I liked the premise of this book but the main characters could not hold my attention. This didn’t have the same fun and lightheartedness as Frankly in Love.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Teen for this eARC! I’m a HUGE fan of Fankly In Love and so I wanted to love this one, but I just couldn’t get into the language. It was trying a little too hard to be different, or specifically a certain way and it just couldn’t hold my attention, and kept pulling me out of the story, preventing me from connecting to any of the characters. I think if you enjoy the stylistic language choice he uses you would really love this book, but it just wasn’t for me.

Super Fake Love Song is a great YA rom-com but it was also so much more than that. To start off we have a great cast of diverse characters. Our main character Sunny is Korean-American, and through his perspective got a glimpse into how he dealt with stereotypes and discrimination. We also had such a great network of relationships in this book. Sunny not only deals with romantic love in this book but also the concept of family and friendship. We see the dynamic connections between his brother and how he idolized him when he was younger, while also seeing the comparison of present day struggles. What I loved was that in this book we didn't just see the parents once, but on multiple occasions, in fact what they do and how Sunny feels unsupported is a critical part of his character. His friends Milo and Jamal are also amazing! They had a true banter that reminded me of when I talk to my friends, and their loyalty was heartwarming.

While there was amazing relationships between Sunny and those around him, we also looked at the relationship Sunny had with himself. I'm so happy to say that while Sunny did change himself to impress someone else he also did not completely change, he still kept his passion for the things he loved and that was something that was really important to me. What was also interesting was how this new lifestyle became another addition of him that he loved. Seeing his journey of confidence was very moving in a way. The writing made for a very quick read, however I wish at some points that certain scenes could have been longer. I feel like that would have let me get a deeper connection to the other characters.

The music aspect of this book was awesome! I had a lot of fun with the band references and the introduction of lyrics and music notes and chords. Music is a big part of my life and I think that definitely connected me to the story more. The romance in this book was also very sweet. Cirrus and Sunny are so cute together and the development of their relationship was entertaining. Overall this book had a very genuine feel, I had a "super" fun time reading it!

I've picked up and put down Super Fake Love Song many times. I wanted to like this book as I thought the premise looked like a lot of fun. Sunny Dae is the protagonist 'nerd' fo the book. But, I truly grew tired of the word nerd as the book progressed. Alright already, we get it!And the ongoing bullying in school in front of the student body and I must think teachers as well is disturbing. He makes some bad choices, well lies really, that trip him up by the end.

What had me giving up at about 100 pages in and skipping to the end of the book to see how it all played out was Sunny's voice. Much of the dialogue is in his head. And I have to say he has a very busy brain. He's just as verbal in person. And this will sound odd, but he was just tooooo noisy for me. I found my initial impression of Sunny (which was good) turning the other way. I did like sidekicks Jamal and Milo. Love interest Cirrus was written too cool to be believable IMO.

I found many of the 'funny' situations to be anything but. Yoon does tackle issues such as being true to yourself, but they got lost for me in the busyness of the book. Familial relations are covered as well - I thought the parents were overdone as well.

I'm going to go with a middle ground passing grade three stars for this book as I did skip the middle. Just not a good fit with this reader.

Super Fake Love Song by David Yoon 🎶

Thank you @penguinteen for sharing this eARC with me as a #penguinteenpartner via @netgalley. Super Fake Love Song is out now! ✨

First, please check out the amazing #ownvoices reviews from some of my favorite bookstagrammers, @theshriekingstack and @readingmountains. Their reviews are always perfectly accurate and I love to read all of their posts. 🤍

Super Fake Love Song is a fun, contemporary teen romcom filled with wacky shenanigans and zany adventures. Sunny Dae, a bit of a nerd who enjoys dabbling in DIY Fantasy FX with his friends Milo and Jamal, gets mistaken by the cool Cirrus Soh as being an equally cool rock musician. Sunny decides to continue this lie with the help of his friends and their new fake band in order to impress Cirrus, and his life will never be the same.

