I was lucky enough to get an e-ARC of this book during my time working on Indigo’s Staff Pick of the Month (SPOTM) for April of 2020, and did end up voting in favour of it (and it ended up as the SPOTM!). As someone who doesn’t think of themself as a big fan of romance, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I was rooting for Halle and Nash. One of the reasons I think I actually enjoyed the romance in this case is that the focus of WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU isn’t 100% romance all the time—both Halle and Nash get to develop in their own ways (Halle especially, as she’s the protagonist) separate from one another; and there’s also a huge emphasis on family. I loved all of Halle’s interactions with her family, and familial relationships are something that I often find YA fiction, especially romances, sorely lacking. A+ on that aspect! I’d almost consider WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU to be more a coming-of-age story on Halle’s part than a romance story between Halle and Nash.

In short, I definitely recommend WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU to fans of YA romance in general, especially in the same vein of Jenny Han’s TO ALL THE BOYS I‘VE LOVED BEFORE. If you’re like me and don’t consider yourself a romance fan, then I’d still give it a shot, because I really did have a good time, and like I’ve said, there’s so much more to WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU than that romance.

I did not finish this one, it was not for me, I couldn't relate to the characters, and just did not care for the story.

I unknowingly read these two very similarly-themed books back to back over the past week.
In Attachments (a contemporary romance), the IT security guy who monitors flagged office emails finds himself interested in one of the women’s emails he’s been reading, but he can’t reveal to her who he is or how he knows her.
In What I Like About You (YA), it’s about two online best friends who have never met. The female, who uses a fake name online, finds she’s moved into the same town as her BFF and he has no idea it’s her as she continues to keep her online and IRL world separate.
Even though they both had similar themes of technology and hiding who they were from others, I think I preferred Attachments a bit more than What I Like About You but I did enjoy both - even though in most cases these characters just needed to TALK TO EACH OTHER! 😅

The short review is I did like this book. The slightly the longer review is while I liked it, I spent most of my time screaming at the protagonist.

It’s one of those situations where I thought the romance overall was really cute but at the same time I felt terrible for our love interest who was being strung along and lied to for the entire book. You wanted to root for the romance but at the same time you didn’t because it was all rooted in a lie.

There was a close relationship between our protagonist and her brother which was really nice to see how they went to each other for advice (and I feel like her brother was being the readers voice throughout the book) so I enjoyed that a lot. It’s nice to see a strong sibling relationship and it’s one of my favourite things in books when it’s included!

I put off this review longer than I should’ve as I read it back in may so some of the details are a little fuzzy now but that’s how I felt about it. Overall I did like it but at the same time it made me mad too.

I thought this story was adorable. While being strongly YA, it perfectly portrayed the uncertainty of being a teen, when you always want to be cooler than you feel and frequently feel not good enough, where life seems as though it’s balanced on the head of a needle and even the tinniest change will ruin everything. Do I wish Halle had come clean to Nash about her book blogger persona Kels? Of course. But more importantly, did Kanter make the reader understand Halle’s reasons for not doing so even if we disagreed with them? Yes, she did. I loved all the book blogging and baking and especially how they intersected. I thought both Nash and Halle were relatable. There was some repetition in the story, but it didn’t bother me. I really enjoyed this book.

I really enjoyed the dilemma of having 2 lives: one online and one in the real world. I loved how the 2 colliding made for so much ridiculous fun but also such a sweet story.

This was a fun read, where the lines between online life and real life blur, when we tell the truth and how that affect our relationships. Definitely inspired me to start reading more YA again. I was kept interested in where the characters would end up and finished the book in two days. Also has relatable representation (Jewish characters, LGBTQ, POC)

A modern take on the love triangle trope, “What I Like About You” is a contemporary YA romance focusing on a boy, a girl and her online personality. Offering a diverse cast inclusive to both Jewish and multiracial representation in both main and supporting characters, there is a nice mix of levity with emotional resonance woven into the story’s plot.

