As a result of my various committee appointments and commitments I am unable to disclose my personal thoughts on this title at this time. Please see my star rating for a general overview of how I felt about this title. Additionally, you may check my GoodReads for additional information on what thoughts I’m able to share publicly. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this and any other titles you are in charge of.

This is book is absolutely to DIE for. It's every queer femme teenager's validation needed ever. Even as a grown person of 24 I felt this like a balm to my soul. While I thought it was comical that 16 year olds fell in and out of love in the span of 3 weeks, I thought the earnestness of their larger than life emotions and struggles spoke to the 0 to 100 change in feelings. I loved Emma and Sophia and the wildly different experiences they came from. The fact that they were adversaries and foils of each other in every way made their endgame relationship even more enjoyable. I loved Kate and Tom and Emma's parents as well. I felt like Matt deserved a better beatdown than simply one smack in the face but we can't have every dream fulfilled in one book. Super cute and I'm sure my students would be in love with this book!!

I Think I Love You is a fresh, hilarious, f/f retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing set in vibrant NYC. This book contains so much joy, and brims with gorgeous prose to boot. It is a huge pleasure of a read.

Emma is a hopeless romantic, passionate about anything that has to do with love, rom-coms, and happily-ever-afters. She is not yet out to her parents about being bi-sexual, lending her character an honest weight that helps balance nicely her character. When she learns about a film contest whose prize is a trip to a film festival in LA, she goes about creating the bi rom-com of her dreams with the help of her cousin Kate and friends Matt, Myrah, and Tom.

But when Tom’s best friend, down-to-earth, jaded Sophia, returns from Paris and plans to enter the contest with her own sapphic film very different in tone, she and Emma find themselves in direct competition. As the banter-filled, enemies-to-lovers dynamic between Emma and Sophia reveals two girls who could not be more different, we get glimmers of the possibility that their shared love for film, elements of their experiences regarding their sexuality, and their deep desire for connection reveals more common ground than the two have yet to discover.

I love this modern spin on an old favorite and the truly distinct voices of the dual POV between Emma and Sophia. But what really drew me in were the nuances within the characters. Sophia is someone who has seen, up close and personal, the struggles that exist in love. The bitter disappointments of lost love, her parents’ divorce and altered family structure, and the need for belonging after you leave your city behind and return, only to have everything different—were so resonant. And Emma is worried about how to come out as bi to her parents, adding layers of realism to her character. I was so impressed with how deep we got into each character’s psyche, and how much texture these delvings added to the story and characterization.

I also appreciated the matchmaking fun with the story’s side characters, and the use of the stage as a genuine way to work through your emotions, your struggles, your passions, and your burrowed beliefs about yourself and those closest to you.

I Think I Love You explores topics of finding yourself, coming out, falling in love, and its meditations around identity were all seamlessly woven through this funny, sweet, hopeful story. I absolutely loved the voicey quality to each character, as well as the banter throughout. This is a book that would appeal to both rom-com lovers and more serious-minded readers alike who are looking for a heartwarming, beautifully-written f/f love story. A gorgeous debut that made its forever mark on me. Five Stars!

This book was so cute and so easy to read. I loved seeing these two teenage girls fall in love with each other after disliking each other for so long. I had a lot of fun reading this light story that also dealt with the subject of coming out to your family as a lesbian or bisexual.

In I Think I Love You, you'll meet Emma and Sophia. The first is a romantic through and through who believes in great love stories. She adores rom-coms but doesn't see herself in them so when a competition comes up, she knows she has to make a rom-com with bi characters. The competition was pretty cute and I liked the way it ended as it felt very natural. Sophia, on the other hand, doesn't believe in love and is known for being anti-relationships. What they don't know is that she felt that way since her parents split up. We see her feeling very alone and coming back after being gone to Paris for one year is a little tough on her even though she tries to make it seem like her life there was amazing.

When both girls are at opposite sides, the rest of their friends figure out that they need to meddle in order to stop them from hating each other.. and while they lied, it worked and I loved every single moment after that. The flirtation was so freaking cute and I was living for it. The drama entertained me and it was a quick read, the perfect book for me at that time.


<i>(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley)

Reasons to pick this book up:

- f/f Rivals to lovers trope
- Loads of scheming friends (for a good cause!)
- Romantic cynic falling for a rom-com fangirl
- Loads of snarks and witty comebacks

Review:

“This could be my chance to tell the gay rom-com story of my heart, the kind I’ve never seen on-screen before, despite the hours of my life I’ve spent glued to the Netflix romantic comedy section, falling in love with the idea of love even as I yearned to see myself in the stories about it. Just because the straights in Hollywood don’t know how to tell my story doesn’t mean it’s not out there.”

