This was fun! Tons of book love in this - references to Book Twitter, cover reveals, ARCs, book signings, Book Con, etc. I enjoyed the main characters as well as the secondary characters, but the lie that launches the story really started to get to me after awhile. I can usually cope with that trope pretty well, but this time the reason for the lie seemed flimsy at times. I kept shouting "Just tell him already!" Thankfully, the larger story was so enjoyable, I just dug deeper into that while I waited for the inevitable moment where the house of cards she was building collapsed. Overall, a fun read! All of the book references were a big plus for me. (Some language, LGBTQ+, TW: anxiety/panic attacks)

I loved this book. A perfect mix of fandom and internet culture with a well written teen voice. Nash is a great male protagonist and Halle is a wonderful lead. She shows her weaknesses but ultimately is strong role model. I like thr family relationships and how well thought out this story is. A must read.

Halle, the daughter of renowned documentary film makers and the granddaughter of publishing royalty, was looking to make her own way in the YA world. Assuming the online identity of Kels, she created the uber successful YA book blog, One True Pastry. She was happy with her life online, but when she went to live with her grandfather, things got complicated. Now she had to deal with what happens with online life and real life collide.

I obviously wanted to read this book, because it was about a book blogger, and well, I love book bloggers. But, it was also about so many other things, and here are some things I really enjoyed.


Book Blogging

I was so awed by Halle's book blogging prowess. She was huge on multiple platforms, and Kantor didn't gloss over all the hard work she did to earn her following. The story touches upon many aspects of the blogger life, and I really appreciated that the good and bad parts were featured.


Exploration of Grief

Less than a year prior to the start of this story, Halle lost her grandmother to cancer. This was a profound loss for her. Her grandmother was the inspiration and supporter of many of Halle's dreams. She introduced her to NYU, the publishing world, reading, and book blogging. Therefore, when she came to live with her grandfather, and found merely a shell of who he once was, it was difficult for her. There were some painful and beautiful moments shared between Halle and her grandfather, and I really enjoyed this story arc.


Jewish Faith

I have read quite a few books featuring Jewish protagonists, but most aspects of their faith were somewhere off-page. Kantor put Halle's religion front and center. Halle attended services, and celebrated holidays on-page, which was wonderful. I also appreciated that she made a point to feature some characters, who were more secular, as well as more religious Jewish characters.


Friendship

I was fan of the group of friends Kantor gifted Halle with. They were fabulous bunch, and made up of very different personalities. The group had some athletes, artists, brainiacs, and obviously, readers. I loved seeing them embrace Halle, and welcome them to their group, and I loved seeing her bond with them. I think I really liked them, because they reminded me somewhat of the friends I kept in high school. They even spent Saturday nights bowling.


Cupcakes

Halle's OTP - one true pastry, was the cupcake. She started out featuring cupcakes on her blog, and it grew to be her signature. I loved all the baking and book reveals, and could almost taste those cakes. I sort of wish I had a cupcake right now.

Overall, I had a fun watching Halle trying to reconcile her online and IRL existences. The book celebrated family, friends, blazing your own path, and most importantly, books and cupcakes.

3.5 Stars

Halle is spending her senior year living with her grandfather while her Academy Award-nominated parents are in Israel shooting their next documentary. She's used to living all of over the world on location and continually starting over at schools as the new kid, but she's thrown for a loop when she meets a boy in the library who she recognizes. Online, Halle is known as Kels, a YA book blogger and cupcake enthusiast (who created that persona to distance herself from her grandmother who was a successful publisher). And online, Kels and Nash are best friends. Nash, of course, has no idea who Halle is...he only knows the viral version of Kels, the one whose profile picture shows the back of her head, and they've never met IRL. Now that Halle/Kels has actually met Nash in person, she likes him even more than she ever did online but she can't tell him who she really is. Kels is confident, always says the right thing, is never awkward, and definitely never has panic attacks. Kels lets Halle be online who she wishes she could be every day. What if Nash is disappointed that Halle isn't nearly as put-together as Kels? What if he decides he doesn't want anything to do with either one of her personas once he finds out she's a big liar? And is she willing to risk all her relationships as well as her brand and blogger reputation to find out?

This was a cute debut with an air of "You've got Mail" about it. Two people have an epistolary relationship of sorts (conducted entirely online in this modern version), and then one of them finds out who the other is and struggles to decide whether to come clean or whether the mystique and perfection of just connecting through words is safer. But don't let the rom-com fluffiness mislead you into thinking that there aren't deeper issues to unpack here. Characters deal with grief, the weight of parental expectations, anxiety, sexual orientation, and the fear of letting people see who you really are. There is plenty of sweetness between the cupcakes and the Nash/Kels/Halle triangle, but there are big doses of reality sprinkled in there, too.

