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24hourlibrary 's review for:
Tweet Cute
by Emma Lord
When their families' restaurants go head-to-head in the menu venue, Pepper and Jack take to their restaurants' Twitters to battle it out. As they get to know each other a little better both through their sometimes-playfully and sometimes-brutally acrimonious tweets, both have to confront whether they have feelings for each other and, if so, if those feelings are worth giving up the blossoming relationships they've found with mysterious classmates in Jack's anonymous, school-specific chat app.
Listen, we all love a good enemies to lovers story. And the added we-like-each-other-through-this-anonymous-online-thing-and-know-each-other-IRL-but-don't-know-it thing is fun, too. Plus, there's the actual IRL tension going on here thanks, in part, to their sport-related rivalry. It's cute, it's fun, sure, yes, all good. But I ultimately found it to be too many tropes packed into one book here. At least, when they're all revolving around two characters. Yes, BookTok is obsessed with tropes. Yes, it makes the book easier to market. But as a finished thing, it just felt too cobbled, too crowded, and too much. I could have done with just two out of the three. (Personally, I would have dropped the anonymous chat app plot line, at least insofar as it relates to Pepper and Jack's relationship.)
Then there's the actual relationship and all that builds up to it. While the first half or so of the book worked really well for building tension (the biting Twitter exchanges were really, really effective and expertly written so as to seem real and as if they could be authentically successful coming from a real restaurant account on Twitter), things started to fall off as the plot went along. I became less and less invested in Jack and Pepper as a potential couple. I wish I could put my finger on why, but unfortunately, I can't. Whatever caused it, by the time they got out of their own ways, I just didn't care all that much.
One of the things I really enjoyed about Tweet Cute (aside from the premise, which I just wish had been executed better throughout rather than just in the first half or so) was that it had an edge of substance and maturity to it. I'm always looking for YA novels that are a little more literary and thoughtful (some favorites: Hearts, Strings, and Other Breakable Things by Jacqueling Firkins, The Library of Lost Things by Laura Taylor Namey, and 99 Days by Katie Cotugno). Tweet Cute wasn't quite to the level that those listed are, but it was more substantive than a lot of YA romance, which gave it a little boost in the rating for me.
Tweet Cute seemed pretty promising as far as Emma Lord's future work goes (and I know she's already got more out there), so I plan to check it out, but perhaps with a bit more measured interest than what I went in with for this one. Tweet Cute might have benefited from a heavier hand in editing -- the ingredients are all there, it just needs a bit more work on the stove.
Listen, we all love a good enemies to lovers story. And the added we-like-each-other-through-this-anonymous-online-thing-and-know-each-other-IRL-but-don't-know-it thing is fun, too. Plus, there's the actual IRL tension going on here thanks, in part, to their sport-related rivalry. It's cute, it's fun, sure, yes, all good. But I ultimately found it to be too many tropes packed into one book here. At least, when they're all revolving around two characters. Yes, BookTok is obsessed with tropes. Yes, it makes the book easier to market. But as a finished thing, it just felt too cobbled, too crowded, and too much. I could have done with just two out of the three. (Personally, I would have dropped the anonymous chat app plot line, at least insofar as it relates to Pepper and Jack's relationship.)
Then there's the actual relationship and all that builds up to it. While the first half or so of the book worked really well for building tension (the biting Twitter exchanges were really, really effective and expertly written so as to seem real and as if they could be authentically successful coming from a real restaurant account on Twitter), things started to fall off as the plot went along. I became less and less invested in Jack and Pepper as a potential couple. I wish I could put my finger on why, but unfortunately, I can't. Whatever caused it, by the time they got out of their own ways, I just didn't care all that much.
One of the things I really enjoyed about Tweet Cute (aside from the premise, which I just wish had been executed better throughout rather than just in the first half or so) was that it had an edge of substance and maturity to it. I'm always looking for YA novels that are a little more literary and thoughtful (some favorites: Hearts, Strings, and Other Breakable Things by Jacqueling Firkins, The Library of Lost Things by Laura Taylor Namey, and 99 Days by Katie Cotugno). Tweet Cute wasn't quite to the level that those listed are, but it was more substantive than a lot of YA romance, which gave it a little boost in the rating for me.
Tweet Cute seemed pretty promising as far as Emma Lord's future work goes (and I know she's already got more out there), so I plan to check it out, but perhaps with a bit more measured interest than what I went in with for this one. Tweet Cute might have benefited from a heavier hand in editing -- the ingredients are all there, it just needs a bit more work on the stove.