The premise of this book is so enticing. A romantic cynic and a rom-com fangirl being somewhat coerced into shooting a film together for a film festival that rewards the winner with some awesome perks in pursuing film-related jobs in their future? And their mutual friends scheming to get those enemies to fall in love so they’ll stop bickering? Alex, I’ll take “gimme it” for five hundred.

Also, I’m going to be really honest with you and tell you that I’ve never read Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (I suffered enough at Uni, okay, I’m tired), so the references or plotlines based on that went over my head, but it didn’t take away any of my enjoyment. Besides, there’s so much drama and scheming in this, you can just imagine Shakespeare guzzling it all up just like I did.

The entire book is focused on Sophia’s and Emma’s seeming incompatibility. You’d think that Sophia is the unlikable character because she’s a cynic and uses every opportunity to harp on romance and the idea of true love. I don’t know whether it’s me getting old, but I actually really saw where she was coming from. Sophia’s heart’s been broken when her parents – who were always the most disgustingly in love couple – got divorced. After seeing such a seemingly solid relationship break apart, it’s easy to think that love is dead. Even though Sophia comes with a lot of barbs and snark, you can tell that she’s been hurt by this separation more than she lets on and it clouds her judgement on other people’s relationships.

Then we have Emma, the girl who’s in love with love. Even though she’s never had an epic romance herself, Emma loves romcoms (even though they don’t include bisexual people and thus never represent her) and helping her friends get the love they deserve. Indeed, much scheming in this book is to get her best friends to confess their love for the guys they’ve been crushing on and it makes for some hilarious drama when things go different than expected. Beyond that, Emma also struggles with coming out to her parents and escaping her solipsism. I found the portrayal of Emma so nostalgic in a way as I can remember being that young and realising how often I talked about myself, my interests, my struggles and even though Emma is aware of it and wants to change this self-focus, she has a hard time actually doing something about it – and I think that was a really relatable struggle. It’s easy wanting to change, but far more difficult to enact that change. Her emotional development takes time and instead of glossing over that harrowing process, Desombre makes it a known factor in how Emma deals with rejection, crushes and academic endeavours.

Despite Emma’s struggles, she wants to be someone who changes things in the movie industry, someone who will be a pioneer for bisexual representation so everyone can see themselves and believe they’re worthy of love, which just made me emotional again and again. The book’s strongest selling point is definitely the overarching discussion about LGBTQIAP+—and bisexual in particular—representation in media. So often bisexual people are portrayed as flighty or greedy, and Desombre here takes care to showcase that all Emma wants is to be represented, to see herself in media without being denounced to a stereotype. It’s an emotional and important message that will certainly resonate with readers.

Beyond that, Sophia’s and Emma’s romance arc was a lot to handle in this novel, since they come from such different stances on what love is and isn’t. It was fun watching them try to see the other’s perspective. The only thing that didn’t completely work for me was how quickly both Sophia and Emma accept that the other is in love with them when they overhear their friends commenting on it. I needed a bit more convincing to understand why these two people who seemingly hate each other and what they stand for suddenly act like they can’t say anything that would hurt the other’s feelings, when that’s literally all they set out to do in most conversations. While I think Kate (Emma’s cousin) would immediately go into full-on polite, friendly mode, I didn’t quite buy Emma and Sophia going down that road without any struggles. Despite that though, watching their romance unfold was riveting and there were some really cute moments (outdoor movie screening and they share a blanket, enough said) that warmed my heart.

With heaps of snark and scheming friends, I Think I Love You is a sweet, funny debut that juxtaposes romance lovers with romance cynics and shows that love, against all odds, always prevails.

This book was so full of wit and humour, with a highly entertaining cast of characters. I loved watching Sophia and Emma's relationship evolve from antagonistic beginnings to a sweet budding romance. A necessary f/f romcom for young readers.

I thought I was going to love this. I was ready to love this! And I ended up DNFing at 25%. I could not get over the main characters and didn't want to waste my time. I know that YA isn't made for me, a woman pushing 30, but this was so juvenile.It should have been kids going into high school, not getting ready for the last year of high school. I could definitely tell that this was a debut.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book. I didn’t love it as much as I wanted to, but I enjoyed it and think that a lot of people out there will love it. It uses Much Ado About Nothing as inspiration, and while it is in no way a definitive retelling, one can definitely match up the plot points and character types to the play.

This book was equal parts what I expected it to be and not at all what I thought it would be. I know, that sounds contradictory. But I swear, it’s the truth!

