📚 SHE DRIVES ME CRAZY is a sapphic enemies to lovers fake dating romcom. Honestly, what I would have given to have books with premises like this available when I was younger!
📚 I enjoyed watching Scottie and Irene go from fake power couple to real power couple - remember in high school how who was dating who was SOOO important!?
📚 While the book is full of hijinks, it also covers some real, heavy stuff too. I do think it's important to show that emotional abuse can come in many forms, and that even queer couples are not exempt from toxic relationships.
📚 One thing I found a bit curious about this book was how literally no one in the whole town had a problem with anyone's queerness, but the villain still tried to weaponize it against Irene. It was hard to figure out exactly what the stakes were.
📚 Also just as an additional note, while there is quite a bit of racial diversity among the characters, it feels tacked on after the fact.

i read this in one day and absolutely ate it up. first of all, an enemies to lovers, fake dating romance between a basketball girl and the head cheerleader?? and it's SAPPHIC??? the concept alone had me shaking, but i'm personally pretty hit/or miss with YA contemporary/romance, so i was hesitant to get my hopes too high. but this book not only met them, but exceeded them. the writing? so fresh and funny. the running changing sign gag had me genuinely laughing out loud. the banter between the love interests was sooooooo good. i loved these characters, from the mains to the sides, but irene in particular became an instant favorite. here energy was absolutely IT for me.

and can we talk about the way this framed women's sports?? it was so REFRESHING to read a book that doesn't make the entire focus women's vs. men's. of course, the boy's team was mentioned here and there, but it wasn't all about outdoing the boys. the male athletes were literally irrelevant lmao. the focus was entirely on the girls fighting their own fight and getting shit done. and the emphasis on how cheerleading is just as much of a sport as basketball, football, soccer, etc.? YES!!!!

even if you don't like sports, this book is enjoyable. in fact, sports is somehow a big aspect and not a big aspect at the same time. mostly, it's about growth. scottie goes into her arrangement with irene thinking things will play out one way, and instead goes on a journey of personal growth that was really lovely to read about. the communication between these characters and how they handle the situations they get themselves in was just written so well!! third act conflict cringe? not here!!!

i could go on and on about this book. scottie's family dynamic, the quirky little town, side characters like danielle and honey-belle, it was all just so GOOD. my only negatives are that this is one of those books where the teens are oddly into a decade way outside their own (this one being the 80s). it did play a bigger role in the book overall as the narrative continued, so i found it a little more tolerable, but i do think it'd be nice to see teens just . . . enjoying what most teens enjoy now?? there's nothing wrong with liking the "mainstream" or even just stuff from one's own decade!! the other negative was that there were two or three harry potter references, and i do think we should, uh, be cutting those out in 2021 and beyond. especially as this is a sapphic books, i think it's important for trans sapphics, and really just trans/queer readers in general, especially teens, to have safe spaces where they don't have to be reminded of miss jk terfling.

overall, i have so much love for this book. even though it deals with some heavy topics, it is overall a warm, fun, campy read that had me smiling and geeking out. if this book isn't on your radar, it needs to be!

she drives me crazy follows scottie zajac, a young basketball player, during her senior year of high school as she navigates through all the elements that would make for a good nineties romance movie, those being: first love, friendship, self acceptance, and even heartbreak, all while carrying out an elaborate fake dating scheme with irene abraham, someone scottie believes to be her one and only arch nemesis.

i am quite positive that this comes as no surprise to anyone, but i rated this novel five out of five stars. i pretty much knew that i was going to love this book the second i saw the cover and read the synopsis, and even more so when my arc request was, surprisingly, granted.

there is so much one could possibly say about she drives me crazy, but i believe the most important thing to be said, is that of how entertaining it was to read, reread, and, of course, reread again.

the novel begins with a bang.

or, i guess i should say that it begins with a crash, seeing as how the two main characters end the first chapter by crashing their cars into one another, thus setting the plot in motion for the rest of the novel.

