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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Miscommunication, Second Chance romance. A unique premise that takes place almost entirely at their 20th class reunion. Rachel was the girl most likely to succeed in high school, and even though it’s been 20 years, she still remembers those who were her biggest competitors. She has a not so glamorous life in the entertainment industry, and she has just been laid off from her job. She finally made the trades, and it was because of her layoff. Her friend (who is an actress) hired her short term to be her assistant, getting coffee and laundry. This allows for her to stay very close to the entertainment industry and to make it seem like her life is a bit more glamorous than it is. Just in time for her 20th reunion, she reconnects with Danny,. They had one special moment in 2023, and then nothing came of it. Not that she thinks about that much anymore.
There’s a lot of nostalgia in this one, depending on where you were around 2003, you will see and hear a lot of things that jump off the page and make you laugh. It’s really the details. I’m not a big fan of the miscommunication trope typically, but with teenagers they have miscommunication just about every day. I liked the way that in my copy the parts from high school were in bold print, allowing me to understand when we were in the past.
There aren’t chapter headings that say the years, or “then” chapters and “now” chapters. Because of this, the audiobook gave me pause a few times. It is difficult to tell which decade you’re in without title headings. That said, this is my very favorite audiobook narrator, Natalie Naudus. I so appreciate that Publishers. Choose a narrator that is Chinese to voice a book about Chinese characters. Natalie Naudus is a real pro, I love the way that she uses pauses and inflection in her performance. Side note: she is also the author of a wonderful queer YA book Gay The Pray Away. Five stars.
Rachel is not at all boring, she really is flawed yet likable. You’re rooting for her and you understand why she is trying to embellish her career to her former classmates. If you like a second chance romance, pick this one up.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Avon for the ARC. Book to be published February 18, 2025.
There’s a lot of nostalgia in this one, depending on where you were around 2003, you will see and hear a lot of things that jump off the page and make you laugh. It’s really the details. I’m not a big fan of the miscommunication trope typically, but with teenagers they have miscommunication just about every day. I liked the way that in my copy the parts from high school were in bold print, allowing me to understand when we were in the past.
There aren’t chapter headings that say the years, or “then” chapters and “now” chapters. Because of this, the audiobook gave me pause a few times. It is difficult to tell which decade you’re in without title headings. That said, this is my very favorite audiobook narrator, Natalie Naudus. I so appreciate that Publishers. Choose a narrator that is Chinese to voice a book about Chinese characters. Natalie Naudus is a real pro, I love the way that she uses pauses and inflection in her performance. Side note: she is also the author of a wonderful queer YA book Gay The Pray Away. Five stars.
Rachel is not at all boring, she really is flawed yet likable. You’re rooting for her and you understand why she is trying to embellish her career to her former classmates. If you like a second chance romance, pick this one up.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Avon for the ARC. Book to be published February 18, 2025.
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
found the writing a little to juvenile, but liked the chinese american representation, and nostalgia of the 90s
Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.
"The Girl Most Likely To" follows Rachel Dang, who got "The Girl Most Likely To Succeed" in high school. A few days before her high school's 20th reunion, she is laid off and is forced to become an assistant to her friend Nat, who is on the rise in Hollywood. Rachel wants to go since she feels stuck and is wondering about the guy she used to have a crush on, Danny Phan.
Be forewarned, this took a while to get going. I ended up liking it in the end, but there were so many weird stop/starts in this one that I kept thinking okay, this must be the end, and nope, here's more pages to get through. I do think the chapters ending and shifting over to IMs that Rachel and Danny sent each other in high school was a bit annoying after a while though. I just wanted the book to get going. We already know they had not talked in 20 years, I really didn't want to keep reading old IMs to each other. It also didn't give me a sense of their connection to each other. When the story shifted to the present, it was much better IMHO.
I think that Rachel and Danny were interesting characters. I think there was too much information tossed out there about Danny's backstory at one point I was just confused and went with it. Other characters such as Rachel's family and her best friend Nat were developed really well. Heck, even the kids they grew up with you can see what made them the smart one, the geeks, etc. I have only gone to one reunion, I think it was my 15th, and a lot of people were still hyper focused on high school for my taste. I haven't gone to one since. This book though was a fun little look at what happens to those we think are going to succeed.
The ending was really good and I liked it. Tieu may sure it did end on a HEA.
"The Girl Most Likely To" follows Rachel Dang, who got "The Girl Most Likely To Succeed" in high school. A few days before her high school's 20th reunion, she is laid off and is forced to become an assistant to her friend Nat, who is on the rise in Hollywood. Rachel wants to go since she feels stuck and is wondering about the guy she used to have a crush on, Danny Phan.
Be forewarned, this took a while to get going. I ended up liking it in the end, but there were so many weird stop/starts in this one that I kept thinking okay, this must be the end, and nope, here's more pages to get through. I do think the chapters ending and shifting over to IMs that Rachel and Danny sent each other in high school was a bit annoying after a while though. I just wanted the book to get going. We already know they had not talked in 20 years, I really didn't want to keep reading old IMs to each other. It also didn't give me a sense of their connection to each other. When the story shifted to the present, it was much better IMHO.
I think that Rachel and Danny were interesting characters. I think there was too much information tossed out there about Danny's backstory at one point I was just confused and went with it. Other characters such as Rachel's family and her best friend Nat were developed really well. Heck, even the kids they grew up with you can see what made them the smart one, the geeks, etc. I have only gone to one reunion, I think it was my 15th, and a lot of people were still hyper focused on high school for my taste. I haven't gone to one since. This book though was a fun little look at what happens to those we think are going to succeed.
