When I Think of You

2.5⭐️

I started out enjoying this, but unfortunately I think this book suffered from only having Kaliya's first person POV. Pairing a single POV with a male lead (Danny) who feels like he's constantly alternating between hot and cold towards Kaliya, made for a really frustrating read throughout. Danny also has a girlfriend for a good chunk (50%) of the book, who then falls into the "evil ex" category within the second half. Additionally, Kaliya being way too quick to forgive him every time he pushes her away really started to bother me as the book went on- unfortunately, she began to feel like a bit of a doormat until very late in the book.

There were so many miscommunications between the characters, and since we kept having the push-pull dynamic until very late in the book along with a third act breakup that, while it wasn't the worst I've read by far, I did feel like their relationship development would have been better served by them tackling the evil ex's scheming as a team, rather than having another period of them putting a stop to their relationship due to conflict. By the end, I kind of still felt like they could be looking at a very rocky future, since we never see them face a roadblock and work through the issue together.

I did enjoy a lot of the discussions between characters about race and privilege in Hollywood, and I would love to read his parent's love story! The story within this story of them falling in love were some of my favourite parts of this book.

3.75/5 - I really liked the book. It did make me cry at the end so that was a plus. I appreciated the story of Kaliyah and her wanting to break into Hollywood as a writer and the struggles black women go through in corporate spaces. A couple of things that could've made it a 4 or 5:

1. I would've loved to see things from Danny's POV.

2. Kaliyah was too indecisive which was driving me crazy. But I also need to understand she was in her mid 20's.