Review: What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter
10:00
Series: None
Author: Marisa Kanter
Published April 7th 2020 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Goodreads 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 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.
Goodreads
Review
What I Like About You is a story in which the love triangle only has two key players, but one of them is hiding her online persona from her real life. Halle Levitt has always loved reading, and being the granddaughter of an amazing editor gave her opportunities she could never have imagined. Moving around often because of her director parents, she needed to find a place in the world to be herself, even if she wasn't completely truthful. That's where One True Pastry was born. Online, she is Kels, the YA book blogger who pairs reviews with cupcake recipes, and has friends all across the world. No one she is more close to that Nash Stevens, but they've never met, and more importantly, he doesn't know her face nor her true name. When she and younger brother Ollie move to Connecticut to stay with their widowed grandfather for a year, she's shocked to see Nash sat in front of her in the library. She wants to tell him the truth, but soon it becomes too late, and she's afraid he'll hate both Halle and Kels, and scupper her chances of going to NYU. Will Halle ever be able to tell Nash the truth, or will it be the end of both their friandships?
I've been wanting to read this book for ages, especially as it reminded me so much of one of my all time favourite YA reads, Alex Approximately. Halle may be anxious and awkward in real life, but as Kels, she can be herself, without the social stigma of her family history, nor her having to worry about making any social faux pas. She's managed to grow her following exponentially in the past few years, and now, as she's applying for college - preferably NYU - she's potentially in with a shot to host exclusive cover reveals, and even be on a blogger panel at BookCon. If only she could face the idea of revealing her true self, everything would be okay. But, meeting Nash in real life, and realising that she has a crush on him, it's hard to tell him the truth. I will admit, I didn't feel too comfortable with the fact she had known the entire time, and not once tried to tell him until he discovered it for himself, over 80% of the way through the book, after being in a relationship with him too. I loved seeing Halle and Ollie discover more about their Jewish heritage, and become closer to their grandfather too. Nash and Halle were extremely cute together, but like I said, it didn't quite sit right that Halle was keeping the secret the entire time. I have seen some reviews saying that Halle/Kels actively hated on adult YA readers, but I can't remember seeing that at all - there was some hatred of an author stating that her books/upcoming film shouldn't be classed as YA, which I didn't completely get, but nothing that said adult YA bloggers were wrong? Maybe I missed that part, but I'm not sure. It was a really quick read, and very cute in places.
Dates Read:
March 19-20, 2021
Rating
4 Stars
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