following the crash, scottie is forced to carpool with irene to school, which does not go unnoticed by the rest of their fellow peers and classmates. thinking something more is happening between the two, the popularity of scottie, along with her basketball team, skyrockets, as does the jealousy of scottie’s previous girlfriend, tally.

wanting to hold onto this jealousy and popularity for as long as possibly, scottie bribes irene into dating her, thus creating a fake relationship between the two that will soon have the entire school, and even their small little town, completely fooled.

for the next two hundred pages or so, kelly quindlen takes her readers on a journey that is too irresistible to put down or step away from. one that follows scottie zajac as her relationship between irene abraham begins to unexpectedly blossom, and as she decides to dive deeper into all of these feelings that she has been putting off for far too long, ones that affect both herself and those that she suddenly finds herself closest to.

with these feelings, scottie manages to do something she should’ve done a long time ago, and finally put herself first. despite how much she loves those around her, even if she doesn’t want to.

she drives me crazy was a fast-paced and extremely enjoyable novel, one that anyone can enjoy reading. especially with an ending that is both so fresh and unexpected, and with side characters so well done and lovable. it even reads exactly as i would expect a love letter to, or, of course, like a late nineties rom-com movie, and being someone of the queer community myself, it was so refreshing to read a novel that consisted primarily of a pure interracial sapphic love story. something extremely lighthearted and heartfelt. something that members of the lgbtq+ community, both old and young alike, have been deprived of for far too long now. and something that i would wholeheartedly recommend to any-and-everyone.

She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen is the fresh queer YA rom com we all need right now. It's full of healthy and toxic relationships (and the struggle to discern which is which), fake-dating, enemies-to-lovers sports sapphic romance, personal growth and self-discovery, and so much gooey goodness that you'll just melt with contentment!

I really didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did, and more than the synopsis promised. There are so many throwback, campy references to 80s/90s music and cheesy romcom movies that took the edge off the grief, heartbreak, and miscommunication that happens between the characters. The balance between the vulnerable moments and the witty banter was refreshing, and I couldn't get enough of the side characters that actually contributed to the story in a real, positive way! Maybe it's a fairy tale, or a sign of the generation to come, but reading about supportive parents, siblings, and friends for queer characters is so uplifting. Add in a sports romance, and I'm sold! Put this on your to-read list!

Thanks to Roaring Brook Press for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

I did not expect to love this as much as I did. First of all, it’s so much more than the synopsis would make it appear. It’s better. Does it have fake dating, hate to love, and the vibes of campy 80s movies? Yes. But it has more. It has honest, raw conversations surrounding loving yourself, heartbreak, grief, and validating each other’s feelings. It has side characters that are as unforgettable as the main characters. It has important conversations done by parents who are incredibly supportive. And sports scenes I actually liked?! Please read this.

She Drives Me Crazy is a fresh sapphic romantic comedy full of fake-dating, healthy relationships (and some toxic), growth, and bumblebee-goodness. Kelly Quindlen has this way of writing sapphic YA novels that are both innocent yet poignant with accurate depictions of today's teenagers and their struggles. I absolutely adore the entire cast of characters, and I'm so here for portrayals of teenagers acting in healthy ways about their relationships, even if they mess up along the way. She Drives Me Crazy is funny, cute, and a great way to spend an afternoon.

This is literally everything I want in a book! Sapphic fake dating, quirky characters, witty banter. This coming-of-age tale brims with heart and will linger with you long after you turn the final page.

First off, let me start by saying that when I read the premise of this story, I fell in love. Sapphic hate to love stories are hard to come by, but adding a fun fake relationship, very similar to Can't Buy Me Love, (which the author even acknowledges in a fun meta-joke) with a backdrop of a basketball star and head cheerleader? yes Yes YES!

