Only Mostly Devastated: Sophie Gonzales

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As Ollie attempts to juggle a serious family illness, finding his place in a new group of friends that he seems far too uptight for, and adjusting to small-town life, the last thing he wants to do is worry about a guy who clearly isn’t ready for a relationship. But as Will starts ‘coincidentally’ popping up in every area of Ollie’s life, from music class to the lunch table, Ollie finds his resolve weakening.

What makes me put off one star in my rating is one particular character in the story. I felt like she was, at first, very toxic and didn’t really apologize for it all, which made me a little frustrated. I liked this character’s growth thorough the story and I liked understanding where her behaviour came from, for sure, but I didn’t feel like her behaviour was completely and rightfully made … okay, by the end of the story. Mom rested her elbows on the counter and buried her forehead in her palms. “Ollie. Please. Don’t make this any more difficult.”Initially, the book started as two completely different, unrelated book pitches. One f/f about a reality show, another about rival YouTube streamers. My editor and I spent a lot of time discussing how fame affects teens and young adults while developing these ideas, and, during these talks, a song called Driver’s License released, and all the western world wanted to talk about was a love triangle between three teen celebrities I’d never heard of. “One thing,” I said, “hasn’t changed: the world is creepily obsessed with the dating lives of their favourite teen celebrities (Hilary vs Lilo! Taylor Swift and her dating history!).”

But " Clueless" was extremely funny, which this book had its moments, but I didn't personally feel that humor played much of a role here. At least not constantly, like in " Clueless". The concept was shot to hell, it sounded like would be a well crafted revenge story but it's really not, and you suspend your beliefs so often but buy into any of time.This is a slow burn romance. Skye and Maya despise each other in the beginning. It was a little bit too much of a slow burn, however. I think the author needed to insert a few more tension-filled moments earlier on. Once they stopped hating each other, they were platonic. Then, they went from platonic friends to kissing friends in the blink of an eye. I needed a bit more build up than that!