A review by marisakucha
Smile Like You Mean It by Willow Hadley

5.0

I think I spent a majority of this book with a little smile on my face, that’s how sweet and adorable this book was. Full disclosure, I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this book after reading the blurb but I had heard great things about it so I felt I needed to give it a try. I ended up finishing this in one sitting and I had to double check that I had actually read the last page. I feel like absolutely no time had passed from when I started this book to when it ended, I was so enraptured by the characters and the story that I don’t think I checked the time once. It was such a captivatingly good book.

I’m loving this book now but I feel like I could’ve also read it when I was around the same age as these characters and loved it just the same. However, maybe I have more appreciation for some of the things that the characters have gone through since I am a bit older than them now. It’s a sweet story. I really don’t know how else to describe it. I love seeing how the characters played off one another and learned more about each other. There were some tough topics and I like that things weren’t brushed over, actions and feelings were validated.

I just enjoyed the story and I highly recommend this book. If you’re looking for something sweet that makes you want to smile, you really will smile like you mean it.