Justin has a curse. Every girl he dates and breaks up with goes on to meet the man of her dreams. This hasn’t just happened once or twice, but for every relationship he’s had for years. Now, thanks to a Reddit post that went viral, his curse has become public knowledge and women are messaging him constantly trying to date him and leave him so they can find Mr. Right. Emma has the same curse. At least four of her exes have gone on to marry the next person they dated. When she reads Justin’s story, she reaches out with a suggestion: what if they date each other and therefore break each other’s curses? Emma was supposed to be heading off to Hawaii for her next assignment as a travel nurse. But Justin is in Minnesota, and after some back-and-forth with her best friend (and finding an adorable lakeside cottage for their stay), she accepts a position at a hospital in the Twin Cities and is off to the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Emma and Justin set the terms of their agreement, and it starts off well. They’re getting along, having fun, and the four-dates-plus-one-kiss deal looks like it’ll go off without a hitch. But then Emma’s deadbeat mom shows up and manages to charm their landlord – and the chief of surgery at their hospital – into letting her stay with him while she “visits” with Emma. On Justin’s side, his life is about to get turned upside down as his mom faces a jail sentence and he prepares to take custody of his three younger siblings. Suddenly this casual fling has gotten a lot more serious, and as their feelings start to deepen they both begin to wonder if their relationship really is just for the summer, or if it could be something more.
The romance in this book delivers. Justin is so utterly charming, you can’t help but fall for him right alongside Emma. The questionnaires pre- and post-dates are adorable, he’s thoughtful and caring and just immediately ready to be there to support Emma. The relationship between Emma and Maddy is also great, they’ve clearly been in each others lives for years and deeply understand one another. Maddy’s protectiveness over Emma is moving, and so understandable once you learn more about Emma’s childhood and her mother.
Let’s talk about Emma’s childhood for a sec. I was not expecting this book to get so dark. When Emma’s mom Amber first shows up you don’t realize quite how bad she is, but as the book goes on and you learn more about her she becomes truly despicable. There are some serious themes at play here, including parental abandonment and abuse, childhood neglect, and PTSD.
Overall the book is sweet, but also gives you a few emotional gut-punches along the way.