Halle is a well-developed character and I felt for her even as I wanted to SHAKE SOME SENSE into her for continuing to waffle about whether to come clean. She had so many chances to tell Nash the truth, and while I understood her hesitation, she waited so long that it became almost impossible to imagine a way that it wasn't going to completely blow up in her face. Nash also had a compelling backstory, between overbearing parents and a family tragedy that feeds into the graphic novel he writes. I always appreciate when each character can stand alone and be interesting even without the plot holding him/her up. But I will say that my favorites in this book were Gramps and Ollie (Halle's brother) who absolutely stole the show in every scene with their bromance.

The writing was intelligent and it flowed well, though it did attempt a little to much "hip" teen-speak for my taste. (Again, I know I'm an adult reading YA but I live with teenagers and they don't talk like this. A little bit, yes...occasionally, sure...but this was just trying too hard in places.) It read like an adult trying to sound like a teen, and that didn't always work in my opinion. My other small issue had to do with formatting (which will most likely be resolved in the final copy). The tweets and DMs were indented strangely in the ARC and it was often difficult to tell who was writing/speaking.

All in all, a fun debut from Kanter!

**Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Children's for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!**

Posted to Goodreads: Hallie Levitt has two lives. Online she is Kels, the founder of the popular blog One True Pastry, but in real life, she is Hallie an average high school senior who is trying to get over the loss of her beloved grandmother. However, when Hallie and her brother are sent to live with her grandfather her two identities collide. Hallie meets Nash, a cute boy at her new school, who just happens to be Kels' best friend online. As Hallie interacts with Nash her feelings for him grow but Nash isn't able to give up his feels for Kels. Can Hallie be in a love triangle with herself?

This book was just kind of cute making an old story feel fresh. Hallie is a well developed main character who is trying to find her place in the world while dealing with the loss of her grandmother. Her journey is one of self-discovery but also of grief. Hallie and Nash's relationship has adorable moments. Plus, it was refreshing to see a YA book with positive familial relationships.

"What I Like About You" is a cute fluffy look into book blogging young adult fiction with a sweet helping of customized cupcakes. This book is about the relationships that can occur both behind and off-screen, and the various personas we take on as a result of that glass divider. The two protagonists, Halle and Nash, are absolutely adorable and realistic in their friendship with each other. After reading Kanter's book, I struggled with simultaneously wanting to begin planning for BookCon in July, baking cupcakes (my boyfriend argued for cookies - amateur), and writing more book reviews. I would heavily recommend this book to anyone who is looking to find themselves in a book while still maintaining that distance we crave when diving into a new read.

What I Like About You is an absolutely charming, adorable, and heartfelt YA romcom that will hook any booknerd immediately. Marisa Kanter has written the cutest YA of 2020. I adored the romance in this book and found the unique spin on a love triangle to be totally refreshing. Not only is this a super sweet romance, but it's a story about believing in yourself and finding your own voice. Halle is a smart, driven teen who is ready to take on the world if she can just believe in herself. She is supported by a family who loves her and friends who always cheer her on. This is a love letter to the book world and the booknerds who make it. This is a must-read.

What I Like About You follows teenage Halle, who under the pseudonym Kels runs a popular book blog called One True Pastry. Kels has an entire community online, most notably with her online best friend Nash, an incredibly talented graphic novelist and fellow book lover. But when Halle moves in with her grandfather, she ends up meeting Nash in real life. Instead of telling Nash that she's Kels, she tries to ignore him. Sooner or later she has to tell Nash the truth, especially when she finds out that Nash is secretly in love with Kels.

I thoroughly enjoyed What I Like About You. It is told entirely in the first-person from Halle's perspective. I really liked both Halle and Nash as characters, although Halle started to frustrate me a bit as the story went on.

This is definitely what I would refer to as wholesome YA. There's no sexual content or underage drinking, and a big focus on family, friendship, and responsibility. The majority of the characters and the town are Jewish and very involved in their community and synagogue. Some of my favorite parts of this story focus on Halle's relationship with her grandfather, and the anecdotes about her late grandmother.

What I liked most about this book is that the author just gets the essence of being a book reviewer and book lover: the obsession over cover reveals, the excitement over receiving an arc you’ve been waiting for, and the creativity, hard work, and joy involved in running a successful platform. That along with a great story about identity and what it means to belong make What I Like About You a classic for the modern age.

