A Tale of Two Rom Coms

Over the past weekend/Beginning of the week, I read two fun RomComs! Not a bad way to spend my birthday weekend right? I realized after finishing the second one, that they both had something very sweet in common. No, I don’t meet sweet like “awww,” although they had that too. I mean literal. Both have cupcakes/baking in the background. Both made me slightly wished I hadn’t started the Keto diet 3 weeks ago and could eat a cupcake too!

Enough rambling, on to the books! First up:

Is it still a love triangle if there are only two people in it?

Marisa Kanter

Next up on my month of fluffy RomComs was What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter. This book was adorable. You follow Halle Levitt, granddaughter of Miriam Levitt, acclaimed YA and Children’s book editor. Halle has an online book blogger persona named Kels, whom she views as entirely different version of herself. Kels is the cool one. Kels isn’t the one with the legacy of Miriam Levitt to live up to. But what do you do when you meet your online best friend in person, but he doesn’t know it’s you? Wouldn’t you tell him? Sounds like a fun time! What an awesome meet-cute right? Nope! Kels doesn’t tell him, which sets up the plot for the entirety of the story. This story is mostly fluff, although it does deal with some intense family loss at times (although in a somewhat surface scratching way). All in all, I enjoyed this book a great deal.

I’d say the only part I didn’t love is that there was a side story in the book where an author was going online saying that her books should be enjoyed by everyone, and that she didn’t want to be pigeonholed by those saying she doesn’t write for teens. While the fictional author does say some pretty rough stuff toward teens, it felt as though Marisa was, at times, saying that these kinds of books really should only be towards teens. As a 30-something year old woman, I was a bit saddened by that.

Overall though, I did enjoy this book. Definitely enough to recommend it to people.

Book Particulars:

• Page Count: 416
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Edition Read: Kindle via Libby
• Release Date: April 7, 2020
• Read Date: October 2nd – October 4th

There are a million things that Halle Levitt likes about her online best friend, Nash.

He’s an incredibly talented graphic novelist. He loves books almost as much as she does. And she never has to deal with the awkwardness of seeing him in real life. They can talk about anything…

Except who she really is.

Because online, Halle isn’t Halle—she’s Kels, the enigmatically cool creator of One True Pastry, a YA book blog that pairs epic custom cupcakes with covers and reviews. Kels has everything Halle doesn’t: friends, a growing platform, tons of confidence, and Nash.

That is, until Halle arrives to spend senior year in Gramps’s small town and finds herself face-to-face with real, human, not-behind-a-screen Nash. Nash, who is somehow everywhere she goes—in her classes, at the bakery, even at synagogue.

Nash who has no idea she’s actually Kels.

If Halle tells him who she is, it will ruin the non-awkward magic of their digital friendship. Not telling him though, means it can never be anything more. Because while she starts to fall for Nash as Halle…he’s in love with Kels.

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Second up on my 4 day binge:

Apparently showing off one’s abs trumped potential frostbite.

Alex Light

Definitely another cute one. It definitely was filled with some of the cliches of YA Romance, but I knew that going in. Wasn’t that why I was reading it. Plus, if you throw a fake dating to love trope at me, you know I’m going to inhale that (I’m looking at you To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before). This was also had a little more weight to it than your typical Romance. I really appreciated that the big hurdles the two POVs faced, were not typical high school drama (ie: the cheerleaders hate me, my girlfriend didn’t show up at prom). The issues they were facing were realistic demons that take time and space to work through. Plus, I really loved that we got to have both Becca and Brett’s POVs given equal time. I also appreciated the ending (no spoilers, I promise). It wasn’t wrapped up in a pretty little bow at the last second, it was a very satisfying ending.

My only con is that at some points the personalities of Becca and Brett seemed too similar. Since we were getting two POVs, I would have liked if their interior thoughts had felt more distinct. Overall, a book I’d recommend to anyone wanting a feel-good read!

Book Particulars:

• Page Count: 288
• Publisher: HarperTeen
• Edition Read: Kindle via Libby
• Release Date: February 18, 2020
• Read Date: October 4th – October 6th

It’s been years since seventeen-year-old Becca Hart believed in true love. But when her former best friend teases her for not having a boyfriend, Becca impulsively pretends she’s been secretly seeing someone.

Brett Wells has it all. Being captain of the football team and one of the most popular guys in school, he should have no problem finding someone to date, but he’s always been more focused on his future than who to bring to prom. When he overhears Becca’s lie, Brett decides to step in and be her mystery guy. It’s the perfect solution: he gets people off his back for not dating and she can keep up the ruse.

Acting like the perfect couple isn’t easy though, especially when you barely know the other person. But with Becca still picking up the pieces from when her world was blown apart years ago and Brett just barely holding his together now, they begin to realize they have more in common than they ever could have imagined. When the line between real and pretend begins to blur, they are forced to answer the question: is this fake romance the realest thing in either of their lives?