Romance is All About Tropes (That's Why We Like It!)

A lot of people judge romantic novels. They believe them to be less intelligent or less renowned. But there's a reason why society likes it when two people defy expectations and fall in love!

Whenever I read a romantic story like the coming of age novel It Sounded Better In My Head by Nina Kenwood, I forget all my fears about reading romantic novels. It Sounded Better In My Head was invigorating, inspiring, and warm. It both put me back into the world I lived in inside my head as a teenager and had me shouting out loud in joy from my apartment as a twenty-something when Alex had to share a bed with Natalie. It's not a trope so much as it is a classic. And classics never get old.

Synopsis:
Natalie, Zach, and Lucy are students in their final year of high school in Australia. They have the normal problems: relationships, universities, jobs, and parents. But everything comes with a twist! Zach and Lucy's relationship problems are with each other. Natalie's parents problems are happening (unfortunately) very separately from one another. Add in a complicated new beau for Natalie and his complicated job (that his parents hate!) with a beach trip and its a recipe for a book that will keep you up all night.

What I Loved:
Character Development:
It was empowering for 23 year old Jem and 16 year old Jem to watch Natalie find her voice and go after what she wanted. Both for her career, her love life, and her relationship with her parents. My heart wanted to sing for any teenagers reading this novel because the author perfectly embodied the insecurity that comes with being young and being so aware of yourself. The book also served to negate any misconceptions that what you're insecure about as a teenager is invalid. It may not be true, but that doesn't make it less valid.

Young Love:
Watching two people fall in love is unbelievably beautiful. It's amazing to read about the relationship unfold. This is what makes a novel that's a little more light and fluffy worth it, you get to engage in the relationship with them (with no risk!).

Spoiler Alert!

What I Wanted More From:
The Ending:
I wonder how Alex and Natalie's relationship will progress as they go to "Uni" or how Lucy will like her teaching degree. Will Lucy and Zach decide to go long distance? I have questions and I am hoping for a sequel!

Intercharacter Relationships:
As much as I love Alex and Natalie's relationship from a romance reader's perspective, I wonder about the logistics of their personalities working together in the long term. Natalie is insecure and clearly has a nervous attachment style, while Alex seems to avoid his issues. Can people change? Of course. But it is hard to be young. Just another answer for the sequel...

This was a great book that brought me back to high school. Both in the ways of insecurity and the beautiful feeling of falling in love for the first time. Was it the most realistic read? Maybe not, but I can't say that made me like it any less. Final rating is 5/6 coffee cups.

This was okay. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve read things similar before or what but while part of me decently enjoyed this book, I also felt pretty meh about it.

In this story we follow a girl named Natalie who’s life to some capacity is falling apart. Her parents announced they are getting divorced, her friends have started dating each other which is a little weird, and she’s dealing with insecurities about her body.

Natalie is a pretty relatable main character. She struggles with loving herself based on the way she looks. She struggled with an acne problem which I found unique as I rarely if ever hear a character talk about acne at all when that is a very normal thing. However, we didn’t get some well rounded conclusion of her loving herself, but we know she’s on her way to getting to that point.

The characters in this book were really great. It was one of those rare instances where I enjoyed reading about the side relationship between Lucy and Zach because they were pretty cute and I’m also a sucker for a friends to lovers relationship, even if it’s not with the protagonist.

The relationship was pretty cute as well. While I did decently like it, I also just felt meh about the whole thing. It might just be the way this was marketed but I felt like the romance was a smaller part to the story than I was expecting which is fine but I went into this expecting a bit more.

The overall story felt like it dragged a bit the more close we got to the ending. It came to the point where I had little left of the book and I wasn’t sure if I cared enough to see what happened to the characters in the end.

Overall, I decently enjoyed it for the most part but not to the extent I would’ve liked to. It kind of felt like something I’d read before and wasn’t quite in the mood to read, I would definitely recommend this for fans up The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli.

I've got conflicting emotions about this book. I liked many things about it like for example the writing it was fun and smart and honest very honest. The characters were well drawn and the relationship between all of them was great but the main issue I had with the book was about the Main Couple and their romantic relationship, I just don't think those two were compatible, just didn't care whenever something was happening between them. This book was more like a contemporary fiction or women's fiction, I don't know, I don't think it's like any other American YA novel I've ever read. This was good but I just didn't care for the romance between Alex and Natalie. Another good thing was how the author handle the MC struggle with acne, one of my Best friend struggled with this too and the experiences portrayed here reminded me of the stories my friend share with me, that's what I said this book was honest. I'm interested in reading more from this author.

