ARC Review: How to Be the Best Third Wheel by Loridee De Villa
10:00
Series: None
Author: Loridee De Villa
Published May 3rd 2022 by Wattpad Books
Goodreads Synopsis
A clean teen romance comedy about figuring out where you belong when all the constants in your life begin to change.
It’s the last year of highschool, and everything has changed . . .
After spending summer vacation in the Philippines with family, Lara returns to school eager to catch up with her close knit group of girlfriends. But within minutes of reuniting with her friends, she learns that not one, not two, but all three of them are now in relationships that blossomed over the summer. And to make matters worse, Lara’s long time frenemy, James, won’t stop bugging her in class and eventually forces her into tutoring him everyday after school.
Surviving high school was never easy to begin with, but with occupied friends, a hectic Filipino family, and her annoying childhood enemy pestering her more than ever, Lara tries to juggle everything, while trying to figure out her own place in the chaos.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.
Lara spent the summer before senior year visiting family in the Philippines, and expected that nothing much would have changed when she returned. So it's a shock when her three best friends all have found boyfriends over the summer, and she's the third wheel - or more like the seventh wheel. And what makes it even worse is that the boyfriends are all friends with her arch nemesis, James, who is third wheeling too. Now that the two groups are mixed, Lara can't escape James, and the feeling she pushed aside when she was younger are coming back.
I was really surprised by this book. I was expecting it to be a decent contemporary, probably a little cringy in places, and though that did happen at times, I also couldn't put the book down once I started it. I really enjoyed all of the characters in the book. Lara was a little abrasive at times, but she was dealing with a lot of change, and she wanted to keep the status quo. However, it read like a real book, with real characters and scenarios. Okay, it was cringy at times, and a bit over the top at others, but all in all, it really suited the characters and the setting of it. The only real thing I disliked was the ending, though I think it was probably included to make the book feel more realistic, rather than fiction? I don't know, but it was a solid debut in any case.
Dates Read:
December 4 2021
Rating
4 Stars
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