What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter

Hardcover, 409 pages
Release Date: April 7, 2020
Published by: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers 
Read from: June 7-12, 2020
Stand-alone
Source: Library
TW: Grandparent Death (Not pictured), Panic Attacks
For fans of: Contemporary Romance, Rom-Coms, YA

    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 Marisa Kanter explores what happens when internet friends turn into IRL crushes.
     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. 

*MY THOUGHTS*

I went back and forth on whether or not I wanted to finish this book. There was so much that I liked about it, but there were also some major things I didn’t care for. It took me forever to finally come to a decision.

“Its never easy, saying good-bye to books.”

pg. 24

The number one thing that I liked about this was the bookishness. I mean obviously lol I related so hard to the reading, the blogging, the constantly checking her email, and so many other things that come with being a book blogger. It was the one thing that made me want to keep reading.

“…If he’s going to be around more, you legit have to tell him. “What if I can’t?” Ollie puts his hand on the knob and twists. “You’ve read this book before. It’s going to blow up, and it’s going to be your own stupid fault.”“

pg. 168

I also liked the romance. I hated the way she kept leading him on. I got it at first. I too use a pseudonym, so I understood the reasons why she didn’t want to say anything. AT FIRST. But after that, she had multiple times to tell him and she just didn’t. It felt very wrong and very weird. Especially when the L word was being thrown around.

“I – I thought it was just art. Fiction. I’m an idiot. Art is never just art.”“

pg. 203

And unfortunately, that seemed like those were the only things I liked about them. And the plot tops the list of things I didn’t. Because let’s face it, this book didn’t need to be this long. Anytime there’s a contemp that’s 400+ pages, it has to be something awesome going on. In this one, it was just really repetitive. Because she kept trying to tell him and then chickening out, it seemed like they just did the same thing over and over.

“I don’t have anyone’s embarrassing diaper pictures or falling off bikes or classroom inside jokes. I don’t have history, not wit anyone. Nash shrugs. “You’re lucky” I say. “Yeah,” Nash says, “History is relative though, right? Like someday you’ll look back fondly on [redacted]. This’ll be history. If my life were a novel, I’d totally kiss him right now.”“

pg. 231

I also liked the family aspect. Gramps was my favorite! Him and Ollie together seemed like they’d get into trouble when left to themselves lol I also liked the interaction between them all. They all needed each other to heal and move on. It was a great thing to see read.

“Can’t I just cry because something is beautiful?” Nash smiles. “You can. But I will laugh at you always.”“

pg. 275

And then there was the part about how YA isn’t for adults. Look, I get it. Especially as a librarian. But I don’t think that this needed to be in the story. She could have found another way to create that drama. I just mean that yes, YA is for teens, but don’t talk down on the adults that still read it. It made me feel like I was too old to read this book. I almost DNF’ed this after that plot line was introduced, but I was still intrigued by the blogger/reading part.

“You can do everything right and what? It doesn’t even matter.”“

pg. 308

This wasn’t a favorite, but it wasn’t terrible either. Obviously I wasn’t the target audience for this one, but I still finished it out because I thought it still had potential. Hopefully the next thing Kanter writes will work better with me.

Overall, I give this

What about you? Have you read this? Did you relate to the books and reading in this one? Did you think the same things I did? Let me know in the comments!