This story was cheesy and campy, but I loved every second of it. The romance was precious and I really enjoyed watching the development of it. The characters actually communicated well, which is hard to find in YA romance stories. It felt just like the 80s teen rom-com Scottie was constantly referencing, with the needed update of acknowledging that grand gestures can't always fix the problems in a relationship.

On top of that, however, I greatly appreciated Quindlen's handling of Scottie's broken heart and her struggles to get over her ex-girlfriend. Scottie felt like she'd lost a part of herself in that breakup and, in a very realistic and mature fashion, Quindlen made Scottie's needed to find closure and grow from that break up a part of the story. Because of this, I was even happier when the main characters became a couple.

Also, this had wonderful and supportive background characters, although not all as fleshed out as I would like, but I can deal with that given the length of the story. Really love that Scottie and Irene's sexuality was never a point of issue with their families and friends, but they still felt like real relationships, with sibling arguments and parental expectations. (There is still some homophobia, as teenagers are assholes)

The pacing was a tad weird in some places, where we'd jump weeks between paragraphs and the big family hug out was a hair too cheesy for me, but other than that, I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

This is the sort of action-packed story with queer representation that I desperately needed as a teen. My students will love this book! My only issue is that there's so much going on that it seems some plotlines get dropped for half the book and then have to be quickly wrapped up at the end.

She Drives Me Crazy was a fabulous sports romance that tackled so many of my favorite topics. It addresses the ways cheerleaders aren't seen as 'real athletes', past toxic relationships, and needing to sit with our own mistakes. It's a story about figuring out people aren't what we thought. That there are layers, similarities, common ground in the people around us. Nemesis stories rejuvenate my heart and the amount of tropes in She Drives Me Crazy that I loved have given me years back on my life.

THIS is how you do a YA enemies to lovers story! She Drives Me Crazy was everything I hoped it would be and a bit more. It's cute, a quick read, has some fun tropes, but also tackles some larger issues in a way that is really applicable to teenagers. Plus I really fell in love with both of the characters. Here we follow Scottie, a basketball player still hurting from her ex-girlfriend breaking up with her and Irene, the cheerleader ice queen who has bullied her in the past. When a fender bender forces the girls to carpool to school, it leads to fake dating and eventually, catching feelings.

I thought this story was so well crafted with sympathetic characters who are kind of enemies, but don't become so toxic you can't root for them getting together. Rather, we come to realize they are very different people who just didn't understand each other. Their romance was a slow burn and really adorable, though romantic in a realistic and clear-eyed way given that they are high school seniors. Which I think is great. Sometimes YA romances treat it like this is a "forever" relationship which may be possible, but not very probable for teenagers. She Drives Me Crazy doesn't try to do that and instead it's positioned as learning how to have a healthy, loving relationship. Which is really an important skill for young people to develop.

Thematically, this book addresses the sexism female athletes face, including stereotyping of cheerleaders as doing something silly when they are actually athletes in their own right.

It's also a book about healing from your first heartbreak and how there is a real grieving process that occurs. I think these early relationships can sometimes be treated as less important because the participants are young, but here Quindlen is respectful of the intense emotion involved and the grief over its loss. It also explores how young people might get into toxic, even emotionally abusive relationships and lose themselves in it. While there is a queer love story here, Scottie first has to learn how to really love herself, and that is a beautiful and important lesson. It also deals with bullying in the social media era (well done! authors don't always want to tackle that but should), and the way responses to women coming out as queer can be framed in really misogynist terms. All important conversations that are, in my opinion, handled really deftly with a lot of nuance.

