Sophie Reads YA: 2019 Contemporary Romance Challenge

2019 Contemporary Romance Challenge

ARC Review: The Boyfriend Bid (The Girlfriend Request #2) by Jodie Andrefski

10:00

The Boyfriend Bid
Series: The Girlfriend Request #2
Author: Jodie Andrefski
Published April 8th 2019 by Entangled Publishing, LLC (Crush)

Goodreads Synopsis
Sarah Campbell’s never bid in her high school's charity auction to win a date with one of the school's hottest guys. And she’s certainly not going to start now––when she’s still hurting over a bad breakup. The absolute last thing she’d ever do is bid on Mr. Ego himself, Chance DuPont.

Chance just wanted to help out a worthy cause, not get roped into not one but six dates with someone who seemingly can’t stand him. But when Sarah’s friends bid on him on her behalf, that’s exactly where he ends up. Now a local blog is covering the story by following them on all their dates, too?

Seems like everyone loves a good love story––except the two living it.
Goodreads

Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

In The Boyfriend Bid, Sarah has just gone through a bad breakup after discover her boyfriend had been cheating, and is dragged along to the school's charity auction with her best friends. She had no plans to bid on any of the soccer players, but after her friends place a bid on her behalf, and she won, she has to spend six dates with Chase - someone who she would never have wanted to be near. Chase, for his part, only agreed to take part because of his brother's current fight with Leukaemia, and would rather spend time with him. However, neither of them can get out of it, especially not when a local blogger, Erica, caught wind of it, and wanted to document the entire situation.

I enjoyed this book, and found both Sarah and Chase likeable characters. The situation with the forced dates and Erica's bloggers following them was a bit contrived, but you could see that when they were both really alone, they were falling for each other in a natural way. It was difficult for them to be themselves when they were mic-ed up, and had cameras following their every move, and for me to engage with the characters, but once you got passed this, it definitely improved the book. All in all, this was a fun and cute read.

Dates Read:
March 22-24, 2019

Rating
4 Stars

2019 Beat the Backlist challenge

ARC Review: From Twinkle, with Love by Sandhya Menon

10:00

From Twinkle, with Love
Series: None
Author: Sandhya Menon
Published May 31st 2018 by Hodder & Stoughton

Goodreads Synopsis
An aspiring teen filmmaker finds her voice and falls in love in this delightful romantic comedy from the New York Times bestselling author of When Dimple Met Rishi.

Aspiring filmmaker and wallflower Twinkle Mehra has stories she wants to tell and universes she wants to explore, if only the world would listen. So when fellow film geek Sahil Roy approaches her to direct a movie for the upcoming Summer Festival, Twinkle is all over it. The chance to publicly showcase her voice as a director? Dream come true. The fact that it gets her closer to her longtime crush, Neil Roy-a.k.a. Sahil's twin brother? Dream come true x 2.

When mystery man N begins emailing her, Twinkle is sure it's Neil, finally ready to begin their happily-ever-after. The only slightly inconvenient problem is that, in the course of movie-making, she's fallen madly in love with the irresistibly adorkable Sahil.

Twinkle soon realizes that resistance is futile: The romance she's got is not the one she's scripted. But will it be enough?

Told through the letters Twinkle writes to her favorite female filmmakers, From Twinkle, with Love navigates big truths about friendship, family, and the unexpected places love can find you.
Goodreads

Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

Twinkle Mehra has always wanted to be a filmmaker, so when the upcoming Summer Festival is announced, she decides to work with fellow film lover, Sahil Roy, to create something to be aired during the festival. Working with Sahil is great, though they do clash at times, but the fact that his twin brother. Neil, is the person she's been crushing on for years, this could be her chance to get close to him. When anonymous letters and emails start coming in, signed off by N, Twinkle immediately thinks it could be Neil, and is overjoyed; but spending more time with Sahil makes her soon realise she might've been crushing on the wrong twin all along.

I love Sandhya's other books, so when this one became available to request, I knew I had to do it. And though I liked this book, I didn't like it as much as the others. Twinkle just wasn't a character I really warmed too, as I felt she was very immature and vain. She was neigh on obsessed with the idea of popularity, and it just got annoying the more she went on about it. I did like Sahil, and it was obvious he had a crush on Twinkle from an early part of the book. I liked their chemistry together, but the obsession over Neil, even though Twinkle knew it was hurting Sahil, detracted from it all. The filmmaking plot line was original, and I did love how we really saw how Twinkle and Sahil cared about their future and about films. All in all, a middling read.

Dates Read:
August 9-11, 2019

Rating
3 Stars

2019 Contemporary Romance Challenge