A review by catlion27
I'll Get Back to You by Becca Grischow

funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

This book is not what I was expecting. It is really a mix of a coming-of-age story and a romance, and I think if I had gone in with that in mind, I might have felt differently about it.

I enjoyed the Chicago suburb setting, as it's close to where I grew up and there were just little touches that made me laugh because of that. 

I love a fake dating plot. Love.it. But this one didn't quite do it for me.

Usually in a fake dating plot, the couple is having to perform more intimate relationship stuff for an audience. They're forced into a situation that is fake but then they develop real feelings. The problem with the main cute scene we get in the beginning of the fake dating plot of this book is that it isn'tin front of an audience, it's in private *after* the love interest turns down the main character and says she's not looking for a relationship. I just didn'  have the giddy "they're so cute" feeling, and I think it's because Ellie felt manipulative in that moment. They talk about it later and it makes sense that she's conflicted, but that's the main cute thing we get from them for like 3/4 of the book.

The pacing also felt...odd, for a romance novel.

They have a big fight like halfway through the book, the type of thing that would normally happen 80% through the book after they'd had a really amazing connection, and i just don't feel like they had enough cute time together (theyve known each other for like a day) to make me root for them through their big fight.

 

The book was still enjoyable, but the main character's non-romantic relationships were about equal importance to the romantic one, and that kinda changed the flow of the book and went against my expectations.