I could keep gushing, but basically I think this book is really fantastic. I hoped to enjoy it, but did not expect the story to be so richly layered while also delivering a fun rom-com with 80's & 90's teen movie references (love!). It's a book about kindness, honesty, and how to really have a caring relationship with good communication. Highly recommend. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Enemies to lovers can always be a little scary to read because it’s either a hit or a big ol’ miss. The line between two people with a rivalry based on misunderstanding and two people toxically bullying each other is a fine one (especially when it comes to high schoolers). But She Drives Me Crazy is definitely a hit. Kelly Quindlen makes it clear that the animosity between Scottie and Irene is the first one, which is one of the things that made this book so enjoyable to read.
The story follows Scottie, a high-school senior (described as a “gay Ginny Weasley” at one point, which is an absolutely hysterical descriptor) on the women’s basketball team still reeling from the breakup with her ex-girlfriend Tally. After losing to Tally’s team at her new school, Scottie gets into a fender bender with Irene, a cheerleader, and Scottie’s enemy because of another car-related incident the year prior. They’re forced to carpool until Irene’s car gets fixed, which skyrockets Scottie’s and her basketball team’s popularity and makes Tally jealous. So, Scottie does what any logical person would do (right?), bribe Irene to date her to get back at Tally and have a better shot at winning the basketball championship.
I really liked Scottie as a character. She’s close with her family, kind and supportive of her friends, dedicated to her team, and proud of her hometown. And although there were moments I found myself disliking her, I think those moments made her a more realistic character. I mean, teenagers can be kind of awful, especially teenage girls—I know, I was one. I also liked Irene despite Scottie’s biased depiction of her at the beginning. She’s fierce, motivated, and confident, although a bit closed off.
She Drives Me Crazy is a cute, enjoyable, and easy read. The beginning and middle are a little formulaic, but not in a bad way at all, and the ending is fresh and a little unexpected. The side characters are fun, well developed, and have their own storylines that I enjoyed as much as Scottie and Irene’s. When it comes to young adult novels that are released more recently, I can be a little wary reading them since I barely understood slang when I was a teenager, much less now. But there are a lot of fun cultural references to the ’80s and ’90s, so I would say that this book is an enjoyable read for all ages.
Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m weak when it comes to the fake dating trope so as soon as I saw the synopsis I knew I had to read She Drives Me Crazy.

This was an adorably cheesy sapphic rom-com that I really enjoyed reading. I ended up finishing it in one day and I had so much fun!

Why should you read this book?
- fake dating
- Enemies to lovers
- only one bed
- fluff fluff fluff !!

Ok, let’s get into this book’s pitfalls. There’s really only one, but it's important: the writing. I didn’t have major issues with it, but, the author often tells instead of showing. I also wish that this book was dual perspective because we didn’t get to learn a lot about Irene and the book would have benefitted from hearing her pov.

Despite my slight grievances, I really enjoyed this book and I recommend it to anyone looking for a quintessential rom-com.

She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quinland is a sapphic YA rom-com that includes an enemies-to-lovers trope, basketball, cheerleading, and more.

Basketball player Scottie wants payback after her girlfriend dumped her right before transferring schools and cheerleading captain Irene are arch-rivals that just got into a fender bender.

This was like an 80s-style rom-com meets a lovely LGBTQ+ story. What we get is a realistic look into high school relationships but with queer romance, interracial couples, and learning how to have healthy boundaries. And, none of the harmful tropes like co-dependency or token diversity.

Highly recommend this one!

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

She Drives Me Crazy is a delightful queer contemporary that surprised me. It seemed to have a fairly simple premise and I thought it would be fairly typical, and a nice palate cleanser after a couple of more intense books. And in a way, it is that, but it is so much more.

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about the romance itself, as enemies-to-lovers is so hit-or-miss for me. But I feel like Quindlen created a balance that is so hard to master with this trope by having Scottie and Irene start off with genuine enmity, but come to an understanding of each other as the story goes on, with the two having a bit more in common with regards to toxic people in their lives they ought to cut out, but are still attached to in some way.

On a related note, I did feel a bit more attached to Irene as the story went on than Scottie, as I feel like one of the problems with first person is I feel like the protagonist doesn’t really feel as well defined as the people around them. And a huge part of that played into the darker tone the book took about halfway in with a dark revelation about Irene’s relationship with her “friend.”

