High school senior Cameron Bright’s reputation can be summed up in one word: bitch. It’s no surprise she’s queen bee at her private L.A. high school—she’s beautiful, talented, and notorious for her cutting and brutal honesty. So when she puts her foot in her mouth in front of her crush, Andrew, she fears she may have lost him for good.
GENRE:
Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
PAGES:
384 pages
PART OF A SERIES?:
Standalone Novel
RELEASE DATE:
April 23rd 2019
PUBLISHER:
Viking Books for Young Readers
SOURCE:
Physical ARC
Please note that I receive most ARCs in exchange for honest reviews but this does not have an effect on the authenticity of the review itself. Reviews on books that have not yet been released are always spoiler free.
YOU CAN FIND THE BOOK AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE/LIBRARY OR THE FOLLOWING LINKS:
Audible
GOODREADS SUMMARY:
High school senior Cameron Bright’s reputation can be summed up in one word: bitch. It’s no surprise she’s queen bee at her private L.A. high school—she’s beautiful, talented, and notorious for her cutting and brutal honesty. So when she puts her foot in her mouth in front of her crush, Andrew, she fears she may have lost him for good.
In an attempt to win him over, Cameron resolves to “tame” herself, much like Katherine in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. First, she’ll have to make amends with those she’s wronged, which leads her to Brendan, the guy she labelled with an unfortunate nickname back in the sixth grade. At first, Brendan isn’t all that receptive to Cameron’s ploy. But slowly, he warms up to her when they connect over the computer game he’s developing. Now if only Andrew would notice…
But the closer Cameron gets to Brendan, the more she sees he appreciates her personality—honesty and all—and wonders if she’s compromising who she is for the guy she doesn’t even want.
MY REVIEW
Okay, I want to admit something first before I write my review – I am NOT a Shakespeare fan. Not at all. I like A Midsummer Night’s Dream but that’s really about it. I don’t know if its multiple years of AP/IB English in high school but I could do without Will, thank you very much.
That being said, I absolutely loved Austin and Emily’s first novel (you can read my review for Always Never Yours here) and I absolutely loved this novel as well. This was a highly anticipated book for me and I can’t wait to celebrate with these amazing authors once it releases because I hope that everyone rushes out to buy this book. I got this book in the mail and proceeded to read it in literally one sitting as soon as I got it. Its that good!
And here’s the thing – Cameron is awful! She is so hard to like at first, even with her tough relationships with both of her parents. She thinks she’s just an honest and blunt person but she does some truly terrible things and I think she thinks she is being genuine but she’s often times a very fake person. It takes me some time to like her and I think its the people around her that keep me reading – they are interesting and they don’t always write Cameron off, even though they really have every right to.
But Cameron does change and her transformation is really fun to watch because I think that she doesn’t become a different person, she’s still herself, she still has her passions and her beliefs and her hobbies and she’s still blunt and honest but she becomes a better person and I think that makes for a better story. Its one thing to just make a person change completely – people don’t really work like that. But to realize that there are things about herself that are great but there are things that could be better and to work on those things…that’s so hard and I loved watching Cameron do that. I also love that she was unapologetic about who she was. She knew she was smart, she knew she was a good runner, hell, she knew she was hot and she owned it and I really liked that. There was something kind of refreshing about a character who is aware of her own beauty and her own strengths and doesn’t need to learn it.
Like I mentioned above, I loved the supporting characters. I loved that they were all so different and unique but they felt familiar. I loved the nerds that cosplayed and I loved that her friends with her instagram influencers. I loved that they felt real and they felt like they had integral parts of Cameron’s journey. I love that even though she was a terrible person at times, they were willing to give her chances because they knew there was more than what she was showing, more than she even realized.
I am absolutely adoring of Brendan; I love how funny he is, I adore his charm and I love that he designs video games as a passion and, hopefully, for a career. I thought he was a good balance for Cameron but it also wasn’t just a typical save-the-nerd sort of romance story. He always held his own with Cameron and I really liked him for that.
Lastly, because I just realized this review is going on for ages, I really loved the easter egg from Emily and Austin’s first novel. I can’t much more than that but I love love love that kind of thing. It reminds me of Sarah Dessen, who weaves a lot of her characters and stories together, even in just small ways.
RATING:
5 out of 5 Stars
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