The Bookworm Crush

Author: Lisa Brown Roberts
Publisher: Entangled Teen (October 29, 2019)
Paperback, 400 pages
Romance, YA Romance, Contemporary Romance
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Summary
Shy bookworm Amy McIntyre is about to compete for the chance to interview her favorite author, who hasn’t spoken to the press in years. The only way to win is to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight, but that level of confidence has never come easy.

The solution? A competition coach. The problem? The best person for the job is the guy she’s secretly crushing on…local surfer celebrity Toff Nichols.

He’s a player. He’s a heartthrob. He makes her forget basic things, like how to breathe. How can she feel any confidence around him?

To her surprise, Toff agrees to help. And he’s an excellent teacher. Amy feels braver—maybe even brave enough to admit her feelings for him. When their late night practices become less about coaching and more about making out, Amy’s newfound confidence wavers.

But does Toff really like her or is this just another lesson?

Review
GUH, this book. It’s probably an older teen YA book because of some serious-times making out and lead up to sex, even though the actual sex scenes are fade-to-black. The characters are approximately 17 (summer before senior year of high school). This is one of those prime examples where YA really needs two separate categories, one for young teens and one for older teens.

As a 33 year old lady I super loved this book. Amy is a ride-or-die romance reader, and there are allusions to several popular YA novels sprinkled throughout this book. She’s also a book blogger and bookstagrammer, so there’s plenty of bookish acronyms and jargon slung around in this book. Like any truly great romance, this book is about Amy finding her “swagger” and coming out of her shell as much as it is about her fake relationship (trope alert! squee!) and budding romance with Toff.

Ohhh, Toff. The sexy surfer baby-alpha. He also does a fair amount of growing up throughout this book, though I didn’t love his character arc quite as much as I loved Amy’s. Then again, I definitely relate to the bookworm who lacks self-confidence a lot more than the swaggering (is that a word?) champion surfer, so make of that what you will. Roff and Amy together are so cute, and I love how he teases her fire out of her. This book made me grin like an idiot several times, and also hurt my heart and had be on the verge of tears a couple of times. Upon finishing it I immediately went and bought the companion book, so that’s pretty much a guaranteed 5 star rating for me!

This is basically the second book in a series, as it’s a spin off of the author’s previous book, The Replacement Crush. It can be read as a stand alone, but there are some minor spoilers for the “first” book.

An ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via Edelweiss+ for review. All opinions are unbiased and my own.