What I expected:
• A cute enemies-to-lovers romance à la Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing

What I did not expect:
• So much friend group drama! Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it and also see how it connects to Much Ado About Nothing. But. I just didn’t expect it because of the synopsis.

Other things I loved: Emma’s cat, Lady Catulet. Emma’s parents and their love of HGTV.
If you can’t tell, I preferred Emma over Sophia, but Sophia definitely grew on me by the end of the book once she opened up.

If you’re a movie lover looking for a feel good, enemies-to-lovers, sapphic romcom where both main characters explicitly state their sexualities (bisexual and lesbian), then this is for you!

Huge thank you to Netgalley and Underlined for the ARC!

This was cute but very slow and I lost interest about half way through becuase I could already tell where this was going. Some may really enjoy this but I didn’t love it.

We need more fun books for LGBTQIAP+ readers and this book definitely aims for that. However, the heterosexual romantic pairing gets more attention and development than the main character's relationship with another girl. It's a let down given how the novel is positioned.

I like that this was a rom-com where the character makes a rom-com movie, cute idea!
Emma is a romantic, her parents have a great relationship and she's on the lookout for her own meet cute. Sophia doesn't believe in love after her parent's relationship imploded and her mom remarried, leaving Sophia behind. Each girl has her own idea for a short film and the constant arguing creates a rift in their friend group. This starts off rumors of crushes, some sabotage, and two girls finding love.

This was really easy to dive into, it has a cute plot, fun characters, and great pacing. I liked the alternating points of view of Emma and Sophia and watching the girls overcome fears and open up to love. Their friends made good side characters and I especially liked Kate and Tom's relationship. I do wish the films had a bigger part, but Emma's movie was sort of her real life so it's okay.

The ending was well done, I thought the film contest played out just as it should have. I'm glad I had a chance to read this adorable LGBTQ romance!

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

This was such a cute story! It absolutely delivered on the rom-com shenanigans front, and there were some really nice slightly-meta (but very natural in the story) moments about how rom-coms as a whole are very straight, and how important representation is.

As generally light and happy as this book is, its biggest strengths were its more serious moments. Two major subplots are Emma considering coming out to her parents and Sophie dealing with the aftermath of her parents' divorce. Both were done beautifully, and each had some heartwarming moments that really hit home.

The main thing that I wanted a bit more from was the development of the supporting characters. Emma and Sophie's friends play a large part in the book, but they're all fairly one-dimensional.

I think that this would be a lot of fun for someone who was more familiar with Much Ado About Nothing. I know enough about it to be able to draw some parallels, but I'm sure there's plenty of things that I missed!

Final verdict: if you're a fan of sapphic books, rom-coms, Shakespeare retellings, enemies-to-lovers, and/or movies, pick this one up!

This was a sweet, breezy read about family, friendship and first loves. I liked the exploration of the relationships (good and bad) between the core group of friends, and their respective romances.

Emma believes in big romantic love, Sophia believes that love is fake and only ends in heartbreak. They hate each other. This story is about Sophia coming home from a year abroad and entering into a friend group that has lived on without her. To make it worse, her relationship with Emma is just as strained and bitter as ever. Emma who finds out about a film competition through her school that could help with her film career, rallies her friends to join her. Until Sophia comes in and ruins it all. With a healthy dose of matchmaking and scheming, I Think I Love you contains wonderful amounts of romcom tropes and while the relationships and action might be predictable, it doesn’t change how cute and heartwarming it is. I loved that the friends’ lives were not dropped off or forgotten, I love that the parents had a prominent role, and I love that it was messy and cute just like love is. I think there is a good use of setting examples of good and bad behavior and how to confront people, and I think this book addresses a lot of things that young readers are experiencing. But I think the most special thing about this book is that it’s for the queer kids who just want to see themselves reflected in the media they consume. A book about a proud bisexual girl is unbelievably amazing and it deserves to be read by all of the out, in, and questioning people.

