So I decided to reread Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick - an old favourite of mine.

It is impossible for me to give these books any kind of realistic star rating as they are too wrapped up in nostalgia for me so it's going to be purely based on how much I enjoyed the reread and how well it held up.

Hush, Hush was published in 2009 when all these YA fantasy teen romances were huge, but it never blew up like some of the others, and I honestly have no idea why. I can completely see upon reread why I loved it so much! Honestly, I had a blast and was done within 2 days.

✅️ The dialogue was witty, and interactions between characters were realistic and characsmatic.

✅️ Unlike some of its contemporaries *cough* Twilight *cough*, Nora is an active character who, although bad things happen to her, does drive the story herself.

✅️ Our two leads have interactions with each other outside of 'oooh he's so handsome!

✅️ It's a fun story that, despite having three sequels, ties together nicely. TBF, I think I remember the sequels becoming more and more convoluted.

Now for the things that didn't hold up:

🚩 The age gap... It doesn't explicitly say how old Patch is, but Nora is 16, and Patch talks about Adam and Eve, so I'm going with it's on the larger side... 😅😅

🚩 Vee is a terrible friend.

🚩 Blythe is a terrible mother.

🚩 Patch is very aggressive in his pursuit of Nora... As it is written in first person from her perspective, we know that she isn't as hesitant as she says out loud but honestly Patch ignores a lot of nos and leave me alones before they become a couple... 😅

🚩 Nora would be dead in the real world. She puts herself into a lot of dangerous situations.

🚩 As someone who teaches year 6, and therefore has to teach sex ed, (albeit to 11 year olds, not 16 year olds) that was the weirdest sex ed ever... 😅  Also, in the US, does the PE teacher actually also teach biology?! 😅