That plays into my reluctance to call this book a rom-com, in spite of its branding. So many books seem to want to have their cake and eat it by branding themselves as lighthearted but also delve into tough topics that could catch people off guard, and while the book overall is lighthearted, that plot twist really altered the tone of the book for me.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy this overall, and think as long as you go in with that knowledge, this book is an enjoyable book that will resonate with readers. And if you love queer romance, I absolutely recommend picking it up!

CW: Bullying, toxic relationship, homophobia/biphobia

The premise of this book sounded amazing, but unfortunately I really did not enjoy reading this.

First off, I was really uncomfortable with how Scottie essentially pressured/manipulated Irene into coming out as gay. I understand that Irene was not fully forced to do it, but she was in a situation where she would completely lose an opportunity that was clearly incredibly important to her if she didn't agree to Scottie's plan. So Scottie choosing to take advantage of that to convince Irene to come out when she wouldn't necessarily have wanted to yet otherwise felt so wrong to me - particularly since it was never addressed anywhere in the book, it was just treated as a normal & okay thing to do.

The development and pacing of the enemies-to-lovers romance also felt really weird to me. Instead of the two girls starting out as rivals and gradually developing feelings for each other, we get Scottie insisting on hating Irene so intensely for the majority of the book, and then a very sudden change towards the end. A few things bothered me here:
1. While Irene definitely also disliked Scottie in the beginning of the book, the extent to which they hate each other was very unbalanced, and Scottie was often incredibly rude to Irene for no valid reason.
2. The main reason why Scottie hates Irene could have been resolved so easily if they'd just had a 30-second long honest conversation about it. (Using the miscommunication trope isn't inherently bad, but I personally really dislike it so it definitely takes away from my enjoyment of books)
3. The actual romance part of the enemies-to-lovers romance felt very rushed and underdeveloped, mainly because there was so little time actually spent on it.

Additionally, the plotline about Scottie's toxic ex-girlfriend suffered from a similar type of weird, inconsistent pacing. When the book starts out, it seems like the story is going to take us through the process of Scottie realizing her ex was actually pretty toxic, and slowly getting over her - the book really does not do that, though. Instead, the plotline about Tally (the ex) is kind of forgotten for a large part of the story. Scottie keeps this goal of "making Tally jealous" by fake-dating Irene, but she doesn't go through any sort of character development regarding what she thinks about Tally and their previous relationship. Then, towards the end, Tally suddenly becomes very very important to the story again (in a way that seems like it was only done to add more drama to the plot, frankly) and right after that, Scottie suddenly goes through all the development I thought would happen gradually throughout the book in just a chapter or two. Again, because everything happened so quickly towards the end instead of gradually throughout the entirety of the book, it felt very underdeveloped, rushed, and very unrealistic.

Then - I'm white so I am not the most fit person to speak on this, but the way some of the characters of colour were written was sometimes questionable.
Irene is Indian, and I read this book with my friend Echo who is also Indian and really disliked that rep in this book, so I'd highly recommend checking out their review here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3449800476?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
(for a quick summary, they said that - there were a lot of harmful stereotypes, Irene blushed a bunch of times in the book which doesn't make much sense considering her skin tone, and it seemed weirdly convenient that the author chose to make Irene Catholic, when the majority of Indian people are not)
It also seemed like Danielle, Scottie's best friend, could maybe fall into the trope of the "supportive Black sidekick", based on what I've seen Black readers say about that trope and other characters that fit into it. (again, though, I'm not the best person to judge whether the Black rep was harmful or not, so I'll definitely be looking out for any reviews by Black readers before fully solidifying my opinion here)

One last thing - there were a couple HP references that could have so easily not been there. With books that were published a while ago, I can understand, but at this point in time, authors are most definitely aware of how horrible JKR so I really don't see why it's justified to continue including those references.

