#genre contemporary
Book review:She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick
Written by wife and wife co-authors, She Gets the Girl is a fluffy hate-to-love lesbian romance in which two girls practice date with the aim of winning the girls of their dreams, but end up falling in love with each other in the process.
The book follows two girls, Alex and Molly, as they navigate the turbulent first few weeks of college, and explore the ups and downs of college relationships. While I felt that some parts of She Gets the Girl were weaker than others, I did enjoy the commentary on young adult relationships. In particular, Lippincott and Derrick do a fantastic job of showing Alex’s unhealthy relationship with a girl who treats her poorly, and examining how Alex’s low self-esteem and strained family relationships have led her to believe she’s not deserving of anything more than that.
There were certain parts of She Gets the Girl that I wasn’t as keen on - for example, in their first meeting Alex virgin-shames Molly in front of a large audience of strangers, humiliating her, and I felt that this was brushed off too easily. I would have also liked to see Alex and Molly’s very different home lives explored a little more; it seemed like an interesting possible conflict for the two girls to work through, but this was never fully developed.
Overall, though, She Gets the Girl is a sweet trope-filled new adult romance which is sure to appeal to fans of the genre.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for providing a copy of She Gets the Girl. The opinions expressed in this review are my own. She Gets the Girl will be released on April 5th 2022.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Rating: 3 stars | ★★★✰✰
Review cross-posted to Goodreads
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Book review:Shipped by Meredith Tate
A cute (if slightly predictable) You’ve Got Mail-style romance, featuring two IRL enemies who bond over their favourite TV show online.
At school, Stella Greene and Wesley Clarke are rivals battling it out for the chance to become valedictorian. Online, they’re both huge fans of the short-lived cult classic Warship Seven. When a local convention is announced, the two plan to meet up, unaware of each others’ IRL identities.
Stella and Wesley’s rivalry is told from both sides with the narrative switching between the two protagonists, occasionally interspersed with Warship Seven scenes which nicely parallel the protagonists’ lives. Warship Seven is, of course, a thinly veiled fictional Firefly, and as a huge Fireflyfan myself, I enjoyed how Tate incorporated the sci-fi story and its fandom into the novel. I also liked how Tate used her fictional story-within-a-story to comment on the different sides of fandom, from ship wars to misogyny within sci-fi fandoms.
There’s a lot to like about Shipped, although the main storyline is fairly predictable and none of the secondary characters especially stood out to me. Still, enemies-to-lovers is a classic trope for good reason and Wesley and Stella made for a cute couple. Overall, it’s an entertaining read, if not a particularly memorable one.
Many thanks to Meredith Tate for providing a copy of Shipped. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Rating: 3 stars | ★★★✰✰
Review cross-posted to Goodreads
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Book review:May the Best Man Win by Z.R. Ellor
Let me preface this review by saying that I really, really wanted to like this book. May the Best Man Win is a queer contemporary romance in which a newly-out trans boy challenges his ex-boyfriend for the title of Homecoming King - only for old feelings to re-emerge as their rivalry spins out of control.
Summarised like that, this book sounds pretty perfect. Which makes the experience of reading May the Best Man Win that much more disappointing.
My main gripe with this novel was the lack of likeable characters. Both protagonists were arseholes to each other and everyone around them; they were even willing to get their “friends” expelled to cover their own backs. I’m usually all for flawed protagonists and enemies-to-lovers storylines, but there was no character growth. Even while admitting that they’d been self-centered, awful friends, both Jeremy and Lukas continued to be self-centered, awful friends. If this book had been written from the perspective of any other character, Jeremy and Lukas would have been the clear villains of the story.
Maybe it’s because I’m not American, but I also didn’t really feel connected with the Homecoming event storyline. Honestly, I’m still not sure what ‘Homecoming’ is, even though it’s all anyone talks about for the entire book - to the extent that it started to seem farcical. Winning a school popularity contest is such a big deal that at multiple times the main characters bemoan the fact their future university places depend on them being crowned, which… seems like a stretch.
The one saving grace is that Jeremy and Lukas both have legitimate reasons for acting out and both boys are aware that their actions are shitty. The bad part is that the secondary characters all forgive them far too easily and the narrative tries to make us root for them as a couple even after they’ve been awful to each other.
Many thanks to Roaring Brook Press for providing a copy of May the Best Man Win. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Rating: 1 star | ★✰✰✰✰
Review cross-posted to Goodreads
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