Publication Date: May 4th 2021 by Quill Tree Books
Format: Library Ebook (400 pages)
Target Audience: Young Adult
Goodreads • Waterstones • Blackwells
WARNING! This review contains spoilers!
Synopsis
Noah Ramirez thinks he’s an expert on romance.
He has to be for his popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary, a perfect collection of trans meet cutes and happily ever afters. There’s just one problem: all the stories are fake. What started as idealized fantasies of a trans boy afraid to step out of the closet has grown into a beacon of hope for trans readers across the globe.
When a troll exposes the Meet Cute Diary as fiction, Noah’s world unravels. The only way to save the Diary is to convince his fans that the stories are true, but how can he spin fiction into fact without any proof? Then Drew walks into Noah’s life, and the pieces fall into place: Drew is willing to fake-date Noah in order to save the Diary.
But as Noah’s feelings for Drew transcend their staged romance, Noah quickly realizes that dating in real life isn’t quite the same as finding love on the page. With the Meet Cute Diary and Noah’s heart hanging in the balance, Noah will have to choose between following his own expertise or discovering that some of the most romantic endings are the ones that go off script.
Rating
My Thoughts
"Just like I needed to learn to love myself again, you need to accept that being apart doesn't mean being alone."
Emery Lee's debut is a romance heavy contemporary that follows Noah, a trans male teenager searching for the perfect relationship during his summer vacation in Colorado. He's even created 12 perfect steps to help him along the way from the meet cute to the happily ever after. He's also the creator of a Tumblr blog called the Meet Cute Diary that is his safe space and somewhere for him to post his imaginary meet cutes for the trans community. When someone accuses the blog of posting fake stories, Noah and his new friend Drew fake a relationship to save the blog but he finds that love doesn't always play by the rules.
I've seen a fair few people talking about this book because of how much representation it has so I automatically borrowed it when I saw my Libby app had a copy. Unfortunately I very quickly found myself frustrated with our main character as well as how overly cheesy things became.
Noah has to be one of the most annoying main characters I've read about recently. He's incredibly judgemental, has no empathy towards other people and thinks the whole world revolves around him. Sure a lot of sixteen year olds can be fairly selfish at times but he spends $400 on a credit card on rideshares and starbucks and then gets mad when his parents tell him he's being irresponsible and cut him off. When he eventually gets a job he moans about the wage he's recieving and then proceeds to put in zero effort and just moans constantly. Welcome to the real world Noah, jobs aren't supposed to be fun! I mean anyone who says "I'm sure the bank of Mom and Dad can figure something out" sounds like an entitled ass.
His relationship with his best friend is so one-sided in the sense that he believes she should pick up the phone whenever he calls but then gets pissed off at her when she wants to talk about some of the issues she's struggling with. He's so self-centered that I couldn't believe she continued to stick around cause I would have ended that friendship so fast. His relationship with his brother isn't much better, his brother is super supportive and accepting and yet he doesn't want him to be happy in his new relationship! Ok, the girlfriend turned out to be transphobic but at the beginning when she was trying to help him get a job he was a total dick to her for no reason.
The romance between Noah and Drew was so cheesy and sickly sweet, of course it doesn't last cause the two were just so surface level and ridiculously rushed. Noah and Devin on the other hand were pretty cute but Devin was definitely the saving grace of the relationship. Devin was actually the best thing about this book, e was so adorably awkward and just such a precious bean. Noah honestly didn't deserve someone as understanding and sweet as Devin but there you go.
What I did like about this book was the representation with there being transgender and non-binary characters as well as a focus on queer relationships both with the main and side characters. I also really liked how Devin was exploring eir pronouns throughout the book, trying out different ones until he found what he was most comfortable with. It actually taught me about a few pronouns that I wasn't familiar with so it was pretty informative.
Overall, whilst I disliked Noah completely, I did really appreciate the rep in here as well as how cute and understanding some of the minor characters were. I'm not writing off Emery Lee just yet cause I can see future books having a lot of promise.
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