Thank you to @Netgalley and Simon Teen for my review copy!

This book was the sweetest, literally, because cupcakes, and also had some really great Jewish rep that I appreciated a lot!

Halle and Nash are online fandom friends. And while Halle knows him as Nash and has seen what he looks like, Nash only knows her as Kels and has no idea what her appearance holds. When Halle moves in with her grandfather for her senior year, she runs into Nash at the local library but forgoes telling him who she really is. They’ve always been able to talk about everything online, but when faced with Nash in real life, Halle is afraid she’ll never measure up to her online persona of Kels.

I didn’t love the somewhat catfishing aspect of the story, but everything else about this book was great! Halle is young and confident in some aspects of her life, but not at all in others and it’s easy to see why she withheld information from Nash, even if it’s a choice I don’t agree with. I love the evolution of their relationship as Halle and Nash and how Kels also fits in. I’m not a fan of love triangles but a love triangle that only involves two people was definitely an interesting take on the idea. I also love that this included the book community on so many levels, from bloggers, to tweeters, to booktubers, to BookCon. Very fun and relatable to read.

I also appreciated the Jewish representation in both Nash and Halle and thought it was very well done! Can’t wait to read whatever Marisa Kanter writes next!

*Thank you to Simon & Schister Books for Young Readers and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy.

I really wish the character was real and I could follow her account! This book was adorable - I especially loved how the main character emphasizes that YA isn’t written for adults. I had a fun time reading this one and would recommend to anyone that loves reading YA - especially my students!

There were a few reasons that I needed to read What I Like About You. First of all, online friends to lovers is my kryptonite. Second, the guy on the cover looks like my fiance and the girl kind of looks like me. Third, this book is basically about me and my fiance. I thought I was about to read the novelization of us. Or, at least, a super cute contemporary along the lines of Alex, Approximately.

I got neither of these things, really. I got a book of unnecessary drama with some cute parts.

I think first I want to talk about the blogging aspect, since that’s arguably the biggest plot point in this book. Halle runs a super popular book blog called One True Pastry, in which she reviews books, leads discussions, and bakes cupcakes that are reminiscent of book covers. It was so great to see a discussion of all the work that goes into blogging, because I think that’s something that people don’t necessarily realize until they decide they want to give blogging a try. This hobby is time-consuming, and I’m happy that Kanter brought some attention to that.

The thing that I question about the blogging aspect, though, is whether non-bloggers will care. There’s a lot of talk of ARCs, cover reveals, and emails from publicists, and while I’ll agree that it sounds cool, I would have had no idea what this was before I started my blog, and even less of an idea when I was in the target demographic of this book. I think it’ll be interesting to see how this book does with the general public once it’s released since, obviously, early reviews are going to come from people who are highly familiar with these things.

The second thing I want to talk about is the romance itself. Nash and Kels were cute. Nash and Halle, not so much. It’s confusing because Kels and Halle are the same person, and yet Halle seems hell-bent on Nash not finding that out. She’s unnecessarily rude to Nash and rude to her other friends because she’s so paranoid that he’ll find out who she really is, and I just didn’t understand. I mean, I get anxiety. I understand worrying about everything. But he’s your best friend. If you can’t trust your best friend, who can you trust? I think Halle’s brother Ollie says it best when he tells her, “You’re literally both sides of this love triangle. You win. But you’re like, determined to sabotage yourself.” I honestly think that this book would have been a thousand times better without this aspect.

The last thing I want to say is that if you’re an adult reader of YA, prepare yourself. There is a lot of commentary in this book about how YA is not for adults, and it even goes so far as to insinuate that adults just flat-out shouldn’t read YA. Now, I understand that I am not the target audience for YA anymore. I’m in my late 20s and while I enjoy reading YA, there are definitely some plots and themes that don’t work for me anymore. YA isn’t written with me in mind, and I totally understand that. Does that mean that I just shouldn’t read YA? Am I doomed to read genres I dislike because I’m an adult? I don’t think so. I think people should read what they enjoy.

So, all of that said, this book was more of a miss than a hit for me. I was expecting a cute contemporary that would remind me of the start of my own relationship and got a weird combination of lying and misplaced disdain at adult readers of YA. I’m more than a little disappointed, but I hope that this book will do well.

