Having really enjoyed Kemmerer's A Curse So Dark and Lonely, I was excited to read Call It What You Want, but sadly, I think this one missed the mark for me.

The story is fast-paced and absorbing, but I couldn't connect with any of our lead characters and so wasn't particularly invested in the progression of the romance. There are scarce moments to breathe; characters rush headlong into one drama after another without a satisfying emotional resolution to either.

My main quibble is that the pregnancy storyline in this novel is handled very poorly. Sam, Maegan's older sister, comes home pregnant, and we later learn that this pregnancy is the result of her sleeping with her married professor. While abortion is brought up, what really soured the story for me was that the girls' mother and Maegan both cried to one another about the prospect of Sam making that choice for herself, which gave the entire book a very uncomfortable pro-life slant. Politics aside, it really did feel like this pregnancy was handled with no gravity whatsoever; Sam goes out drinking on one occasion, then essentially procrastinates for weeks on end and seems to only half-heartedly decide to continue with it. We don't know how Sam feels, or how her family feels, which seems like a plot thread left hanging when Maegan's half of the plot centred around her sister.

One thing I did really like was how respectful Rob was when it came to his and Maegan's blossoming romance. Too often, male leads in romances are the aggressive party; I liked that Maegan was given the opportunity to firmly define her boundaries as far as physical intimacy goes.

Hopefully, this one was just a fluke, and I'll adore the next Kemmerer novel I read!