The blurb sounded good, but perhaps the book itself fell a bit short of living up to my expectations. There are times when I enjoyed it, and times when I skipped a few pages.
A three star read for me.

The cover is beautiful! I really like it very much. It immediately caught my attention and made me curious. I am disappointed with the action. I couldn't get excited and unfortunately I found it boring, which is why I couldn't read the book completely. The protagonist is funny and likeable, but she couldn't motivate me to continue reading.

This book was a solid 3-star book for me. My enjoyment of the story fluctuated throughout my reading of it. I started out not really connecting with our main character and this honestly frustrated me a little bit. However, I did find this book to be super entertaining and fun to read. I mean, I did read it two sittings after all. I think this book did everything it intended to do, while also tackling some heavier topics throughout. Although, I found some of the insecurities that the main character to be a bit "hammered in" at times and triggering to be quite honest. The length to which she talks about the problems she has with her self-confidence made me feel self-conscious just reading about it. Which is the main reason why this book became a 3-star book for me instead of a 4-star.

The YA romance It Sounded Better in My Head by Nina Kenwood is the perfect book for the # challenge because this book has already been released into the world and after reading it in almost one sitting, wish I had gotten to it sooner. The good news? You don’t have to wait to pick up a copy!

On Christmas Day, the parents of only-child Natalie announce they’re getting divorced, a secret they’ve been keeping for almost the entire year. She’s shocked. She didn’t the signs. Not like the ones she picked up on when her two best (and only) friends, Zach and Lucy, fell in love in front of her and started dating without consulting her. Natalie still wrestles with wondering why Zach didn’t choose her. The three, still thick as thieves, are planning to go to Uni together, but they’re nervous as they wait for their college placement letters. Things go a little haywire when Natalie starts to notice Zach’s older brother Alex. Can their tight-knit friendship of three withstand romance and uncertain futures.

Natalie is my favorite kind of YA heroine. An insecure hot mess. She’s scarred both literally and figuratively from terrible adolescent acne, she’s barely been kissed, and Zach and Lucy are her only friends outside of her parents. Natalie was really funny and very relatable, plus I hate a perfect heroine. Which is why I strongly prefer this version of the cover where Natalie isn’t featured as a size 0.

The book had long passages of backstory that were interesting, but kind of derailed the forward momentum. I loved Natalie’s conversations with Alex and they had lovely chemistry, but, and this is one of my biggest romance gripes, I needed a moment to really understand why they picked each other. Also, some of Natalie’s freak outs with Alex, while believable, were a little over the top. And there was a lot of acne inner monologue.
All of that said, if you like funny, quirky contemporary romance with strong themes about friendship, I highly recommend this one. I think representation of imperfect heroines is so important.

Thank you to @, @netgalley , and the author ¬for providing me with an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I read this in one day. It was really good! I really liked Alex. I thought the relationship had good build up, and I liked them almost instantly when they were chatting at the party. It felt very conventional, the storyline was fairly predictable and like most other teenaged romcoms, but it was still really sweet, and I still really enjoyed it. I liked the pacing and the flow of the characters. Natalie felt real, despite feeling like other girl-next-door type characters, but I understood her struggles, and she was quite likeable.

This book was a quick, cute read. A little predictable, but that's really what I was expecting it to be. I would definitely recommend this book to any older teen that is just getting into reading.

As a young woman who had to overcome her own insecurities I found the book really enjoyable. I also thought how Natalie handled how she felt about her body was realistic to how a young woman would feel. Actually a lot of this book felt so realistic it was like being at the end of high school again. Though I do know teenages to be over dramatic I felt there were spots were Natalie was WAY too over the top. Especially the part in her room with Alex and the part at the fluro party. I also felt like this had a lot of filler and not enough meat to the story. It was enjoyable. It talked about issues you don't see in YA novels. But it was missing something for me. It needed more something. Maybe if I wasn't a 30 something year old I would have connected more. But this was Nina Kenwood's debut and it was good. I'll be on the look out for her other books for sure.