I throughly enjoyed this book! I loved Halle even though she made some very poor choices. Nash was a great character minus that one thing. I really liked all the side characters too. I would love to see more stories written in this universe. On one hand this was a perfect book to read during quarantine because it was so entertaining but on the other hand I WANT CUPCAKES AND CANT GET THEM!!!!

This was everything I needed it to be. It was cute, it had heart, and was kinda relatable. This book deals with friendships in real life vs social media. I loved that it was bookish related, I think that made me connect to the characters a bit more. Overall it was a super easy and very quick read. I read it all in one sitting and didn't even realize I finished it unit I hit the last few pages. I completely recommend this book!

What I Liked

-There is a lot of book community nerdiness in this and I liked it. It’s always fun to read a book about a book blogger.

-I enjoyed reading about Jewish culture. Though Halle is Jewish, she wasn’t really raised with religion, so when she lives with her grandfather who is religious, we get to learn right along with her about traditions and etc. I haven’t read a lot of books that include this, so it helps set it apart a bit from other similar books.

-I loved Halle’s little brother, Ollie. He was wise beyond his years and was always there for Halle. He deserved a little better from her, though, to be honest.

-I liked Le Crew. Though some members of the group weren’t always my cup of tea, I liked their friendship.

What Didn’t Work for Me

-Halle’s parents are famous documentary filmmakers. A little is spoken about the super important topics they cover, but more is said about how they are chasing an Oscar. They came across really shallow to me. I didn’t really respect them.

-One of my biggest pet peeves in books is when all the drama could be resolved with one, honest conversation. I got very, very frustrated with Halle. I can understand being caught off guard the first time she met Nash, but then months go by and their relationship progresses, and it turned more into an uncomfortable catfishing situation. Her brother was the only one who knew the truth of the situation and he continually tried to talk her into telling the truth and she would just get mad at him and storm away to go pout. She was often a hard character to like.

-There’s a lot of YA Book Twitter drama that goes on and it reminded me of why I mostly avoid Twitter. The YA Book Community can be great, but it can also be incredibly toxic and judgmental and promotes “cancel culture”. To be fair, though, the Twitter community in general can be that way. One situation in this story is that the author of a book that means a lot to Halle disses the movie being made about her book saying it’s not just for teens. Halle plans on seeing the movie anyways because it meant a lot to her grandmother (who worked on the book), but she lets other people make her feel guilty about it and it sways her opinion to join the boycott. For a book that celebrates the YA book culture, I just wish that the characters would’ve come across a little better than they did.

Overall

Overall, What I Like About You wasn’t really for me. I almost DNF-ed it several times, but I decided to keep going and did enjoy some parts of it. When needless lying is basically the whole plot, though, I just can’t get behind it. However, this book is obviously a celebration of YA literature and I am well over the age of the target audience, so some of the things that bothered me may not bother them.

Overall Rating (Out of 5): 2.5 Stars

This book is perfect for any YA book lovers who are involved in the online book community - bloggers, Booktubers, bookstagrammers, anyone who understands what the online world of books is like. It's very authentic YA written for teenagers to especially ennjoy - it's not one of those YA contemporaries where the author feels like an adult who doesn't know what teenagers are like and how they talk.

I adore the family relationships in this book - from the main character Halle's famous parents, her sad grandfather who doesn't know how to cope with the loss of his wife and her adorable brother Ollie. I love Ollie has a character and his and Halle's relationship. Their bond is truly one of the best parts about this book.

Although her grandmother died before this book began, she plays a large part in the plot of this story. Halle took a lot of inspiration from her grandmother's life - she wants to be a publisher, her grandmother helped her create the blog and online life she loves. Her loss also deeply affected Halle's grandfather, as expected, and the book also follows his journey to coping with her death and bonding with his grandchildren.

This book also has an unexpected Jewish representation, and while I am not Jewish and can't speak to how accurate it is, I found it to be extremely refreshing. I don't see Jewish rep in YA books often, so I think those who are Jewish will be able to see themselves in this characters. There is also great gender fluidity conversations and LGBT+ rep as well. Halle also deals with a lot of anxiety and I think that was represented very well too.

Overall this book was so cute and such a fun read! I do wish there was more at the end, I felt the book needed an epilogue or another chapter.

