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alliebookworm's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.75
So cute, and so specific for exactly me. Theater, D&D, divorced parents, suburban high school drama, and enthusiastic friends? Yes please. Come for the premise, stay for the fun writing style and well-rounded characters (LOVE all the gamers - they could so easily be stereotypes but they’re all fleshed out characters I adore). Even the classic rom com tropes are fine when written well and the characters genuinely care about each other. Such a fun read!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Medical content
samisversion's review against another edition
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Medical content
hannahh12345678910's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content
Minor: Cursing
jehansen127's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Medical content
katievallin's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This was cute, and I enjoyed it. I Liked all the characters except for Paul.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Medical content
ladydeathnesta's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I loved this book - it’s super adorable and relatable 💕 just the breath I needed after finishing Iron Flame. I’ll be reading this again!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Medical content, Medical trauma, Grief, and Abandonment
emilywemily6's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
This was so freaking cute! As someone who did musical theatre in high school and was the student director, and someone who enjoys playing D&D, this book connected with me! I love these characters and how distinct they were, yet they were very believable as high schoolers. I enjoyed the chemistry and also the drama with the other exes/love interests. This book felt a little young and the miscommunication (especially with Rylie and her dad) was a little tiring. But I adored everything else about this book!
Content Warnings
Minor: Abandonment, Medical content, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Bullying
blackveilbeccy's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-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
4.75
This was actually so adorable that I can’t even! I loved basically everything about it - the geekiness, the fake dating trope, the chemistry between the main characters, the wonderful side cast. You definitely cannot go wrong with a glasses-wearing, DND playing nerdy MMC. Occasionally the FMC gave me “not like the other girls” vibes, but beyond that I can’t fault it. I do agree the FMC’s dad got a rough go in this book and that the mum wasn’t very nice to him. This has been one of my favourite reads recently and I hope the author writes more in this universe.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship and Gaslighting
Moderate: Medical content
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, and Death of parent
tkatt20's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I don't know how to feel about this one. To say it started out rough would be a severe understatement. I was one instance of second hand embarrassment away from putting this book down and never picking it back up again, but I'm always a sucker for fake dating and this book was under 300 pages, so I pushed through. It did get a little better as it went on, but I'm still shocked that it's rated as highly as it is.
To start off, this is classified as YA, and it is entirely possible that I am too old to enjoy this book, but I'm honestly not sure if teen me would have even liked this either. The writing was not very imaginative, I think the worst part of this for me, was the character descriptions. When a character is described as a "pudgy white guy" it really breaks my immersion and honestly doesn't give a lot to go off of, plus, all the character descriptions are like that, and we absolutely see some stereotyping going on here. I can usually look past character descriptions once all the main characters are introduced, and we start getting into the meat of the story, but it doesn't help when a majority of the characters are pretty annoying and/or dull. Our FMC, Riley, makes so many questionable choices and spends the entire book lying and taking advantage of her family. I appreciate that she isn't like that with her friends most of the time, but I can't say I lied to my family this much as a teenager. I mean, the whole reason this book happened is because she stole her moms car and drove to see a musical WITHOUT A LICENSE. Like come on. And then halfway through the book she's like hmmm maybe I should have asked my dad to take me. Girl, you could have killed someone. And all her parents did was ground her for a few weeks and make her work at her dad's store. Her dad, by the way, was actually really cool and didn't deserve half the treatment her got from the Riley and her mom. Yes, he wasn't perfect, but her mom was far from perfect herself, and it seemed like she was trying to turn Riley against her dad the whole time. It doesn't help that Riley goes through some mild hypocrisy too when she gets mad at her dad for not showing an interest in her hobbies when she spends the first half of the book adamantly against his, but I digress. I will say her mom does come through when she's really needed, but I still think she should have taken a step back to look at herself before placing the blame on Riley's dad. This is more of a personal complaint, but do all musical theater kids sing this much? The middle of a DnD campaign to sing a full song from a musical is not the time or the place in my opinion. Maybe all my DnD groups have been on more of the tame side when it comes to the role play part, but I very viscerally cringed every single time that happened.
In all honesty, the FMC isn't all bad. I appreciated how driven she was and for the most part she didn't just bail on everyone when she started having relationship problems. There was definitely a good start to a strong female lead, she was just a bit too independent for her own good. I also did really like her relationship with the MMC, I could absolutely see those two working it out long term. I also really liked all of her friends. There wasn't a lot to separate them from each other, but I still really liked that she had a supportive friend group.
Other than that, the story had its cute moments and I obviously did like some aspects of it to make it go from an almost DNF to a 3-star book. I think with some polishing and a little work on the writing, I probably would have loved this one. YA romances were always good palette cleansers for me, but I think I need to accept that they may not be my cup of tea anymore. Either way, it was cute, and I'm happy I did read it.
To start off, this is classified as YA, and it is entirely possible that I am too old to enjoy this book, but I'm honestly not sure if teen me would have even liked this either. The writing was not very imaginative, I think the worst part of this for me, was the character descriptions. When a character is described as a "pudgy white guy" it really breaks my immersion and honestly doesn't give a lot to go off of, plus, all the character descriptions are like that, and we absolutely see some stereotyping going on here. I can usually look past character descriptions once all the main characters are introduced, and we start getting into the meat of the story, but it doesn't help when a majority of the characters are pretty annoying and/or dull. Our FMC, Riley, makes so many questionable choices and spends the entire book lying and taking advantage of her family. I appreciate that she isn't like that with her friends most of the time, but I can't say I lied to my family this much as a teenager. I mean, the whole reason this book happened is because she stole her moms car and drove to see a musical WITHOUT A LICENSE. Like come on. And then halfway through the book she's like hmmm maybe I should have asked my dad to take me. Girl, you could have killed someone. And all her parents did was ground her for a few weeks and make her work at her dad's store. Her dad, by the way, was actually really cool and didn't deserve half the treatment her got from the Riley and her mom. Yes, he wasn't perfect, but her mom was far from perfect herself, and it seemed like she was trying to turn Riley against her dad the whole time. It doesn't help that Riley goes through some mild hypocrisy too when she gets mad at her dad for not showing an interest in her hobbies when she spends the first half of the book adamantly against his, but I digress. I will say her mom does come through when she's really needed, but I still think she should have taken a step back to look at herself before placing the blame on Riley's dad. This is more of a personal complaint, but do all musical theater kids sing this much? The middle of a DnD campaign to sing a full song from a musical is not the time or the place in my opinion. Maybe all my DnD groups have been on more of the tame side when it comes to the role play part, but I very viscerally cringed every single time that happened.
In all honesty, the FMC isn't all bad. I appreciated how driven she was and for the most part she didn't just bail on everyone when she started having relationship problems. There was definitely a good start to a strong female lead, she was just a bit too independent for her own good. I also did really like her relationship with the MMC, I could absolutely see those two working it out long term. I also really liked all of her friends. There wasn't a lot to separate them from each other, but I still really liked that she had a supportive friend group.
Other than that, the story had its cute moments and I obviously did like some aspects of it to make it go from an almost DNF to a 3-star book. I think with some polishing and a little work on the writing, I probably would have loved this one. YA romances were always good palette cleansers for me, but I think I need to accept that they may not be my cup of tea anymore. Either way, it was cute, and I'm happy I did read it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Medical content