It's XO, Kitty but the adult version (and set in China instead of Korea)

Ah, what can I say... As I read this book my rating went from 3 stars to 2 stars to an eventual sad and lonesome 1.... The writing itself is not particularly bad, it's just not my taste. Perhaps I would've enjoyed this in my younger days. It does read like the Wattpad novels I ate up back in my tweens/early teens. Adult me unfortunately grew bored and annoyed very quickly.

I like lists, so let me make a list of the reasons why I disliked this book:
- It starts with a lie (in the prologue). That was already a red flag for me.
- There are too many characters. And they're all introduced around the same time. It's dizzying.
- The characters are all exaggerated cliches. Their unrealistically inflated personalities and overemphasized characteristics did help a bit with identifying them though. "The controlling friend", "The rich friend", "The nice guy friend" , that's how I ended up keeping track of them.
- I found the descriptions of sexual attraction icky. I found the sex scenes themselves icky. I only really read one, hated it, and then skipped all the others.
- After passing the second half mark of the book, I was just so tired and frustrated that I glazed over the rest of it. I could not finish it fast enough.
- Lots of tropes I don't particularly care for. I won't name them because *spoilers*.

It's not all bad though! I got a small glimpse into the life and tourism of Shanghai, which was lovely! I would much rather read Ana Huang's travelogue of her own study abroad program than this fictional recount.

I am cognizant of this being the very first book Ana Huang wrote at the young age of nineteen. I may have rated it 1 star, but I do feel like this book is the writing of a budding talent on the verge of bloom! Not quite there yet, but it has the potential. I can only imagine that Ana Huang's writing blossomed from here - which is why she is such a well-loved author today!