ellie's Reviews > Taste

4.5 stars⭐️

well, i am shocked.

this was a solid four stars, but that ending made me bump it up a little bcos i was squealing with how damn cute this was!! seriously had the best time reading this— the perfect low-angst read that’ll give you all the feels.

now, reading a romance where you share the same name as the heroine is kinda trippy. especially with how similar she was to me? was definitely freaking out. but that meant i could sympathise and connect with Ellie so much more.

i loved both characters so much. Gianni was sexy. gimme my own Gianni. especially after that ending, the man nailed it and raised my standards to unforeseen heights. just everything about the Cherry Festival made me wanna sob🥺🥺🥺 the way he loved her?????? i can’t. the pictures, too. i was losing my mind it was all so wonderfully beautiful.

The final photo I found of us had been taken at our high school graduation. We’re wearing our navy blue gowns, and I’m standing behind Ellie with both arms around her neck like I might choke her. The grin on my face is a mile wide, and she’s tugging on my forearms like she wants to escape—but she’s laughing, her face radiantly beautiful and her eyes bright.

and their connection and chemistry was 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 fuck, i loved them.

“And I really want this.”
“Sex can ruin a friendship, you know.”
“Then it’s a good thing we’re not friends.”

they spend almost half the book together, trapped in the motel in the midst of a snow storm. we get unfiltered Gianni and Ellie, uninterrupted and it was so much fun. the smut was off the charts, but even before that, the built-up tension between them was palpable. they just had this perfect balance of flirtiness, animosity and snark that made for some excellent smut and tension.

they would flit back and forth between the mature and sexy versions of themselves, then the hilariously petty teen versions who had a few unresolved issues — slamming doors, throwing food, playing truth or dare... it was just so fun!! and said truth or dare may have been a sexy version that lead to some stellar shenanigans...😏

“Gianni,” I whispered. “I don’t want to wake up tomorrow and like you, okay? So maybe you could just be selfish for a minute? Just fuck me like you don’t care? Better yet, fuck me like you hate me.”
“Jesus.” He looked down at me. “Say that again,” he demanded.
“What?”
“Tell me how you want it.”
This time I put some venom into the words. “Fuck me like you hate me.”

if Gianni wants two Ellie’s for the price of one...



they definitely had more of a frenemies dynamic and i adored the fuck out of them. they were petty in the most delicious way, bickering and teasing, filled with tension and sexual innuendos. but it wasn’t childish and immature. you know when you read an “enemies to lovers” but really it’s two fully grown adults acting like primary school kids with no brain cells, and you’re just frustrated the whole time?? Ellie and Gianni are not like that at all, thank fuck.

they had each other’s backs. they had a really sweet and funny history that the author crafted effortlessly— we get snippets of their past filtered into the present dialogue that gives you a really good picture of their dynamic and their history without lots of info-dumping. it really fleshed them out more as individuals and as a couple.

their was no unnecessary shit stirring between them. whenever they had a falling out, it was for a valid reason. so all the conflicts that arose throughout the book weren’t irritating to read or stifled my enjoyment bcos i understood why things were strained between them. again, bcos their history was laid out amazingly, their present actions were justifiable and easy to understand. their own insecurities and doubts made so much sense to me, so whenever they had issues, i wasn’t mad a all bcos i could see the process of their line of thinking— they were just really well fleshed out characters.

I turned around and saw Ellie standing there, her belly huge, her hands braced on her lower back. Her long, dark hair hung loose around her shoulders. She looked so young and beautiful, my heart hurt.

mainly bcos, in my opinion, you could feel their growth. the couple they were in the epilogue and the final few chapters was so different from who they were in the beginning, and i loved it! you go on a journey with them, a realistic one that i can’t quite articulate bcos it was executed so well. it was subtle and gradual, and you don’t realise how much they changed until the ending.

i loved cheeky, charming Gianni from the beginning. but also loved the sexy mature man he blossomed into. his love declaration will have me in a chokehold for the next few months, for real.

“When I asked you, ‘what about us,’ you said, ‘There is no us. There’s never been an us.’ I wanted to show you it wasn’t true. That there’s always been an us.”

this was my first Melanie Harlow book, but it’s safe to say it won’t be my last!! really looking forward to Felicity and Hutton.