*Spoiler warning*

I was really looking forward to this one, and most of it was great. I mean, two girls who make short films? Sounds like the perfect book to me. And I related a lot to both of the narrators: I'm somehow both a never-been-kissed romantic like Emma and the bitter friend who has to see relationships all around me.
But there was too much to simply overlook. I guess I don't know what I was expecting from a book that's basically about rom-com movies, but there were SO many tropes that would never actually happen, and it ruined the otherwise cute story. First, Emma and Sophia only start to like each other because their friends lie to each of them about how the other one likes them. This would've been cute if they didn't react to the "reveal" in the way that they did. Both of them completely overreact, especially Emma, who is now 100% sure that Sophia never even liked her, even though it is obvious that she did. Anyone with half a brain cell could figure out the timeline of how their feelings developed, but Emma didn't even question it. Did I mention that this is their SECOND "fight" in the story? The first one is almost equally as overdone, with Emma and Sophia using each other's biggest insecurities. Maybe that would happen, because I have been in similar situations, but the second one would NEVER HAPPEN. People don't just run away before they can hear the other person's side. (Seriously, if I have to read the phrase "stormed off" one more time, I'm giving up on romance stories.) And Emma's friends didn't even try to help her later on. I could go on forever about this, but basically: It's 2020, almost 2021. Can we stop with romance plots that start with a secret, and can we PLEASE stop writing these completely unrealistic "misunderstandings?" There's even a line said by a character in this book that's something like, "Why does there have to be drama? Relationships with all this drama are never fun to be in." It was in the context of Emma's movie, and it was essentially self-aware.
The last book I read before this was Sunkissed by Kasie West, and I wrote in my review of that one how annoying it was to see the same plot structure over and over again. But at least in that book, THEY ACTUALLY WON THEIR COMPETITION.

ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS? We've got multiple misunderstandings, one character framing another for sabotaging the group, and they DIDN'T EVEN WIN THE FESTIVAL?
One of them says something about how it doesn't even matter, that the "experience" was what really mattered. REALLY? Emma wanted to win that with EVERYTHING she had. Film was her passion, and her parents didn't even think it was a good idea. I know that they still had two more years of high school left, so they could enter again next year, but I'm SO FUCKING TIRED of competition-related stories with a bullshit "we didn't win, but that doesn't matter" message. Especially with Emma's whole reasoning about why she made the movie: to see bi girls represented on screen. This is mentioned SO many times. And all of that was for nothing? What kind of a message is that- "important representation will never win?" She talks about how she wants to see happy endings, but this is nowhere near a happy ending? And don't come at me with any replies about how it was actually more "meaningful" for them not to win. IT WASN'T. IN ANY WAY. If anything, that was bad representation. (Not that Emma is bad representation, just the ending and how it went against all of her messages.) Having your characters not win is WAY more overdone than having them win.

It sounds like I totally hated this book, but I promise I didn't. I actually read a short story by this author in the anthology Together, Apart, and it was really cute and I'd definitely read more of her work. And the majority of the book, maybe a little over the first half, was really good, considering that it was a fairly slow-burn romance. And I really liked the main characters, even though I started with Emma as my favorite and ended with Sophia as my favorite. I guess most of my annoyances with romance books just spilled out into this review.

I Think I Love You was the sweet sapphic Rom-Com that I needed. It was one of my most anti it books and it did not disappoint. The characters were well written and so easy to root for.

This book wasn't entirely my thing, the friends in it were pretty bad for lying to the main leads about the others' feelings and I honestly couldn't let that fly by. However, it's still a pretty cute and nice book to read.

Cute bisexual girl and lesbian fall in love story? Sign me up. I have to say...all of their heterosexual friends kind of blended together for me, and there was way more of them in the story than I thought was needed. So many side stories. Also, I admit that I found both main characters to be annoying at times, but I do appreciate the opposites attract idea they went with. Overall, a fine, fun story where no wlw characters die or have awful endings, but it could have had more.

This book was...not what I was hoping.

The story follows high school students Emma and Sophia as they play matchmaker with their friends while each attempting to produce a short film for a competition. Despite their opposing views on love, they begin to realize that maybe the hate they felt for one another was just hiding the true feelings underneath.

There were a lot of things that irked me about this book. Characters threw around the word "love" with a level of casualness that real teenagers would never use. People who have literally just gone on their first date are not in love and no high school student would say that they are. Desombre used the phrase "my stomach bottomed out" enough times that it began to get on my nerves, and every character felt cartoonishly flat. Kate is sunshiny and nice, Matt is evil, Sophia hates love and is generally pessimistic, Emma is a hopeless romantic, Myrah is obsessed with Peter. The entire story just felt... underdeveloped.

That being said, I did enjoy a few parts of it - the process of making the movies reminded me a lot of film class in high school (especially how crappy the film ended up being) and many of the cute date scenes succeeded in being cute. But these things do not balance out the others.

There are so many other cute romcoms out there (and f/f ones to boot: I'd recommend The Falling in Love Montage or You Should See Me in a Crown for similarish books with way more depth of character and plot)

What a fun, diverse retelling—I'm a sucker for a new spin on Shakespeare, and this rivals-to-lovers romance did not disappoint!