Stories that feature miscommunications like this usually stress me out as I wait for the secrets to be revealed over the course of the book. However, Yoon filled the plot with enough humorous, interesting, and layered substance about different aspects of identity that it was worth the stress for me. My biggest concern was that while Sunny had a wonderful character arc with growth and development over the course of the book’s events, Cirrus, the main love interest, lacked any real depth or personality that had me rooting for the romance. Ultimately, Super Fake Love Song is a classic young adult romance that ticks all the boxes, and I recommend it for fans of the genre. We need more YA books out there featuring people of color as main characters and romantic leads, and I hope a lot of young readers pick up a copy and see themselves reflected in Yoon’s characters.

I wanted to love this book but I never got there. The book felt very much like it was all style with very little substance. I never felt like I got to know any of the characters and I never cared about them. Also, the writing is trying to be very clever and very quirky but it comes off as muddled. The only positives were the diverse characters and the fact that it is a romance book told from a teen boy's perspective.

One of my favorite "fake dating" books, I love the trope, and I think this book pulls it off super well. It's such a cute romance story, not too heavy, and such a good read to get you out of a slump. The characters are endearing, and you will find yourself rooting for them the whole time. I heavily recommend and enjoyed this book;

When I read the premise for this book, I knew I would either like it or be turned completely off by the lying aspect. Instead, I found myself drawn to the story to see how the lie pans out and turning the page to see what happened next!

First off, the humor and writing style in this book had me cracking up more times than I can count. I loved the witty comments, the nerdy side of the boys, and the friendships that bloomed throughout their journey.

Secondly, I really enjoyed the underlying moral messages that were written in the story. I think many, especially those in middle/high school, are going to relate to this story in the sense of understanding the pressure to fit in. Although Sunny lied about his true self initially, he definitely evolved by the end of it, and was able to better identify himself and be more comfortable with who he was.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable read! Although the main character lied for the majority of the book, I really enjoyed the story. It was an easy read full of laughs, friendship, young love, and acceptance. I will definitely be reading his other novels as I had such a fun time reading this!

Sunny Dae has been classified as a nerd since he transferred to Rancho Ruby. When Cirrus Soh moves to the area and mistakenly thinks Sunny is a rockstar, he finds himself going along with the lie to impress her. As the lie progresses, Sunny realizes this might be his chance to be one of the cool kids, and he’s actually starting to enjoy it. Along Sunny’s journey to become the rockstar Cirrus thinks he is, he realizes that not everyone is who they appear to be and finds friends in unlikely places, all the while discovering who he truly is.

I sadly didn’t love the main character, Sunny, which is why I’m not giving this book a higher rating. I just didn’t enjoy the way that he treated other people. I loved his friendship with Jamal and Milo, but they treated him so much better than he treated them. I will say that Sunny did evolve quite a bit throughout the book, and I started to like him a lot more toward the end. I think my favorite characters might have been Cirrus and Gray. I would love to one day read about their lives!

I thought this book was a really fun and quick read, while still having a lot of good moral lessons to it. As I said above, I would really love to see David Yoon write books about Cirrus and Gray. After reading Super Fake Love Song, I definitely plan to pick up Frankly in Love and I will be watching for his future books!

Overall: This is a romcom that may not have the tropes for everyone.

Pros:
The romcom feel to this book. Like this book feels like it is meant to be a romantic comedy.
The writing. I guess it was obvious by the first point, but I was a fan of how the story was told. David Yoon crafted a story that clearly is designed to hit those teen feels.

Cons:
There is a huge lying element to this story. Even the synopsis is clear on that. However, that element lasts a lot longer than I felt was necessary.

Ugh, I hate this.....
I wanted to love it because Frankly In Love was a favorite of mine last year and I told everyone about it and told them they needed to read it.
The boys are in high school and aged 17 but I felt they talked like they were maybe 14 when talking to each other.
I was hoping the romance would be great but it wasn't as fully explored as it could have been and not as fulfilling as it could have been.

