I ended up reviewing this book later than I expected, but it worked out well because Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee is the perfect book to kick off My YA Summer.
Title: Meet Cute Diary
Author: Emery Lee
Genres: romance, contemporary, romantic comedy
Series: N/A
Pages: 400
ISBN: 9780063038837
Links: IndieBound, StoryGraph, Amazon, Goodreads
Content Warnings: (from the author) [graphic] emotional abuse, panic attacks, toxic relationship, [moderate] cursing, transphobia, vomit, [minor] bullying (mention of pre-book occurrence), suicide attempt (mention of pre-book occurrence), alcohol, drug use, racism
Other Books by this Author: N/A (debut)
Blurb
Noah Ramirez thinks he’s an expert on romance. He has to be for his popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary, a collection of trans happily ever afters. There’s just one problem—all the stories are fake. What started as the 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 blog as fiction, Noah’s world unravels. The only way to save the Diary is to convince everyone that the stories are true, but he doesn’t have any proof. Then Drew walks into Noah’s life, and the pieces fall into place: Drew is willing to fake-date Noah to save the Diary. But when Noah’s feelings grow beyond their staged romance, he realizes that dating in real life isn’t quite the same as finding love on the page.
In this charming novel by Emery Lee, Noah will have to choose between following his own rules for love or discovering that the most romantic endings are the ones that go off-script.
Meet Cute Diary Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I picked this book up hoping for a cute romance and got exactly what I wanted. The tone of Meet Cute Diary was light and comical, but there was an underlying vulnerability woven into the narrative. Lee writes with such love for the trans community and touches on how transphobia impacts trans people’s ability to see themselves as worthy of love.
Noah was a delightful protagonist to follow. He could be selfish and a bit snarky, but it was obvious he felt deeply. I had so much fun fantasizing with Noah about the perfect meet-cute. It reminded me of how I thought about dating and relationships when I was 16. Romantic comedies are as much about individual growth as they are about romance, so I liked getting to see Noah grow as a character.
I also loved how Noah’s blog was integrated into the story. Lee effortlessly shows the pressure to have the perfect life that comes from social media while also showing how it can be used as a tool for good. As a trans boy, Noah didn’t see himself portrayed as desirable in love stories. He uses his blog, the Meet Cute Diary, both as a way to create a better reality for himself and to give hope to other trans people. When the troll exposed the blog as fiction, I felt torn about what I wanted for Noah. I could see how much the Meet Cute Diary meant to him, but I also wanted him to focus more on his reality. I loved how Lee showed the conflict between needing some form of escapism and the damage we can inflict when we become too absorbed in our own worlds.
The romance in Meet Cute Diary was definitely as cute as you’d expect. The connection between the characters was subtle at first, and their growth as a couple felt very natural. I loved how [redacted] brought out the best in Noah. Plus, the unquestionably kind love interest was a refreshing change from the typical dark and mysterious YA love interests. This was one of those love stories that left me feeling all the warm and fuzzy feelings.
The only issue I had with this book was that the ending was too long. I got bored during the last couple of chapters and think the ending could have wrapped up quicker. But, overall this was a cute, fun read that I’d recommend to any fan of romcoms.
Thank you to the author, Emery Lee, for my gifted copy. This does not affect my opinion of the book.
Isabel
Peyton