Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

e-ARC, 321 pages

Release Date: April 4, 2017

Published by: Simon Pulse
Read from: April 11-April 20, 2017 

Stand-alone

Source: Edelweiss 

For fans of: Contemporary,Romance, Chick-lit, DEAR< Diversity, Hot Literary Guys, Realistic Fiction, Stand-alones, YA

     The one guy Bailey Rydell can’t stand is actually the boy of her dreams—she just doesn’t know it yet.
     Classic movie fan Bailey “Mink” Rydell has spent months crushing on a witty film geek she only knows online as Alex. Two coasts separate the teens until Bailey moves in with her dad, who lives in the same California surfing town as her online crush.
     Faced with doubts (what if he’s a creep in real life—or worse?), Bailey doesn’t tell Alex she’s moved to his hometown. Or that she’s landed a job at the local tourist-trap museum. Or that she’s being heckled daily by the irritatingly hot museum security guard, Porter Roth—a.k.a. her new archnemesis. But life is whole lot messier than the movies, especially when Bailey discovers that tricky fine line between hate, love, and whatever it is she’s starting to feel for Porter.
     And as the summer months go by, Bailey must choose whether to cling to a dreamy online fantasy in Alex or take a risk on an imperfect reality with Porter. The choice is both simpler and more complicated than she realizes, because Porter Roth is hiding a secret of his own: Porter is Alex…Approximately.

*MY THOUGHTS*

“If you don’t pay attention to things, they wander off. I learned my lesson.“

23%

     Bailey moves across the United States to live with her father. Her father just so happens to live in the same place as her online crush named Alex. She doesn’t want to tell him that she’s there so she lets him think that she’s still on the other side of the US. But then she meets a guy, Porter. He annoys her. Until he doesn’t. And then she finds out just who Alex is……

“Maybe Walt Whitman was right. We all really do contradict oursevles and contain multitudes. How do we even figure out who we really are?“

37%

     First I wanna talk about the setting. Y’all my mind’s eye made Coranado Cove SO BEAUTIFUL. With me being from Galveston, Texas (yes I know it does not compare. SO. WHAT. LMAO) I could clearly put together the way it might look. I’ve never been to Califronia, but from this book I can imagine the salt smell in the air and the surfers out surfing early in the morning or when there is a storm coming. It really made me feel as if I was there.

“…he’s giving you looks that say I’d like to surf your waves.“

49%

     Then there’s the characters. I LOVED Bailey. Her awkwardness reminded me so much of me. I wanted nothing more than to hug her after all she’d been through and what was still happening to her. And then there was Portter. OMG. He was the cutest, swooniest dude ever. I love when there’s a boy who can admit how much they like a girl. And Porter did just that. Definitely made him an A+ in my book.
I also loved their romance. I swear, the way they interact with each other and they way they flirted and just everything about them was wonderful. I loved them togetther, but I just wish that they had kept the secret of who Alex was from us. Especially since it isn’t “really” revealed until the VERY end of the book. But even still, such a great story.

“Lock some locks. Who says that? What a dork. He’s broken my brain.“

49%

     I really loved this book and I can’t wait to see what else Jenn Bennett writes. At this point, I’d read just her margin notes or something. I’m sure they’re just as entertaining.

Overall, I give this