I have conflicting feelings about this book because there are some parts that I do like but there are unfortunate more parts I did not like. I think the overall premise of the story was good and very typical for a young adult novel. However, although it tried to be better than it was the reality is that this book was not impressive at all. I do believe this novel had the potential to be good if it wasn’t so rushed in some parts and the characters were better developed. I had to force myself to read this book because it was so disappointing. The story started slow and doesn’t really get much better. I will admit there are some cute and funny parts but not enough for me to give this book a higher rating.
We follow our main character Natalie who is an introvert as she tries to come out of her ugly shell, she just finished school and is waiting for an acceptance letter to the local university. Ever since Natalie hit puberty she has had it rough because puberty was not kind to her at all because of this she developed some serious body issues. Puberty hits everyone differently sure but to be constantly reminded of this fact become annoying quick. You’re beat over the head every few pages about how Natalie had bad skin which resulted in her becoming an introvert. Many people can relate to body issues I for one can relate to that since growing up I had severe eczema. It’s rare to find a book that talks about teen acne in YA fiction, so I appreciate how the author wanted readers to really understand Natalie’s struggles with her body.
While Natalie was hiding out in her house being an introvert she concentrated on her studies. She is a confused character that does not know what she wants out of life. Throughout school she concentrated on her studies not because she wanted to be the best, no.no. no.. She did it because she had nothing else to do and she wanted to prove she could. Her career path is liberal arts because she doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life. Her two best friends however, know exactly what they want to do with their lives which I think she is envious about.
The supporting characters added no depth to the story. They were just there as third wheels to the story. Everything was rushed and had no clear connections. Especially the relationship Natalie has with her best friends brother. The relationship honestly came out of left field like the author remembered she was writing a YA fantasy and needed a romance to drive the story. I would have liked to see more of how Natalie over came being an introvert, body issues and more of her friendship as oppose to the quick love story. Again this story had the potential to be great but sadly it fell short. I strongly encourage anyone who is a fan of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before to read this book and give your thoughts.
Thank you to Flatironbooks and Netgalley for allowing me to read this in advance in exchange for my honest opinion.

Well damn, I really enjoyed this one!
Partly because Natalie is me. The overthinker, introvert, self-conscious one with a skin obsession.
I totally recognized myself in her (she's like my twin sister in most aspects?) and some of her struggles, which is probably why I breezed through this.

I feel like the story was a bit lost on me though. There wasn't that much character development. It's not like she suddenly got a confidence boost (which happens in most of these tropey ya stories) and the ending felt a bit rushed.
Still giving this 4 stars because I did love all of the side characters though.

I flew though this book! It was super cute and funny and just the perfect thing to read when it's hard to focus on reading much else than a lighter contemporary romance due to covid19 anxiety. I really loved the easy to read writing style. Natalie was enjoyably dramatic and I laughed out loud several times while reading. I'd love to read other books from this author and would recommend this book to anyone looking for a cute ya romance.

Oh man, this book. It was such a feel good YA romance. I really enjoyed the characters. It had a very opposites attract feeling and those are some of my favorite troupes. The writing was smooth and easy to follow.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Everyone was being like " Wow, this book is amazing! " "This is so cute! " "Fluffiest Contemporary Ever! " and you know what,

It is.

I picked this up on a whim. I didn't really read the synopsis or read any review of it ( or I have but I just being forgetful ). I managed to squeeze this one into my reading schedule so I'm very glad I did.

A love story of an introvert girl, Natalie, had been struggling with her skin condition and her insecurity and confidence. Getting her love life with her best friend's big brother. Well that's just awkward.

The plot was super fast you don't even feel burdened. It's actually really suitable for a one sitting read. And the content is not really heavy. You can actually enjoy this at any place you go. The characters are also really fun and relatable. You don't even have to struggle to remember their characteristics. They are kind of the cast of some teen TV shows.

I really enjoy reading this, and now I want more. The storyline did end well but you'll crave for more. By the way, I can't help but wanting for Alex as a boyfriend. He is like a better person of the past him and willing to start over. That's what we want ( or at least I want ) Also, there are some hilarious parts I still can't stop laughing from them. And the awkward parts also keep me in the cringe. But they are entertaining!

Honestly, I don't know what else to say about this book. All you need to know is it's a total amazing! Just read it and you know what I'm saying! ❤

Rating : 4.5 / 5 🌟

This was the third book I was reading on my night shift and I could not put it down. I loved it so much that when I got home, I decided to finish it instead of sleeping. Talk about a relatable protagonist.

Natalie's parents announce they are divorcing on Christmas Day. To add insult to injury, they have been separated for ten months and hadn't told her. She is waiting for her uni results to find out if she and her friends are going to get into the uni they want and she's feeling a little left out about her two best friends who are now dating. She starts to like someone but it's very confusing, especially since he's her first boyfriend.

