You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince

[2.8] i really enjoyed this author's debut book, so i was excited to add this to my list of holiday reads, but it didn't quite hit the right notes.

Matthew Prince, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, is a tricky character to warm up to with inner thoughts reeking of privilege—understandable considering where he comes from, but his pov carries us throughout the entire book, so it wasn't easy to muster up empathy past his experience with GAD. the hints of character development didn't kick in till too late and failed to bring his redemption arc full circle, plodding along at the same sloth pace as the plot. i was expecting the drama as is par for the course with romcoms, but then it was revealed the parents sacrificed their son's mental health to save their own hide and that crossed the line for me