Kanter puts together a fun play on Cyrano De Bergerac in her novel. Hallie and Nash have developed a serious online relationship. The problem is that Hallie has presented herself as the enigmatic Kels, operator of a popular pastry blog. Nash is none the wiser when he first meets Hallie in real life, which makes for an interesting dynamic as you see their digital and face to face relationships evolve. While the premise of mistaken identity isn't necessarily new, Kanter does put a modern twist that should make fans of this sub-genre pleased with this take.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A book bloggers dream romance! I loved this. It was such a fun and romantic read! It was refreshing and adorable. I loved the characters, the authors writing style, etc. There is just so many things I adore about this.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

What I Like About You follows Halle as she moves to Middleton, Connecticut to live with her widower grandpa and younger brother while her parents shoot a movie in a different country. Online, she's sweet and sassy baker/YA book blogger Kels Roth, who just so happens to be online BFFs with fellow blogger and aspiring artist Nash Stevens. IRL? She's Halle Levitt, awkward and anxious granddaughter of legendary editor Miriam Levitt. And Halle just so happens to meet Nash in the YA section of the library as soon as she gets to Middleton. She recognizes him immediately, but he doesn't connect her with Kels. Panicking as her worlds collide, Halle misses her chance to tell him the truth - and keeps on finding reasons not to.

I did appreciate a lot of aspects of the book, but I could not get over the multiple times Halle has the perfect opportunity to reveal her identity to Nash and...doesn't. Listen. On some levels, I get it. I get the anxiety that comes along with the pressure to live up to the wit and self-assuredness that often comes easier online than it does offline. But on the other hand, I think there comes a point when you have to think about the very real people that your actions are affecting. Luckily for Halle, her younger brother Ollie is constantly there to give her a good dose of reality, but without him...well, I don't know. While Halle is a complex and and layered and likable protagonist, her actions and her rationale make my feelings about her as complicated as the situation she creates for herself.

I do, however, think that Halle and What I Like About You represent the YA book blogging community in a way that I personally haven't read before. I was rooting for her despite myself. What I Like About You is messy, but maybe that's the beauty of it, and I think that it has the potential to resonate deeply with the right kind of reader - that reader just isn't me.

What I Like About You is a fun and flirty romcom all about books and cupcakes - what more could you want? We follow the complicated love triangle between Halle Levitt, a book nerd slowly coming to terms with the loss of her grandmother 6 months ago by using her online personality, book blogger extraordinaire, Kels Roth, and Kels online BFF Nask Kim. When Halle moves in with her grandfather at the start of senior year, her two worlds - and personalities - collide.

I had a lot of fun reading this and I absolutely flew through it. Halle/Kel's book blog was so perfect! I loved the combination of books and baking, two of my favorite things. I also really loved her relationship with her brother Ollie - they were so supportive and caring for each other.And seeing them connect with their Jewish heritage with their grandfather was wonderful too! And I always love having different formats in books - chats, texts, dms, they all made the story interactive and let us get to know the different friend groups in a natural way.

Even though I enjoyed how much of the story focused on blogging, as a blogger myself, the text/online speech as dialogue always bugs me. It's just a little too corny for me. I also thought the story overall was a little underdeveloped - the characters didn't have much growth (or consequences for their actions) and the conflict at the end of the story was a little weak.

Overall this was a super enjoyable story and I loved the highlight on the bookish community and the general love of reading. Halle's fondness for her grandmother's memory and legacy was so heartwarming and was a wonderful grounding point for her character, even as she's trying to determine her sense of self IRL.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for the free eARC.
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Halle is shy and a bit socially awkward in real life, but online she is Kels, the blogger behind One True Pastry, a YA book blog. Her posts go viral for the cupcakes she bake and decorate to match book covers. Online Kels is everything Halle is not- she’s confident, sassy and has tons of friends, including her best friend, Nash. When she moves to her Grandpa’s small town she’s shocked when she meets Nash IRL. She’s kept her identity a secret online, so he has no idea who she really is and she wants to keep it that way. She thinks if he knows who she is it will ruin their friendship - online and in person.
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What I liked: I didn’t want to put it down, very bingeable! I always love books about books and cute YA romances. I really enjoyed the friendships and the family dynamics. It was fun to read about a book blogger! There are some tough issues addressed throughout the book like anxiety and loss. I also really enjoyed the Jewish representation in this book.
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What didn’t work: Due to the nature of the plot it’s hard not to be frustrated with the main character for much of the book. Probably the biggest issue for me was that it was very repetitive. Also a more minor thing- there was a running plot point through the book about how YA books are for young adults, not for adults, which yes, they are written for a YA audience, but it just felt… odd and perhaps a bit negative towards older readers.
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3.5 stars- Cute and bingeable, a fun debut novel! I look forward to more books from this author. This will probably be especially fun for those have have been book blogging way before bookstagram was a thing.