The ending was really good and I liked it. Tieu may sure it did end on a HEA.
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
I’ve had mixed experiences with Julie Tieu’s books in the past, with her previous book being an outright DNF because I just couldn’t get into it. But I had high hopes for The Girl Most Likely To, which were mostly met, although some of my recurring issues with Tieu’s work do appear again here.
I love a book that can effectively capture the nostalgia of the early 2000s and the earlier days of the Internet, where AIM was the primary form of online communication. This absolutely captured the novelty of that, even if that element was primarily relegated to flashbacks. But this, combined with the concept of revisiting the past via a high school reunion, was quite fun.
I liked Rachel for the most part, and she’s in a very interesting place, having been laid off at her job and now trying to open herself up to new opportunities. I love the idea that she had originally been this super-smart, “Most Likely to Succeed” type, with very detailed plans for how her life was meant to go, but now she’s reassessing. As someone who barely had a plan then, and whose life is in shambles now, I think it’s great to see that even those who seem “together” can end up feeling lost when their plans fall apart.
The romance with Danny is really cute, and I liked the juxtaposition of their dynamic back then, with her being meant to rub off on him as his “smart friend,” vs, now, when he’s successful and she’s “funemployed.” They have cute romantic chemistry, and while I can’t say I was super-blown away, I do like them together.
I like the concept of the story largely covering one night, encompassing their high school reunion activities. But given those parameters, I expected a little more structure and purpose. And while I wasn’t expecting something super-high stakes, this approach where neither had much to lose in the grand scheme of things impacted the pacing of the story and my investment in the book overall.
However, while I found this book rather underbaked, I can see the appeal. In the event you’re in the mood for something fairly low-stakes that happens to be by an Asian author/include Asian representation, this is the perfect read for you…especially if you also happen to enjoy books that tap into the nostalgia of the 2000s!
This was a short and easy read. I'd never read a book set at a high school reunion before, but it was a sweet second-chance romance/friends-to-lovers story. The description of the book calls it "frenemies-to-lovers", but I really didn't get the frenemies part. It was just two friends who fell for each other, then stopped talking and seeing each other at the end of high school.
I did relate to Rachel striving to be the best/overachieving. I was the same way in high school.
I would have loved more flashbacks to Rachel & Danny's AIM days. Friends-to-lovers is hard because you have to really establish that relationship.
But I do think we got enough of Rachel & Danny before/at/after the reunion to make their second-chance romance believable.
And there are a couple of steamy scenes that are well-written.
I've never read Julie Tieu's work before, but I will definitely get another one of her novels from the library because I enjoyed her writing style.
Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!
I did relate to Rachel striving to be the best/overachieving. I was the same way in high school.
I would have loved more flashbacks to Rachel & Danny's AIM days. Friends-to-lovers is hard because you have to really establish that relationship.
But I do think we got enough of Rachel & Danny before/at/after the reunion to make their second-chance romance believable.
And there are a couple of steamy scenes that are well-written.
I've never read Julie Tieu's work before, but I will definitely get another one of her novels from the library because I enjoyed her writing style.
Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!
funny
lighthearted
Thoughts
I honestly loved everything about this book. I hate the miscommunication trope but in this book it absolutely makes sense. When you are teenagers and you are shy and not sure if someone is really into you, it is easy to read into things and not communicate properly.
I loved the flashbacks to when they were teenagers because we get the pop culture references and I always love those.
I honesly related to the FMC so much, I was wondering if there was going to be a revelation that she was neurodivergent and that was part of her finding herself.
This was my second book by this author and I have enjoyed both so much!
Thank you to @netgalley for the eARC and Julie Tieu for giving it out at Steamylit!
I am so bored. I have read and rated the past three Julie Tieu books 3 stars and I really should not have picked up this one. Once again the cultural representation is the absolute highlight of the book. Not only are the depictions of Chinese Americans accurate, it includes Chinese idioms and some text in Chinese characters. The rest of it is just plain old boring. I didn't connect at all with Rachel and where she is the only POV there isn't another side of the story to make me want to keep going. I hav been "reading" this book for about a week and every time I pick I up I instantly want to put it back down. I can't take it anymore. It may work for you, but it isn't doing anything for me.
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Second chance romance, 20 years after Rachel and Danny's high school friendship ended. It does have a happy resolution for everyone, but the first 3/4 of it was a lot more depressing than I prefer for romances.
eARC provided by publisher via Edelweiss
eARC provided by publisher via Edelweiss
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a fast paced book and I had a good time. I liked how the scenes from their childhood were interwoven. They took twenty years to come back together but better late than never.
I received an arc through netgalley.
I received an arc through netgalley.
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Any book that brings AIM into the plot is going to have my elder millennial heart. I loved that this was part of the plot. Rachel is headed back to her high school for her 20 year reunion. She's set to receive an award for her accomplishments which means she's living up to her Most Likely to Succeed title. Only thing is she was recently fired. Also at the reunion is Danny, who was in a different crowd, but she had a connection with. Going between present day and the early 2000s, the story of Rachel and Danny unfolds. I really liked the flashbacks in this one given it's my literal generation, as well as Rachel figuring out life in the present day. Thanks to NetGalley for the look at this February 2025 release.