In Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous by Mae Marvel, Wil Greene has spent the last thirteen years watching from afar as her high school best friend, Katie Price, skyrockets to massive fame as an actor and director in Hollywood. Meanwhile, Wil’s law career never really happened, as she stayed in her hometown to take care of her ailing father, and now she’s fairly famous on TikTok. So when Katie returns to town for Christmas, she and Wil are unexpectedly reunited, and they find to their surprise that they can pick up where they left off. Well, mostly; now, there’s a lot more overt flirting. But their rekindled friendship and budding romance is complicated, due to Katie’s fame. She and Wil both wonder if they can have everything they want, or if fame and different life goals will stand in their way.

It felt kind of weird to read this book in May, considering what season it’s set in, but—like Die Hard before it—just because it’s set during Christmas doesn’t mean it’s a Christmas story. (Yes, I know there’s debate about Die Hard; just let me have this joke.)

So this was a decent book! I mean, I knew the ending before I started it, but that doesn’t imply I got nothing out of it. There’s some good themes about finding your purpose, about the power of creating art, about not letting your past define you. This book also served to reaffirm my intense desire to never become famous, because it sounds genuinely terrible. I don’t want anyone to perceive me basically ever, so having paparazzi and social media and all following your every move sounds like my worst nightmare.

But anyway, clearly I had a lot of sympathy for Katie. She wants to live her life on her own terms, but is constantly grappling with other people’s expectations of her. Not to mention her horrible ex-boyfriend, who continues to manipulate the press about her. With all this, it’s easy to root for her. And Wil is relatable in her own way, wanting to find a career that’s fulfilling and also feeling slightly intimidated by Katie’s celebrity life. It’s how I would feel in her position. But then there’s her own social media, which I’ll circle back to shortly.

As for their romance, it was fine. The scene where they reunite after over a decade is well-written, showing quite well how it is to reconnect with one of those friends—you know, the ones who you don’t see for ages, but when you do again, it’s like no time has passed at all. You just get each other. So their romance progressing quickly honestly made a lot of sense, in a way that it doesn’t in other books.

I also liked the other characters, like Wil’s mother and Katie’s publicity team. They’re fun and charming and full of tough love, and make for a good supporting cast. I also think the glimpses of both Midwestern small town life, contrasted with Hollywood life, were excellent. The different settings worked pretty well.

Okay. Then there’s Wil’s TikTok, which I initially found rather weird, and by the end had either become numb to or genuinely accepted as fine. Basically, she has challenged herself to kiss as many strangers as possible for social media (with consent, of course!). The idea is to explore intimacy and how it affects her, considering she doesn’t know that she’s ever been in love. Maybe I’m just not a social media aficionado (okay, I’m definitely not that), but I find the entire concept baffling, no less because in the story, she’s gone viral several times. But perhaps this is just my personal reaction to it, and others who read this won’t find this aspect of the story confusing and odd.

Anyway, in the end, Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous is a decent story, and a good book to listen to the audio version of. The romance is good, as are the characters and the themes. I just don’t know that I really felt fully invested, nor did I dislike any elements. I’m just kind of neutral toward the entire thing. It’s not bad, nor is it ground-breaking. It’s predictable but kind of charming, yet not impactful. If you like the genre, I’m sure you’ll have a good time, though!