What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter

RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑

Published: April 07, 2020

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Format: e-Book

Pages: 416

 

 

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“And I can’t help but think it’s funny, the way you can be literally so close to someone, but somehow closer with words and social media accounts and pixels in between.”

SYNOPSIS:

Can a love triangle have only two people in it? Online, it can…but in the real world, it’s more complicated. In this debut novel that’s perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Morgan Matson, Marisa Kanter hilariously and poignantly explores what happens when internet friends turn into IRL crushes.

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

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.

 

 

THOUGHTS:

What I Like About You follows the story of a girl, Halle, who is living a double life as a blogger and as a normal awkward student. But things get a little complicated when her best friend on the internet, Nash, becomes a part of her real normal life. And the more she gets to know Nash, the more that she like him more than a friend. But Nash is in love with Kels, who is Halle’s alter ego that she created in her blog.

The moment I read the synopsis of this book, I already added this on my TBR and I already downloaded the ebook because it is not every day that a YA romance would capture my interest. However, this book was a little frustrating.

I have a love and hate relationship with the main character, Halle. I like her character with regards to her family. I can relate to how much she loves her grandmother. But she can be annoying most of the time. The most annoying thing ever is her lies. Her decisions in this story are really bad. How she treated her friends, Nash and even her brother screams selfish for me. Okay she was scared, but she was afraid of her own shadow. I’m surprise that her friends even forgave her for what she’s done. But not only that, her personality as a blogger is quite unhealthy. She always looks at the numbers and compared the number of likes in her previous post in her other posts. She was so into her follower counts and boosting popularity and so on. I know it is quite important for bloggers, especially if you want it to be your profession, but it seems annoying somehow because of Halle.

The thing I like the most about this is how present Halle’s family is in the story. Her brother and grandfather are there and her parents show their support to her as well. Plus, I like that there are no cliche bullies in this story. It has good friends and family dynamics. The main character is the biggest issue here. We also get to see the Jewish culture, which is very interesting since I haven’t read many YA books that includes the Jewish practices. 

Moreover, the book is quite long more than 400 pages. Although it is a fast read, it could have been shorter and some parts of the book could have been cut. In addition to that, the story is quite predictable, especially the big reveal. But all in all, I have a good time reading this book. I did not hate it, I was just disappointed because I was hoping that I would love it more.

That’s all for this review. Until next time!

Maria❤