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A review by opalmars
All About You by Shaina Veronica
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
me this whole book:
✨ THIS WAS SOOOO CUTE !!!!!!!!!!! ✨
In "All About You" we're following Jaslene, who's obsessed with romance books and dreams of having her own perfect love story. When she has a dreamy meet-cute with a lovely guy, she thinks it's finally her turn to experience a book-worthy romance. Except one thing is in her way: her family, who has spent YEARS convinced that Jaslene should date Marlon (a family friend who she doesn't like AT ALL). Marlon's previous relationship seems to have ended in part due to Jaslene and Marlon's families' insistence that they should date each other, so they concoct a plan: they'll pretend to date for a while so that their families see they gave that relationship a "real shot", and then they'll break up, so their families will feel too bad for setting them up for failure and will finally leave them alone.
Just like all fake-dating stories, this is a bit silly, but, honestly??? It worked for me. Yeah, yeah, it's cheesy and predictable, and *I* personally would've just told these grown ass adults to fuck off and stop meddling with children's romantic lives + I would never date the guy they spent 18 years trying to set me up with just because I'm petty like that and fuck all of y'all!!!!! BUUUUUTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!! This fake-dating thing was just cute as hell and really worked in this story. 🤭🤭🤭
Jaslene and Marlon were just reeeeally fun together! I liked seeing their bond grow, and them realizing that they actually had a LOT in common! Seeing their friendship grow was so nice, but I especially appreciated that they still teased each other like they used to before they became friends (though obviously their mocking remarks became less insulting, and more jokey-jokey).
Their fake-dates were so cute, and Marlon is just soooooooooo sweet!!!!!!! 🤧💗🤧💗🤧💗 Literally the definition of perfect book boyfriend — caring, nice and understanding. I just wish we'd seen more of Jaslene doing similar things for Marlon. HE DESERVES ITTTT. 💕
Overall, I just really liked their relationship, and I appreciate the slow-burn (exactly as god intended all romances to be like 🙂↕️🤌🏻).
Now for the characters: Jaslene was such a fun MC! She's a very big fangirl and, as I mentioned, dreeeeams of having her own perfect love story. Her love for romance makes her a bit delusional (which she admits herself), but it is also very contagious! This book just made me want to read and watch rom-coms lol. Her insecurities and doubts were also very realistic and well-integrated into the story, which I appreciated. Jaslene just felt like a very well-rounded, real character. I really enjoyed her relationship with her family, too! She was really close with her parents and genuinely enjoyed spending time with them, which is something contemporary books often forget about. Jaslene's relationship with her sister Ria was also super fun!! I loved themmmm!!! I wanna be their bff!! LEMME JOIN YAAAAA. 😩😩😩
As I already mentioned, Marlon is an amazing love interest and literally the perfect book boyfriend. One can only dream that such a man exists in real life. 😮💨 Since this book is in Jaslene's POV we didn't get to see much of Marlon's personal life, which I wish wasn't the case. This is not a gripe against the book! I don't necessarily think dual POV would make this story better. I just personally want to see more of Marlon bc I really liked him lol. 😅 I especially wanted to see him sharing his art and maybe pursuing that...? 👀 One can only hope miss Shaina Veronica gives me a short story about their lives in the future, and Marlon ends up becoming an artist. 🤞🏻
One thing I didn't necessarily love about the book was the fact that we didn't see much of all aspects of Jaslene's life. I don't really know if this could've been done differently, though, unless the book was longer (which would probably make it *too* long). But like, she had her film school + assignments, her university friends, her high school bestie, and then at some point she kind of befriends Marlon's basketball friends' girlfriends (though they're only in 1 scene). Idk. I just wish some of these SCs (especially her friends) were in the story a bit more. Though, once again, I understand that those aspects were mostly irrelevant to the story being told, so it wasn't that big of a deal.
This book also has a lot of pop culture references, which could be a turn-off to some people. While I usually don't love those in books, I personally didn't mind them here, because they just emphasized Jaslene's personality and felt very realistic — she loves books and is a hopeless romantic, so of course she'll compare her love life to her favourite novels. She loves kpop, so she talks about her favourite music to Marlon when they're together. There were a lot of refs, but I thought they were fine.
Overall, I had a lot of fun reading this book! It is a bit silly, but it's also VERY self-aware and often "calls out" all of its clichés. If you enjoy rom-coms, DEFINITELY pick this book up! I think you'll really enjoy it + you get to support a self-published author! Win win! 🥰💫💕
Thanks to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book!
