This YA coming-of-age romance book is warm, flirty, and stylish. I love Twinkle's narrative voice, and the developing romance is sweet and swoon-worthy. The misunderstandings about the secret admirer are telegraphed in advance, far enough for Twinkle's continued lack of realization to stall the book a little. Despite that hiccup, the book has great characters and a fun plot, and is a delightful read.

This book is probably my favourite Netgalley book I've received so far, and not because I think it's the best, but because it's the first book that was already on my to-read list before I got access to an early copy. For that alone, I was super excited to get into this. Part of what made me love Anna from Anna and the French Kiss was that she was into films and being a film critic, and I think that having an interest in film-making is a super cool hobby to have. For that alone, I loved Twinkle and the plot of this book from the get-go. Not to mention that I happened to be in Colorado when I started this book, only to discover that that is where it takes place, which was also kinda cool.

I adored that it was written via letters to Twinkle's favorite female directors. I recognised a few names, but some I didn't, so I am looking forward to having my film catalogue expand with excellent cinema once I finish writing this review. I liked Twinkle a lot, and found her quite relatable, especially with her worries about her family and how she felt different and separated from the others from her school. She was a little bit obsessive, especially over Neil, but no more so than any other shy teenager with a massive crush on the most popular boy in school. Her relationship with Maddie made me cringe quite a bit in many places, though. I liked Maddie as a developed character quite a bit, because she breaks the mold of being the dumb popular girl.  What I didn't like what how Twinkle eternally expected Maddie to change and kept holding onto hope to get their friendship back on track. I can understand the hardship Twinkle has had to go to with her best friend drifting away into a friend group that she is not welcomed into, but there was a point where I just plain pitied Twinkle, and kept getting frustrated that she was pining over someone who clearly didn't care for her. Maddie never stood up for her, and was always patronising her in her attempts at "protecting" Twinkle, but it became pretty clear to me early on that when she weighed the importance of her friendship with Twinkle versus her new friends, it became a struggle, and if she really cared about Twinkle, it wouldn't have been. Especially once Twinkle made a new friend group and really fit in well with them, I wanted her so badly to stop subjecting herself to Maddie's indecisiveness, simply for her own well-being.

Sahil is adorable, and I'm pretty sure I developed a crush on him myself. He was so genuinely endeared with Twinkle that I kept on getting upset at her for not seeing what was directly in front of her. Even after she and Sahil had several moments, she was still pining after Neil, Sahil's decidedly "hotter" identical twin brother. Like, if Twinkle and Sahil only shamelessly flirted, I wouldn't have been as upset. But they kissed at least twice, and Twinkle was still hung up on a secret admirer that she had built up in her head to be Neil. Not to mention the fact that whenever she brought up Neil when Sahil was around, it clearly bothered him. But she couldn't even see it with her head up in the clouds. She was quite dense and inconsiderate a good chunk of the time. I liked her a lot besides that, but that part frustrated me a lot. Other than that, I loved that they remade a classic film with a twist, and how it brought them closer together and gave Twinkle a new group of friends that she actually fit in with. And the DIVERSITY! Obviously it stems from the author's own perspective, but I was absolutely overjoyed at the diversity seen in the characters in this book. Sure, the school they go to is described as overly white and filled with rich kids, but we managed to round up a proper group of nerdy, diverse misfits, and I really enjoyed that.

Writing-wise, this book was pretty good. There weren't too many pop culture references (and most I could understand), and for that I am grateful. It doesn't sorely stick out like a modern teen novel, but language-wise blends in with other teen novels from the past 10 years, which I think is an excellent trait (except for grab. What does grab even mean?!).

I enjoyed the plot line immensely, because like I said, I am fascinated and thoroughly welcome characters and plots about films and film-making. I liked that it was a glue that brought all the different characters together in order to make a work of art. Every "clique" was involved in the making of their movie, and I loved to see that. Especially at the end, when it premiered and Twinkle got a ton of amazing feedback that really made her starting mark in the film field. I felt that part of the plot was well-fleshed out and did a great job at showing that Twinkle's story doesn't end just because you've finished reading the book. Doors are opened for her and she is walking through them. Her relationships aren't entirely mended, but I think she would have grown enough as a character in the last part of the book that she is on her way to fixing them. She probably has a little more growing to do in her everyday consideration of others' feelings, but nobody is perfect. There were quite a few little plot lines along the way that I enjoyed, and I especially liked how they seamlessly flowed into the overall plot without distracting too much. I especially liked the plot twist in the reveal of N, because without it, it would have felt unfinished or unfulfilled.

I had When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandya Menon on my reading list for a while, and even had it checked out of the library at one point in time but never got around to reading it. I knew this wasn't a sequel or anything (at least not that I am aware or could tell, and there were no characters named Dimple or Rishi in this book), but I felt like it would have been proper to read that first. But I knew that this plot interested me more, and I assumed that I would just have to pick up things along the way. But obviously, it's not a sequel, and I wouldn't worry too much if you haven't read it, because it has no influence on this book whatsoever that I could tell.

At the beginning of this book, I really did expect this to be like any other generic YA novel, even though the making of a film isn't really a common plot. I didn't expect to love it as much as I did, especially since I certainly didn't love it that much to begin with. The relationship development between Twinkle and Sahil I believe was the strongest, even if there were bumps along the way, and I liked the character growth Twinkle went through, even if it went painfully slow at times and felt rushed a bit at the end in order to meet the conclusion. But this book is just adorable, and I fell for the characters and concern for their well-being pretty hard. When I finished, I genuinely felt like squeeing, which is a sensation I don't get nearly enough.