“And we look… good. We look real. We look like we fit together.”
Receiving this book via e-arc was truly such a pleasant surprise. Whenever I request arcs, I mentally prepare myself not to receive them. I’m not an entirely famous blog, I don’t have a mass following, but I do put a lot of care into my arcs and I read insanely fast (373 books last year, boo-yah!). I like writing reviews. I like reading things early and being able to recommend them to people I know will like them. But this one, this one excited me because it was just a trope-fest for my little heart. I wasn’t expecting to be given access, but here we are, and here’s a review! Woohoo!
We follow Tally, basketball player, and Irene, cheerleader, who get embroiled in a fake dating scandal after they have a mild car accident. There are so many Hallmark level cliches in this book, and it made me love it all the more. Though it is a very cheesy book, it also touches a lot on grief, on reeling after going through a breakup. I wasn’t anticipating there to be something really heartfelt at the center of this book. I really appreciated that exploration and the way that you can be falling in love with someone while you’re still falling out of love with someone else. There’s also some depictions of really harrowing emotionally/verbally abusive relationships, so be aware of that.
One element of this book that made me really happy was that of the friendships and character dynamics. I think that the characters maybe could have been a little more fleshed out (they sometimes felt a little two-dimensional, with their only character traits being their extracurricular activities and their love interests), but I really enjoyed the way that the characters all found friendship because of their interactions. If you loved the friendship vibes in Paper Towns by John Green, you’ll love this book.
I am not entirely sure how the representation for this book shapes up. I would go and read some own reviewers who are represented in this book to make sure that the rep of your culture is alright. I didn’t see any glaring problems, as the author didn’t shy away from mentioning skin color (no dreaded “caramel” or “chocolate” skin here), and attempted to have a very diverse cast. I think there’s good intentions here, at the very least.
She Drives Me Crazy is a heartwarming story of sapphic in sports that is worth a read. I’ll be recommending it.
the void 