I finished it at 1am and immediately texted three friends.
The slow burn chemistry in this novel is genuinely exquisite and I say that as someone who has read enough romance to know instantly when an author is just stalling and when they are actually building something. This is the latter. The banter is sharp without being performatively witty, the emotional backstory is handled with real delicacy, and the payoff — the actual moment when everything resolves — completely delivers on every page that preceded it.