A review by eesh25
Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

4.0

I wanted something adorable and I got it.

Alex, Approximately follows Bailey "Mink" Rydell, a classic movie buff who's spent months crushing on a fellow film geek she only knows online, who goes by Alex. They both live on opposite coasts until Bailey moves into Alex's town to live with her father. But she doesn't tell Alex about it, or about Porter Roth, her new archnemesis-turned-maybe-something-more. What she doesn't know is that Porter is Alex.

And while you might think that finding Alex's identity would be a huge plot point, it's really not. In the beginning, Bailey is very eager to find him but then their online communications start to dwindle as they both get busy in their offline lives and the book starts to focus more on the Bailey-Porter relationship, which is adorable.

The two of them are so great together. They didn't get along at the very beginning; Porter can be quite outspoken and likes to tease and stuff, while Bailey is reserved and a self-proclaimed evader. (Tangent: I wasn't sure if I would like Bailey because people who run from their problems get on my last nerve. But Bailey simply prefers not to be in awkward situations, and when things really matter, she doesn't falter.) Despite the initial clashing of personalities though, as Bailey and Porter get to know each other, they start to get along. Their romantic journey is very well done.

The writing was good, though a bit heavy on the mundane details sometimes. I had a slight issue with the pace in the beginning but it was perfectly fine afterwards. And while some might not be happy about the Porter-Alex revelation being right in the synopsis, I think the author made the right choice. It would have been quite easy to guess, and this way, we got to observe the similarities between Alex and Porter.

I do wish that Bailey would have figured it out about Porter being Alex because at one point, she had all the facts. But I guess she wasn't looking for him in Porter. Makes sense.

The ending was beautifully done and I loved it. There was like a 30-40 page section near the ending which has a misunderstanding that I found to be a little silly, but even that made a lot of sense when explained. Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and I highly recommend checking it out.