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A review by michelle_pink_polka_dot
Happy Messy Scary Love by Leah Konen
4.0
More like 3.5. It was cute— adorably cute, but completely unbelievable and about 50 pages too long. Also, ughhh Katie, the BFF,... I didn’t like her at all, at all.
I want to start by saying Happy Messy Scary Love was an adorable book and I really enjoyed reading it. It was written in a way that brought me in and got me invested in the story, however unbelievable that story was...
If I didn't stop and actively think about it, it was easy to just fall in with the characters and the inevitable downfall of Olivia's "plan". I'm a thinker though, so I did eventually pause and note the fact that this scenario was pretty far-fetched. We're supposed to believe that Olivia, who lives in Brooklyn, meets a guy from North Carolina on Reddit-- and they both coincidentally end up in the Catskills working at the same outdoor zip-line tour company, without either of them knowing beforehand. The world is not that small.
Also, instead of just TELLING Jake that she is the girl he's been chatting with (which is what EVERYONE ON PLANET EARTH WOULD DO), she pretends she doesn't know him and starts pretending to be someone different in real life in order to differentiate herself from her online self. It was just head-shaking behavior.
Putting that out of my head, the romance was cute. Olivia and Jake had real chemistry (online and in real life), and I loved how aware Olivia was of it. She was self-conscious, obviously, but she wasn't one of those people who have zero awareness about a connection they are making with someone.
The thing is, I've read this book before. And yeah, I like reading books like these every now and again-- but I want the story to be different in some sort of way from the other stories. I didn't find that here. That also takes the surprise-factor out of it, because I knew how this was going to go.
By the time the best friend, Katie, shows up to help push along the big blow-up, I was thinking it was time to wrap this book up. It kind of goes on a little too long where the characters go on and on about horror movies (sometimes out loud and sometimes in their heads) because they literally have nothing else to do but wait for this lie to come out. Speaking of BFF Katie-- I HATED her. Maybe it's just me, but OMFG this girl was awful and the book kept telling me she was wonderful. Just no.
Maybe if they were working somewhere that pertained to horror movies, the coincidence would make sense. Maybe if Olivia didn't try to pretend she didn't like horror and be a different person, I would've been more on board with the lie. Maybe if the story was somehow different from all the other "You've Got Mail" retellings. I have a lot of maybes here, but somehow I still really enjoyed reading this book?!?!?
OVERALL: It's cute, it's light, it's fun. It's been done before. I've read this exact book before with different characters and settings. Luckily it was written in a way that allowed me to fall into it without being too bored or annoyed, but I still don't think that makes up for an unbelievable/unoriginal story. I do recommend it due to it being completely readable and fun, but if you're into YA Contemporary Romance, be ready for déjà vu.
My Blog:
Pink Polka Dot Books
I want to start by saying Happy Messy Scary Love was an adorable book and I really enjoyed reading it. It was written in a way that brought me in and got me invested in the story, however unbelievable that story was...
If I didn't stop and actively think about it, it was easy to just fall in with the characters and the inevitable downfall of Olivia's "plan". I'm a thinker though, so I did eventually pause and note the fact that this scenario was pretty far-fetched. We're supposed to believe that Olivia, who lives in Brooklyn, meets a guy from North Carolina on Reddit-- and they both coincidentally end up in the Catskills working at the same outdoor zip-line tour company, without either of them knowing beforehand. The world is not that small.
Also, instead of just TELLING Jake that she is the girl he's been chatting with (which is what EVERYONE ON PLANET EARTH WOULD DO), she pretends she doesn't know him and starts pretending to be someone different in real life in order to differentiate herself from her online self. It was just head-shaking behavior.
Putting that out of my head, the romance was cute. Olivia and Jake had real chemistry (online and in real life), and I loved how aware Olivia was of it. She was self-conscious, obviously, but she wasn't one of those people who have zero awareness about a connection they are making with someone.
The thing is, I've read this book before. And yeah, I like reading books like these every now and again-- but I want the story to be different in some sort of way from the other stories. I didn't find that here. That also takes the surprise-factor out of it, because I knew how this was going to go.
By the time the best friend, Katie, shows up to help push along the big blow-up, I was thinking it was time to wrap this book up. It kind of goes on a little too long where the characters go on and on about horror movies (sometimes out loud and sometimes in their heads) because they literally have nothing else to do but wait for this lie to come out. Speaking of BFF Katie-- I HATED her. Maybe it's just me, but OMFG this girl was awful and the book kept telling me she was wonderful. Just no.
Maybe if they were working somewhere that pertained to horror movies, the coincidence would make sense. Maybe if Olivia didn't try to pretend she didn't like horror and be a different person, I would've been more on board with the lie. Maybe if the story was somehow different from all the other "You've Got Mail" retellings. I have a lot of maybes here, but somehow I still really enjoyed reading this book?!?!?
OVERALL: It's cute, it's light, it's fun. It's been done before. I've read this exact book before with different characters and settings. Luckily it was written in a way that allowed me to fall into it without being too bored or annoyed, but I still don't think that makes up for an unbelievable/unoriginal story. I do recommend it due to it being completely readable and fun, but if you're into YA Contemporary Romance, be ready for déjà vu.
My Blog:
Pink Polka Dot Books