When two ex-best friends decide to hold a competition for the new girl’s heart, they don’t expect to fall for each other instead.
Emma has been a thorn in Caleb’s side since middle school. Having tarnished their friendship in eighth grade, she’s now little more to him than an unkempt, unruly, disastrous bisexual mess. Over the years, she’s gotten in the way of every romantic relationship he’s attempted to settle into, using little more than mischievous charisma to lure them into her clutches.
To Emma, Caleb sets the record for World’s Largest Stick in the Mud. Uptight,unbearably tidy, and a rule-follower, he’s exactly the kind of boring person her mother wishes she was. When she discovers they’re both after Juliet, the new girl, Emma proposes a competition to nudge him out of the way. Whoever can get Juliet to kiss them first wins, and the opposition must bow out with the promise of never talking to her again.
But plans go awry when Juliet seems mostly interested in hanging out with both of them together. Emma and Caleb just have to figure out whether winning Juliet’s heart is worth the torment of constantly dealing with each other, andthe risk of reopening wounds from a past they thought they had left behind.
Release Date: Jul 23, 2024
Heat Level: Sensual
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Virgin Books for Young Readers
Price: $8.99
It was a fabulous YA surprise that was more enjoyable than I expected.
This would be my first Woody novel, and normally I don’t read YA. Some folks would call me a snob for how many YA I pass over. This book though has high school seniors, folks about to be considered adults and with everything both Caleb and Emma have gone through they’ve experienced a lot of adult bs… but I digress. Let’s rewind.
We have two people who were once friends and are now enemies, Caleb and Emma. Caleb is this geeky, lanky teddy bear. He’s got a lot of issues, internal and external anxiety, fear of germs, Type-A, and has trouble finding folks to connect with. Emma is the polar opposite. She’s brash, loud, unapologetic, the take-no-prisoners-give-no-F’s kind of girl. She’s also from an abusive home and tends to exude chaos in everything she does. Once upon a time, these two were forever besties until Emma ditched Caleb. Until the day they both step up to help the new girl in school.
So, these characters are rough in the sense they are so real and made my heart hurt. I remember the moods, the challenges, the overwhelming feelings where you’re searching for belonging and can’t find it. Woody puts all of that into this story, and it was like being right back in high school. Though on the flip side, I found myself screaming at these kids, wishing they would pull their heads out of their butts and talk to each other a bit more openly. A couple of times, I got so frustrated that I had to walk away from the book and come back later.
What else makes it good? This mishmash of queer representation flows naturally in the story and shows how different folks are often not-so-different than we thought and that first impressions can be misleading. This has found family present and makes me so happy whenever I see it in a book.
Overall, this was a surprising read for me in the middle of summer and I found myself getting all back in my feels like I was back in high school again. If you want to see queer representation, chaos muppet versus perfectionist, and a competition where everyone wins this is the book for you. For readers who enjoy Casey McQuiston.
~ Landra
Amazon | iBooks | B&N | Kobo | Google Play