Jerry Cooke
4.5⭐️ - An awkward and nerdy fake dating tale with a lot of heart!
When you pick a guy at random to kiss, it pays to avoid it being one of the most feared academics in your department. At least, that's Olive's gut reaction upon realising she's done just that. What's worse, she now has to keep up the ruse so that both her and the tall, dark not-so-stranger can both convince the right people that they're dating.
Olive, our FMC, isn't specifically identified as being neurodivergent but given how much I related to her, I strongly suspect she could have been written that way. At times, it was almost painful how many crossed wires were tripping up our fake-lovers. There was something incredibly realistic about how the over-thought everything to her own detriment and the way her friends had to be the ones to make her see the light.
There were so many moments the made me smile or actively laugh out loud, such was the simple fun of this book. I also found myself tearing up at the kindness of her friends, and scrunching my fists at the injustice of her treatment. It really was a big emotional journey at times.
This was my first full-size Hazelwood book and I'll definitely be carrying on with them, not least because listening to them as audiobooks makes them easy daytime reads.
4.5⭐️ - An awkward and nerdy fake dating tale with a lot of heart!
When you pick a guy at random to kiss, it pays to avoid it being one of the most feared academics in your department. At least, that's Olive's gut reaction upon realising she's done just that. What's worse, she now has to keep up the ruse so that both her and the tall, dark not-so-stranger can both convince the right people that they're dating.
Olive, our FMC, isn't specifically identified as being neurodivergent but given how much I related to her, I strongly suspect she could have been written that way. At times, it was almost painful how many crossed wires were tripping up our fake-lovers. There was something incredibly realistic about how the over-thought everything to her own detriment and the way her friends had to be the ones to make her see the light.
There were so many moments the made me smile or actively laugh out loud, such was the simple fun of this book. I also found myself tearing up at the kindness of her friends, and scrunching my fists at the injustice of her treatment. It really was a big emotional journey at times.
This was my first full-size Hazelwood book and I'll definitely be carrying on with them, not least because listening to them as audiobooks makes them easy daytime reads.