THIS BOOK IS OUT TODAY SO YOU BETTER GO GET IT AND READ IT!!!!! I had the pleasure of reading this book early thanks to @penguinteen and it was absolutely incredible!! David Yoon has such a wonderful writing style that drew me in from the first page. I was worried that this book wouldn’t carry as many important themes and I wouldn’t like it as much because the premise isn’t as serious as Frankly in Love, but David Yoon doesn’t disappoint! I totally fell for Sunny and Gray and was so attached to their friends that I felt like I was losing friends when the book ended. Anyways, in all the time you spent reading this review you could’ve been ordering this book at your local bookstore!! Go do that now
https://www.instagram.com/p/CHsWeoLgsE9/?igshid=kfd1p51w6srm

My second book by David Yoon, and I'm even more impressed by this one than I was with Frankly in Love! I love that his characters are unabashed nerds, and Sunny is no different. He's so instantly loveable, and who doesn't relate to pretending to be something you aren't in high school?

Get ready to stage dive into an utterly addictive YA contemporary that's the book equivalent of a teen pop-culture movie.

Sunny doesn't fit in at his high school and struggles with the nerd-label he's been dealt. New girl Cirrus is cool and confident, and since she doesn't know about Sunny's nerd-status, Sunny jumps at the chance to reinvent himself. There's only one problem, the rock band Sunny and his two best friends conjure up is entirely -- fake. While reading this, you're very much waiting for all the air-guitar castles to blow up in Sunny's face. I mean, how can he possibly maintain the rock star facade? While reading this, you very much cannot stop yourself from turning the page. And just when you expect the overall relationship dynamics to go one way -- prepare to be surprised in the most heartwarming of ways. The friendships in this book are goals and show that, at the end of the day, it's loyal friends that lead your life along the right way (with some scenic detours, of course).

Sunny Dae is smart, hilarious, caring, and a total nerd who didn’t mean to create an identity that wasn’t him at all but did so because of the new girl Cirrus. This is a charming young romance read. It brings me back to the old days where you mostly see the popular kids and the nerdy ones, and everyone is trying to fit in. I enjoyed the multicultural diversity of this book, and it is a simple and straight to the point way of teaching a valuable lesson to our young readers and also the grown-up ones who sometimes tend to forget to “Love and accept who you truly are, and people will see how special you are.” The characters are hysterical and also marvelous. The book tackles love, friendship, relationship, and the value of self-love and acceptance. I enjoyed reading it!

Thank you so much Penguin Teen / Penguin Young Readers for my review copy in exchanged for my unbiased review!

me, for their quirky romances, clean and wholesome, relatable awkwardness, and completely likable characters!

Super Fake Love Song sounded super familiar, and I feel like the premise of the story has been seen before, in movies and other books maybe. The confusion of identity, the rolling with it for ‘love’. David Yoon’s approach is very modern take, and it works!!

Written in first person narrative (my favorite) gives the reader an opportunity to connect with the characters through a more unique (much better) perspective. *Give me first person narrative any day! I Love it!

Although the topic of this novel is romance, with the awkwardness and first time feels of it, friendship, and family has a very strong presence, and I loved that.

It’s a wonderful read all around, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a feel good contemporary romance. Filled with humor, smiles, and good lessons.

This book was amazing, and brightened my day! I thought that it had the perfect mix of humorous and emotional moments. All of the characters felt very well fledged out, and I fell in love with them all! Additionally, I loved the way the book dived into the themes of identity and being "fake". Overall, I'd highly recommend this novel to my friends, and think that It's an amazing contemporary!

*Thanks to Penguin for approving this arc, you're the best!

I loved this story because of the:
-witty, quick speech and dialogue
-throwback to 80s rock and movies, it felt like a better throwback to "Can't Buy Me Love" but with a diverse cast!
-I love the diversity and the way Sunny comes into his own and starts to realize self worth other than being stuck in his little brother's shadow.
-I always feel awkward about the "lying to impress a girl" but it worked out!

I can't wait to read what else David Yoon has in store for the YA audience!

Super Fake Love Song takes on a lot lighter and more romcom feel than Frankly in Love. (And when I say romcom, I do actually mean it.) Even though there's this twisting feeling in your gut for the big reveal of Sunny's secret (as he fakes being in a rock band with his best friends based on a miscommunication ten minutes into when Sunny met the love interest Cirrus), Super Fake Love Song still has that joking, silly feeling that Yoon gives his characters' voices.

I am 29% in and I have been forcing myself to read this and I can’t do it anymore. I haven’t been able to connect to the characters or the story at all. This makes so sad because I love David Yoon! I will eventually come back and try to read it again because I hate to DNF any book.