I loved this book. Natalie is so relatable in everything she says. She is self-centred and anxious and wanting to be confident and failing dreadfully and I just love her to bits. One of the things she is the most insecure about is her skin. She has severe acne caused by polycystic ovaries, which is only controlled by steroid injections and medications and she has been made aware that at any time her skin could return to the painful, incredibly visible acne she had when she first entered puberty. I also have bad skin (though thankfully not at her level) and this book perfectly captures what it is like to always be thinking about it. The way people think you're dirty and don't wash your face, the way your hormones can cause your skin to break out whenever it wants, the way people recommend you things to give your skin clear when you already have a treatment that works fine, thanks. It was so relatable when she was talking about how insecure she was now about her skin and about her friends, who she met after she started treatment and sort of latched onto. I just really, really loved Natalie's talk about the mental effects of such a condition, especially when you are at such a vulnerable time in your life anyway.

Another thing I mentioned was Natalie being self-centred. I don't mean selfish really, because she does care and worry about her friends and family, but she does worry about how things are going to impact her, like her parents' divorce and her best friends dating each other. It's not a bad thing and Natalie does learn to think more about how other people are coping with things as the book goes on, but it's another thing I found very realistic because I know I was like that as a teenager and I know I was not the only one. This narration in Natalie's head felt like actual narration, rather than the sanitised version we like to present to the world.

For the plot itself - Natalie getting her first boyfriend and finding out her uni results (and what exactly was the plan for the next part of her life), I found it very enjoyable. When Natalie started to like the boy (who I won't name because it is a bit of a spoiler), it was messy and uncoordinated, for both of them, and I loved seeing them get to know each other properly over the course of the book. The boy has his own worries and while he has different experience to Natalie, he is supportive in a way that felt natural, rather than someone reciting lines they should say.

I just really loved this book and yes, I will probably buy a finished copy.

5 stars!

First of all thanks to @netgalley and @text_publishing for the ARC of that book!
In the story, we accompany Natalie, an 18-year-old Scorpio who suddenly receives news of her parents' separation on Christmas Eve. The news falls like a bomb in her head and suddenly, she has to deal not only with her own feelings, but also with those of her parents. And she used to like Zach - who is now, like, totally inaccessible - until she met his brother, Alex. But is Natalie able to let down the guard she has kept for so long?
.
🐨The coolest thing about Nina's writing is Natalie's humor and neuras (ranging from how an 18-year-old girl should behave to her normal ... anyway). I laughed a lot with her AI MY GOD moments, and it's such a short book that you can read it in a day or two. I really liked how the author treated her self-esteem too, the protagonist had certain dilemmas with her appearance that I found very credible and well built. The only thing that bothered me was Natie's stubbornness and resistance, there were times when I was like, WOMAN, ENJOYED! 🤣🤣 But of course, it all contributed to a fun reading and that I recommend a lot

Thanks, Netgalley & Flatiron Books for the ARC!

This one was cute! If I had been in high school, I probably would have LOVED this book! But I think because there isn't really a ... plot? It's a story about growing up and falling in love and just being a teen... which is great! I just didn't relate to it as a 20something reader. It was super cute and I read it in an embarrassingly short amount of time. I appreciated that Natalie was so freaking awkward & it gave me real the Edge of Seventeen vibes.

Overall I'm super stoked I was able to read this one even if I couldn't relate as a reader!

Story 🌟🌟🌟
Did you ever hear about the story where the girl falls in love with her best friends older brother? That’s exactly what happened here.

Natalie is the typical anxiety filled teenager. She had pretty bad acne in her early teens and is now slowly, slowly recovering from it. One night she’s invited to a party, but even though it’s a total disaster, there is one good thing. Her best friends Zacks older brother Alex, who looks out for her and kisses her on the cheek.
From then on she can’t stop thinking about it.
And him.
Even though I enjoyed it a bit, I thought it was lacking story and depth. It was nearly too simple.

Character 🌟🌟🌟
This was a cute story that reminded me a bit of my own teenage time.
I was also pretty much filled with a lot of thoughts and was overthinking constantly.
That’s why I liked Natalie so much. She felt kind of relatable.
Even though I liked the other characters, like Alex, Zack or Lucy, I think they were a little bit bland.

Relationships 🌟🌟🌟
I don’t really now what to say. I liked the friendship between Zack Lucy and Natalie.
They were supportive and kind to each other.
Then there was this... something between Alex and Natalie, that felt quite rushed but also kind of cute. I didn’t really feel the connection, but it was still nice to see it turn out so sweetly.

Writing style 🌟🌟🌟
Most of the time this short book was character driven by Natalies anxiety thoughts and panic driven overthinking.
The short chapters made the reading even faster and pushed the plot a little bit faster forward.

I’m not sure what to think of this Book.
I enjoyed it a bit, but it also felt rushed and too short and kind of lacking plot.

I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed hearing the story from Natalie’s point of view. You hear her thoughts, worries and insecurities. I felt it was well written. Some parts drug on but all in all I enjoyed it.