ARC, 310 pages
Release Date: May 31, 2022
Published by: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Read from: May 21- June 6, 2022
Stand-alone
Source: Publisher (I received a copy of this book from the Publisher in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
TW: Attempted Sexual Assault, Parent with Chronic Illness, Parent Abandonment
For Readers Interested In: Romance, Black Romance, YA, Music, DEAR, POC MC, POC on the cover, Own Voices, Realistic Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Favorites, Sparkly CoversHitch meets The Sun Is Also a Star in this witty and romantic teen novel about a self-professed teen love doctor with a popular radio segment who believes he can get a girl who hates all things romance to fall in love with him in only three dates.
Prince Jones is the guy with all the answers—or so it seems. After all, at seventeen, he has his own segment on Detroit’s popular hip-hop show, Love Radio, where he dishes out advice to the brokenhearted.
Prince has always dreamed of becoming a DJ and falling in love. But being the main caretaker for his mother, who has multiple sclerosis, and his little brother means his dreams will stay just that and the only romances in his life are the ones he hears about from his listeners.
Until he meets Dani Ford.
Dani isn’t checking for anybody. She’s focused on her plan: ace senior year, score a scholarship, and move to New York City to become a famous author. But her college essay keeps tripping her up and acknowledging what’s blocking her means dealing with what happened at that party a few months ago.
And that’s one thing Dani can’t do.
When the romantic DJ meets the ambitious writer, sparks fly. Prince is smitten, but Dani’s not looking to get derailed. She gives Prince just three dates to convince her that he’s worth falling for.
Three dates for the love expert to take his own advice, and just maybe change two lives forever.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This review is going to be hard to write. I loved this book something fierce. From the music references, to the movie references, to the Black History that was embedded in it, just everything. This book was very much a “me” book and I can’t thank Ebony LaDelle enough for writing a book that I loved so much.
Dani thinks love is silly and she doesn’t believe it’ll ever find her. That is until Prince shows up. He’s the DJ for a popular love show, Love Radio. He gives advice to callers who call in and ask for his help in different ways. To be only 17 he is actually really helpful and is super popular with literally everyone. Prince has been peeping Dani for a long time, but finally decided to shoot his shot. And he misses. But when Dani finds out that how she made herself look, they come together again… And this time, the shot is all net. Well as long as he can make her fall in love with him in three dates….
The very best thing about this book is the characters. I LOVED Prince and his love for music. I LOVED Dani and her love for books. I LOVED both of them and their love for each other. Just everything about them was amazing. I don’t really know how else to explain it. Another thing I liked about this was the fact that Prince was so into her, and into her first at that. I just love that trope. And man, the romance between them was so cute. I remember even doing an update as “aksdjfpaihfPFN THEY ARE SO CUTE!” BUT….. I rounded this down a little because of the fact that that it seemed so perfect and like how? He was just a teenage boy lol The things they were able to do just seemed like too much. Don’t get me wrong, those dates were perfect and I’m hella jealous about them, but man, it just seemed like alot.
Ok, so I lied. The very best thing about this was also the writing style. I was so into it because I know that LaDelle said she once worked in publicity. And it definitely shows. Because she certainly knew what worked. With everything goin on in the plot, the little tidbits of Black History, and adding on to the way that she was alluding to but not showing what happened to Dani, it seemed like it was a lot going on. But the way she wrote pulls you in and all the pieces just fall together. It all just worked together. The music and the movies from back in the day and the setting paired really well with the Black Music Historical facts that were in this book. She tied in everything really well and I enjoyed it.
The way that I knew this book was for me tho, was the Black experience that was in it. Yes it was about a love story, but man I was so immeresed in Black excellence. I don’t remember getting that feeling from a mainstream book. The Hair Show, the fact that it was set in Detroit, the birthplace of Motown, the Black books, the Black authors, and the Black movies? I didn’t want it to end. And all the Mook scenes with the books? Lawd, my heart melted. But I have been waiting to say this since I read it, the greatest Black movie soundtrack is not Love Jones, LaDelle. It’s actually Waiting to Exhale. I know you mention it and I know you said you loved it, but you said LJ was better and naw, I just can’t agree lol It’s good, but WtE is the best. Now the best movie soundtrack of all time is The Bodyguard. And that’s it. I won’t be taking questions or rebuttals at this time lol
One way I know I loved a book is when I go through every emotion while reading it. And that’s exactly what I did with this one. I was so into it. I swooned, I laughed, I cried, and everything. It was just so good. I cried at the part where she explained what happened at the attempted sexual assault. Not because I was sad, but because I was so angry that happened. I’ve never been in that position so I can’t comment on the way it was written, but I felt like it was written in a sensitive enough way. And the way that she wrote the way Prince and his mom interacted? It brings tears to my eyes. He was such a sweet boy and deserved all that he was getting.
This book has definitely made it to my Favorites shelf. I knew it would when I first heard about the book from a talk the author did. I’ve been excited about this book since I heard about it and I can’t wait to see all the Best of Lists it’ll be on at the end of the year.
Overall, I give this
I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads and Storygraph