A must read for YA romcom fans, Marisa Kanters debut in the genre is a wonderful one.

This book was just alright. Not bad, but also not amazing. It took me a while to get into it and even then I wasn't very invested. I found the female main character to be quite annoying at times but I thought the romance was okay.

I found this one fell flat for me. So much of the central conflict could have easily been avoided with some simple conversations. Not a winner for me.

A debut book from Marisa Kanter, What I Like About You focuses on internet relationships and real life friendships. This story had felt done before, so while it was enjoyable at times, it also felt cliche.

What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter



Synopsis: Halle Levitt is a YA book blogger, who operates under Kels the creator of One True Pastry. Kel’s is and has everything Halle doesn’t in her personal life. When Halle and her brother move in with their gramps, she discovers Kel’s online best friend Nash lives in the little town too. Nash has no idea that Halle is Kel’s so she tries to avoid him everywhere she goes. Halle considers whether she should come clean and tell Nash who she really is.



Review: This book was pretty cute, and covered two important topics, grief and anxiety. It was fun to read a book about book bloggers, considering that’s what we’re all doing on our pages. I loved the character’s; they were all relatable and genuine. The drama was good, although a bit too exaggerated at times. I don’t read a lot of YA, I found the author mentioning that YA is for teens multiple times to get pretty annoying. Overall, it was a cute, fluff read!

This book was really cute! It was a bit familiar of a story but that's not necessairly a bad thing. It didn't do anything particularly groundbreaking but it was a cute, familiar story.

A solid YA contemporary story. I enjoyed reading about the characters, and found the plot line a bit deeper than I was expecting!

There were good parts to this story, likeable characters and it was an easy and light read. The plot didn't hold my attention though and I found it to be too predictable and even repetitive. A miss for me unfortunately.

This is a really cute book that is completely relevant at the moment. I love how it involved the online book community, which I've been part of for many years..Sometimes we don't get enough credit and this story gave us that. The online persona vs. real life was also an interesting plot. Even as an adult, I appreciated everything this teen novel is.

Sweet novel exploring relationships in relation to new age technology. Loved the writing, as it had an almost flowery way about it.

Thanks to netgalley for allowing me to review this book.
I have this book a 3.5 star. I really enjoyed it. I loved how the main character was a book blogger, who makes cupcakes to look like book covers. I’ve never read a book with this concept before. I also enjoyed how the book talked about book con, booktube and book Twitter. It felt like I was sort of reading about myself while reading this book.
The reason I took off 2 stars, is because as much as I enjoyed the text messages, twitter comments and group chats being in the book. It was very hard for me, to figure out sometimes who was writing which message. Also, I get why kels/Halle didn’t let Nash know who she really was. I didn’t think that she needed to keep the secret so long. Also, after things were all wrapped up. The book just ended. I would have liked to know if Halle and Nash went to NYU together.
All in all I really enjoyed this book.

1.5 stars
I can see why so many people like What I Like About You. I thought this would be a great book to recommend to teen readers and some parts are great for the young adult crowd, but some things just didn't sit right with me. I am not going to beat around the bush. What I Like about you was just not for me. As someone who has not really blogged before (I dabbled ages ago) I cannot really comment on the accuracy of the blogging that was featured in the book. But I will say posting a picture of a cupcake and a blurb on a book you get how may thousand followers seems extremely far fetched and kind of trivializing the actual effort book bloggers go through just to get even a couple hundred who have been doing this for years. I also had a real hard time liking the main character she was kind of a horrible person, catfishing your potential love interest regardless of age is just not okay. And to top it off nothing happens to her. She gets away Scott free, I feel bad for the love interest.
Overall, What I Like About You had such good promise especially for young adult readers, but unfortunately its hard to ignore some of the negative aspects the book has.

I like the book. I know that maybe I maybe a little old for who is intend the book. I usually enjoy the genre, but with this was, I believe it was too much of miscommunication and how Halle was portrait in the book. I know at that age insecurities and self-doubt is usual, I will recommend it to read it but be aware of that part.