This book held a lot of promise: woman getting on after failed relationship, possible romance, Columbia studying, books. Instead I was forced to follow Esme, a reasonably an intelligent character, continue a relationship that started as shallow and problematic and ended with me thinking about emotional abuse, without Esme really acknowledging how messed up the romance is. Instead, she insists throughout how in love with Mitchell she is, how she can't live without him. Which is all well and good as people in such relationships often do genuinely love their partner, which makes it all the more complicated. However, this book was given to us from Esme's point-of-view, and I was never given anything redeeming about Mitchell. All we are given are Esme's assertions that she loves him, which always ring false, and yet are integral to the story. For a while the bookstore bits kept me going. I was still mostly enjoying it. And then Esme's relationship with Mitchell didn't end. And she willingly put up with really abysmal behavior from him and took on fault for it. And none of this was really explored in Esme's mind in herself acknowledging that this treatment was not okay. Overall I'm just disappointed in the potential I never really felt come to fruition in this book. At the same time, others might have a very different response to the way Esme and Mitchell's relationship, in particular, is handled.