A review by funkelbunt_liest
Dear McKinnon by Danielle Keil

fast-paced

4.0

Love notes series: To enjoy this series you just have to accept the premise that there is a secret society which organizes this secret admirer game and that most of the teenage boys want to participate and that most of the girls wish to receive a letter. Especially for the boys I find that hard to believe, but like I said - just accept it and move on.

You also have to accept that there are a lot of boys with a crush on a girl and they just wait for their turn to be the secret admirer instead of making a move on their own. Considering they can only participate in their junior and senior year and the game sometimes pauses for summer break, there are at maximum 24 months and A LOT more boys who want the spot. So that’s another really unrealistic part, but the books just don’t make sense if you don’t accept this.

I was quite annoyed with this - in some books more than others - but I tried to forget that it’s kind of a stupid concept to pine silently away for your crush, to wait up to two years for your turn and never do something on your own.

If you can look past that, the series is kinda cute. Some books are very enjoyable, others I really really didn’t like. But for all of them - I repeat myself - you HAVE to accept the premise.

***

This book is a great start for the series. Since McKinnon is the new girl at Ryder High the reader gets to know all the rules of the secret admirer game with her. 

I love the “falling in love through letters” trope and this one didn’t disappoint.

It was a fun and quick read and I wasn’t completely sure who the secret admirer was until near the end, which definitely added to the appeal. 

I did not really like his reason for choosing McKinnon because the most important point was that she was new. So it was more about him than her which is not that flattering and I wasn’t really convinced by his reasoning.

But I still liked the book and after reading the whole series, I think this is one of the better ones.