Thanks to NetGalley & Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. My official rating is 2.25/5 stars.

"She Drives Me Crazy" follows an obnoxious jock (Scottie) recovering from a bad breakup who then becomes stuck driving an obnoxious cheerleader (Irene) to school for a couple of days. Said cheerleader turns out to be gay, like her, and she hatches a nefarious plan to get back at her ex with fake dating! Problem is, they start liking each other, without having to act!

This was really hard for me to read in that the protagonist and her love interest were so....mean and off-putting. I do like morally grey characters but these teens were just *too* much if that makes any sense. I couldn't stand their nasty behavior and couldn't believe anyone would want to be friends with them in the first place. I probably would've liked this book more if Irene wasn't a jerk and Scottie realizes her toxic behavior and changes. Alas, both of them are still jerks by the end of the book, but they like each other.

I'm glad for more LGBT+ representation in books, especially ones that are not so cookie-cutter perfect/angelic, but I couldn't get past this one, but that's going to be a personal preference. If you're fine with self-absorbed characters that have Hulk-sized temper tantrums, then this will work better for you than it did for me! Ha. If they both went through serious development I would've been able to handle the toxic elements, but they didn't, unfortunately. It seemed like that was the direction the book was going but I guess not!

Honey-Belle was the only character I liked in the book. Oof.

This is one of my favorite YA contemporaries that I have read in a long time! The whole thing felt like a perfect teen romcom movie (and if it doesn’t get adapted, it would be a real shame.)

All of the character relationships—romantic, friendships, and familial— are engaging. Scottie’s relationships with her sisters were especially sweet. I think this is the type of casual sister bond that I’ve wanted to see in other YA books but it usually feels heavy-handed or forced. Here it felt totally natural and real.

The changing friendships in the story were also great. While I know all characters can’t get the same amount of focus, I would spend whole books with each of the core friend group. This is a book that could easily inspire spin-offs for the secondary characters, and I would devour those as well.

While this was a light, fun story, it also dealt with some heavier topics in such an honest and thoughtful way. Toxic relationships, self worth, and healing are dealt with in ways that do not feel preachy or educational, but only serve to enhance the connection to and emotions for the characters.

This was my first experience with Kelly Quindlen, but definitely won’t be my last!

I adored every single page of this one!

this book truly has everything you could ever want:
fake dating? yep!
enemies to lovers? oh yes!
wonderful dialogue, character arcs that don’t revolve solely around the romance storyline & side characters i would die for?? abso-freakin-lutely!!

and that doesn’t even cover the genuine humour that flows from the pages; i laughed so so much while reading this one and yet there was plenty of deeper emotion involved too. not to mention the absolute chaos of the friendship groups, the sport-related plot threads & the family dynamics of both Scottie and Irene that were all balanced so beautifully and weaved throughout the story so well!!

this was one of my favourite books last year and honestly i can’t wait for the physical copy to be released just so i can hold and finally have it on my shelf properly.

OH MY GOD. this book was my second most anticipated release of 2021 and I'm so lucky I got to read it before its release. this was absolutely stunning.

She Drives Me Crazy is a sapphic enemies to lovers, fake dating, sports romance. if that isn't enough of a recommendation, I don't know what is. this book had all I could ever ask for. it was a perfect combination of banter, angst, and fluff. I absolutely loved the characters and how each of them had so much depth and character.

from the first page, I couldn't stop, and read it all in one sitting. it's hard to write a book captivating enough that it's impossible to put down, but Kelly Quindlen more than succeeded.

this was so damn romantic. the progression of Scottie's and Irene's relationship, and the exploring of every event and emotion between them was done phenomenally. I especially loved how I got to know Irene gradually more throughout the book. there are always sides to people that not everyone gets to see and I think this novel did an amazing job of showing that.

maybe I'm biased, because I'm a tall, Polish, queer ginger, but this is definitely a win for the sapphics, and I can't recommend it enough.