A Beta Reader Review: Like First Love, Again by J.J. Arias

I enjoy dissecting a story, exploring the characters, and discussing what happened. That's why I became a beta reader. So, I also write reviews of books when reading published literature for pleasure, and I post them here!

Like First Love, Again by J.J. Arias is a second-chances, friends-to-lovers sapphic romance between Tori and Mia, who were best friends in high school but go fourteen years without talking after graduation. Tori has kept her love for Mia a secret for all that time, but Mia comes crashing back into her life, can she keep those feelings contained?

To be honest, I put this book down about halfway through. The character of Mia seemed very manipulative, constantly begging Tori to change her plans to suit her own or angling to be invited into Tori's social engagements. She also came across as whiny to me, and it was pretty annoying to read. I kept expecting Tori to give her a comeuppance before they could finally be together, but Tori never seemed to notice how selfish and self-centered Mia actually was. The chemistry was all off for me in this story.

From a proofreading perspective, the book is well polished. I found zero errors from the beginning up until the halfway point when I put the book down.