Monday Book Review: The Replacement Crush, by Lisa Brown Roberts

The Replacement Crush, by Lisa Brown Roberts
Published in 2016 by Entangled Teen

About the Book:

True love can't be strategized.

After book blogger Vivian Galdi’s longtime crush pretends their secret summer kissing sessions never happened, Vivian creates a list of safe crushes, determined to protect her heart.

But nerd-hot Dallas, the sweet new guy in town, sends the mission and Vivian’s zing meter into chaos. While designing software for the bookstore where Vivian works, Dallas wages a counter-mission.

Operation Replacement Crush is in full effect. And Dallas is determined to take her heart off the shelf.

 My Take:

I feel like I usually read YA with some sort of twist - paranormal, time travel, dystopian, alternate universe, superpowers... not straight up contemporary YA crush stuff, regular girl and boy kinda romance.

And yet, this book hit all my buttons and was pretty much a perfect read for a rainy Sunday morning. Go figure.

Lisa Brown Roberts perfectly captures how it feels to be sixteen and desperately in love, not in control of your own body or emotions.The main character Vivian hates that out-of-control roller coaster feeling and decides to go all Vulcan about her emotions - as in, denying their existence. Which may not sound like the basis for a teen romance, but trust me, it makes sense when you read it. Her characters seemed to be just the right mixture of self-aware and self-absorbed to be believeable, and the Southern California setting was such fun to read.

Yes, this may seem like a light review, but it was a light, fun read for your summer reading list, and a feel-good book for a gloomy day.

It also brought up a question for me about review blogs - because the main character Vivian has an anonymous book review blog where she can rant and/or rave about novels without fear of anyone coming back at her to criticize her opinions. How do you feel about reviewers who hide behind a blog title, not revealing who they are or participating as themselves in the discourse? Is that better or worse? I know sometimes I wish I'd decided to be anonymous with my reviews, but on the other hand, writing under my name keeps me on the high ground, becaues I have to be accountable for everything I write and/or recommend.

Which circles back to my review of this particular novel - if you enjoy contemporary YA romance, this is a funny, quirky, slightly nerdy take on high school crushes that's easy to read and leaves you smiling over and over again. Ignore the uninspired cover art. It's better than it looks.

Grab a copy on AMAZON.