This is a book that a year ago, even with the cover being as adorable as it is, I probably wouldn’t have picked up. Let alone asked for it from Harper360 – so thanks for the book guys! But the idea of a trans teen running a Tumblr all about trans meet-cutes? I needed that. I needed something cute and adorable. And like his readers, I kinda needed to see some trans love. And you get that with this book. You’ve got two love interests – a cis boy and a non-binary co-worker. And sometimes, you need to see someone like yourself experiencing love.
Noah runs Meet Cute Diary, but all the meet-cutes he posts are false. When a troll comes online and starts calling him out on it, Noah decides to fake-date Drew in the hope of distracting his readers. And showing a meet-cute can be real. It doesn’t go as expected, and when he meets Devin, he starts to fall for em too.
I’m non-binary. I’ve said it before on here, and I’ll say it again. I’m genderfluid, and I love seeing examples of non-binary characters in books. I’ve mostly come across them in YA, and it brings me joy to think of teenagers seeing themselves in books at a younger age than I did. Maybe if I’d had a book like this, I’d have realised my truth sooner. Both trans and non-binary kids get that with this book, and the story you get to experience is adorable and funny and just so wonderful.
As a protagonist, Noah wasn’t always likeable. He was a little lazy, a little selfish, and I think he should have been there more for his best friend, Becca. She was there for him, and he shouldn’t have been surprised that she avoided him for a bit. I probably would too. But on the other side of that, for his love interests? He is very much there for them. Drew is dealing with a lot, and he tries to support him, and Devin isn’t sure about pronouns and deals with panic attacks. Noah helps em with both of those things too. I did like seeing the panic attacks because sometimes they don’t seem to be like from anywhere. And that was the case with Devin. It didn’t take much to trigger one in em. I do wish that we could have seen how ey copes with it a little more, but it’s Noah’s books, so I get that.
Devin is someone I’m talking about a lot, but as a love interest, ey are important. And I want to point out that I’m sure you’ve seen I’m using neo-pronouns for em. They go through a couple of possible pronouns, as ey don’t quite know where ey fit. And I get that. I know I’m genderfluid, but that imposter syndrome and the worry am I faking it? Will people be disappointed? I get that. I still get that. I get that writing this review as am I deserving of reviewing this books? What if my brain is lying to me and I’m not nonbinary? It’s clearly not, or I wouldn’t be dealing with imposter syndrome, but I really got Devin.
There was obviously plenty of romance in this YA rom-com, and it’s so very cute. Noah loves romance. He really wants a meet-cute and a dream romance that follows on after that. Don’t a lot of us dream about that? The little meet-cute stories were adorable, and I loved all the talk of love and the dream date lists, and it was all very sweet.
The one thing I’ve gotta say but probably won’t bug others? Some of the Tumblr stuff was so wrong! Like, how is Noah running this blog? How were the fake meet-cutes supposedly coming in? As from the end of the book, it doesn’t sound like he had the submit on. And they wouldn’t fit into asks as character limits. Then some of the stuff about the submit at the end and the posts having comments? It just felt more like a normal blog than a Tumblr. I loved seeing that it was on Tumblr, but like, how is this working?! This doesn’t even sound like Tumblr a year or two ago. The ask limit has sadly been in place for a long-ass while. It’s sad as you can’t send people random ficlets into their asks…what? I used to do that sometimes…
Overall, I did really enjoy this book. I read it in a single night. I couldn’t put it down until I finished it, and I’m so glad I did. Was it perfect? Maybe not, but I couldn’t point anything really wrong with it.
It’s a good, cute, fun book that I do highly recommend to all.
4/5 Stars
Lace and Dagger Books 