I read the series when I was in 8th grade, and while the silly 13 year old me thought it was so “romantic” having a Hardin Scott by your side, now that I am way older there is no way Hardin is a good boyfriend not even remotely.
Firstly, he calls Tessa pathetic in the first book when she tries to reassure him, secondly, he willingly accepted a bet to sleep with Tessa, thirdly, and this is a huge red flag for a potential abusive relationship, whenever they get into a little fight, he proceed to get himself trashed and destroy things in their apartment every time, and there isn’t any chemistry between them, or anything in common whatsoever except the love for books. Not to mention, that he literally videotaped a girl he was sleeping with and send it to everyone!!!
Considering all of the above, this is just supposed to be “tough love lesson learned?!”. That’s just plain toxicity. And let’s not talk about how stupid Tessa is.
She got back with him after the bet, goes against her mother to be with this wuss, and always deal with Hardin’s shit.
I mean, my man I would stay away from someone like Hardin Scott like the plague. For the entirety of the series, they do nothing but fight and go back and forth, and it’s supposed to be a “fight for love message”. Um no darling, that’s just plain exhausting and toxicity.