love this one going in. Add in fake dating and forced proximity and it is pretty much a recipe for perfection.

Individually, they are both really struggling, with Mia having health problems and Noah still dealing with the death of his brother. They both struggle to let each other in with these specific issues. Usually, I’m one to get annoyed when characters push people away in the spirit of not putting their burdens on others but Ashley does a great job of making me truly understand these characters' intentions. At certain points, this actually made me want to tear up. Noah keeps dealing with his own baggage and suffering from grief which restraint him come clean about his feelings. Also their "redemption arcs" are done so like "okay now we have to make these annoying characters better so no character development but both of them will do a hurried gesture each to show they have grown". Also they kept harping over Noah's guilt for Rachel but Rachel gets to utter a total of 2 sentences. Way to make it all about Noah ugh. She too has strong feelings for him that have been hidden. But both of them were struggling with the fear of losing each other so ignorance is bliss I guess – until it is not. He's a creep. The way he described her body and wanting to "do things to her" was hella gross. He kept describing her body constantly. Very rarely did he mention any other feature. He also played the martyr act too much for someone who was lusting after his ill best friend. Also dude really made a huge deal of sacrifice and what not while describing wanting to touch her and not lose control around her because he was scared of the consequences like jesus. That's scary as hell. The power dynamic was WAY OFF in this relationship if you can even call it that.

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Also need authors to stop equating lust with love. It's annoying as hell. Most of it was then describing each other bodies (majorly Noah. Massive creep) and thinking that is somehow supposed to convey they love each other? No. They have pent up sexual tension. There is more to why two people love each other and it is frustrating to see authors ignore all that and just considering sexual attraction the same as romantic feelings.