✨ THIS WAS SOOOO CUTE !!!!!!!!!!! ✨
In "All About You" we're following Jaslene, who's obsessed with romance books and dreams of having her own perfect love story. When she has a dreamy meet-cute with a lovely guy, she thinks it's finally her turn to experience a book-worthy romance. Except one thing is in her way: her family, who has spent YEARS convinced that Jaslene should date Marlon (a family friend who she doesn't like AT ALL). Marlon's previous relationship seems to have ended in part due to Jaslene and Marlon's families' insistence that they should date each other, so they concoct a plan: they'll pretend to date for a while so that their families see they gave that relationship a "real shot", and then they'll break up, so their families will feel too bad for setting them up for failure and will finally leave them alone.
Just like all fake-dating stories, this is a bit silly, but, honestly??? It worked for me. Yeah, yeah, it's cheesy and predictable, and *I* personally would've just told these grown ass adults to fuck off and stop meddling with children's romantic lives + I would never date the guy they spent 18 years trying to set me up with just because I'm petty like that and fuck all of y'all!!!!! BUUUUUTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!! This fake-dating thing was just cute as hell and really worked in this story. 🤭🤭🤭
Jaslene and Marlon were just reeeeally fun together! I liked seeing their bond grow, and them realizing that they actually had a LOT in common! Seeing their friendship grow was so nice, but I especially appreciated that they still teased each other like they used to before they became friends (though obviously their mocking remarks became less insulting, and more jokey-jokey).
Their fake-dates were so cute, and Marlon is just soooooooooo sweet!!!!!!! 🤧💗🤧💗🤧💗 Literally the definition of perfect book boyfriend — caring, nice and understanding. I just wish we'd seen more of Jaslene doing similar things for Marlon. HE DESERVES ITTTT. 💕
Overall, I just really liked their relationship, and I appreciate the slow-burn (exactly as god intended all romances to be like 🙂↕️🤌🏻).
Now for the characters: Jaslene was such a fun MC! She's a very big fangirl and, as I mentioned, dreeeeams of having her own perfect love story. Her love for romance makes her a bit delusional (which she admits herself), but it is also very contagious! This book just made me want to read and watch rom-coms lol. Her insecurities and doubts were also very realistic and well-integrated into the story, which I appreciated. Jaslene just felt like a very well-rounded, real character. I really enjoyed her relationship with her family, too! She was really close with her parents and genuinely enjoyed spending time with them, which is something contemporary books often forget about. Jaslene's relationship with her sister Ria was also super fun!! I loved themmmm!!! I wanna be their bff!! LEMME JOIN YAAAAA. 😩😩😩
As I already mentioned, Marlon is an amazing love interest and literally the perfect book boyfriend. One can only dream that such a man exists in real life. 😮💨 Since this book is in Jaslene's POV we didn't get to see much of Marlon's personal life, which I wish wasn't the case. This is not a gripe against the book! I don't necessarily think dual POV would make this story better. I just personally want to see more of Marlon bc I really liked him lol. 😅 I especially wanted to see him sharing his art and maybe pursuing that...? 👀 One can only hope miss Shaina Veronica gives me a short story about their lives in the future, and Marlon ends up becoming an artist. 🤞🏻
One thing I didn't necessarily love about the book was the fact that we didn't see much of all aspects of Jaslene's life. I don't really know if this could've been done differently, though, unless the book was longer (which would probably make it *too* long). But like, she had her film school + assignments, her university friends, her high school bestie, and then at some point she kind of befriends Marlon's basketball friends' girlfriends (though they're only in 1 scene). Idk. I just wish some of these SCs (especially her friends) were in the story a bit more. Though, once again, I understand that those aspects were mostly irrelevant to the story being told, so it wasn't that big of a deal.
This book also has a lot of pop culture references, which could be a turn-off to some people. While I usually don't love those in books, I personally didn't mind them here, because they just emphasized Jaslene's personality and felt very realistic — she loves books and is a hopeless romantic, so of course she'll compare her love life to her favourite novels. She loves kpop, so she talks about her favourite music to Marlon when they're together. There were a lot of refs, but I thought they were fine.
Overall, I had a lot of fun reading this book! It is a bit silly, but it's also VERY self-aware and often "calls out" all of its clichés. If you enjoy rom-coms, DEFINITELY pick this book up! I think you'll really enjoy it + you get to support a self-published author! Win win! 🥰💫💕
Thanks to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book!