Noah runs the Meet Cute Diary, a blog dedicated to sharing trans peoples’ meet-cutes. The only problem is, all the stories are fake -- just products of Noah’s own fantasies -- and some of his followers are starting to pick up on that. Enter Drew, the handsome bookseller who Noah had his own meet-cute with. Drew comes up with the idea to fake-date in order to save the blog. Is this really only about saving the blog, or will true love blossom like Noah hopes?

This book was laugh out loud funny. Noah’s voice is super distinct and his impatience for straight white people had me cackling (it also made me realize why so many white people were so offended in all their reviews of this book). He was annoying and bitter and angry and I loved him for it.

This book has pretty much everything you would want from a rom-com; fake-dating, romantic love, platonic love, and an adorable love interest.

Meet Cute Diary is great for fans of Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender and Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant.

TW: transphobia, suicide mention (not graphic)

Release date: May 4, 2021

Thanks to Netgalley and Quill Tree Books for this ARC!

Noah is Tumblr famous. Or at least his blog, The Meet Cute Diary is. The Meet Cute diary is a collection of stories celebrating trans love. And while Noah says that these are true stories they're actually made-up. When another blog starts debunking The Meet Cute Diary Noah knows he has to do something to save The Meet Cute Diary. When his identity is discovered by Drew, a cute boy that Noah has had TWO meet cutes with, Drew agrees to fake-date Noah in order to save The Diary, but as we all know, fake dating is never as simple as it seems.

So excited to buy and share this book with students. It's such a fun rom-com with meet cutes (of course!), fake dating, a love triangle, I had to put the book down a few times due to second-hand embarrassment, which is always a good sign that a book is pulling me in. It's wonderful to see a book not only showing the use of neopronouns but to see characters exploring their gender and pronouns.

This book didn't work for me--I found the pacing and the love story setup too forced. But I am so glad it is out in the world, and I suspect it will resonate and delight many readers.

I really wanted to like this book, but it didn’t happen. I enjoy rom-coms as a general rule. However, there were so many situations in this book that are not realistic, in my opinion. I could not overlook all of these things to enjoy the overall story.

Overall Rating- 2 stars
Main Character= 2 stars
Supporting Characters= 3 stars
Plot= 2 stars
Conclusion= 1 star


Potential Triggers:
Suicide is mentioned and panic attacks described on page

****Spoilers Included in review****

The overall premise of this book is that a 16-year-old trans boy Noah has a blog called –The Meet Cute Diary. The MCD is all about trans people having the “meet cute” of their dreams, the big problem is all of the submissions are made up by Noah. Somehow an internet troll has figured out that these stories are not real. Because of the troll’s harassing, Noah is losing followers and this is stressing him out. Now he is spending the summer in Denver with his older brother. Noah is originally from the Miami, Florida area, but his parents are moving to California. Noah is a very selfish character, who ultimately is hard to like.
Here is the first of what to me as a reader is not very realistic, Noah is 16 and his brother is very young just having finished his first year in college. Their parents leave the boys for the summer without any true adult supervision. As a parent myself, I was surprised at how hands off the parents were towards Noah. At the end of the day, Noah is a minor being allowed to party and basically take care of himself. In fact, at one point the parents even cut off his access to money because he is spending it unwisely. It struck me as odd that instead of calling up your child and letting them know they were wasting money, the way these parents handled it was to turn off the card letting him get denied at a store.
Since his funding was turned off, the parents expect Noah to get a job. This doesn’t seem unreasonable; however, it does lead to another unrealistic plot point. The first place Noah applies is at a local bookstore (this interview doesn’t go great). Somehow this bad interview leads to a blog post, which in turn leads to the boy working at the bookstore asking Noah if his is the moderator of MCD. This struck me as way too convenient. Noah’s own family doesn’t know anything about the blog, but a random stranger who he has spoken to very briefly figures it out and offers to fake date Noah to help save the diary.
The hardest plot piece for me to swallow as a reader is where/how Noah ended up getting a job. Noah’s brother has started working a summer day camp. He takes Noah into work with him (after orientation has been going on for a few days) and Noah is hired. Noah gets a job working with children without a real interview, no letters of recommendation, and no background check. I work in a school system and have family members that work for children’s camps, this is not how things are done!!
Not to mention, his supervisor at the camp is someone who came from the same school in Florida as Noah. They did not know each other during their time in Florida, but it is too much a coincidence as they end up not only in the same city but working at the same summer job.
All of these issues just kept adding up to me as a reader. Leaving me just wanting to get to the end of the book to find out who the internet troll was, and how Noah would fix the problem. But the book did not address this at all!! The whole premise of the book was saving the diary, but that became a very secondary piece of the story.
Thank you NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#MeetCuteDiary #NetGalley

Meet Cute Diary is YA LGBTQ+ contemporary romance by Emery Lee. The representation and the conversations in this book make my heart happy.

CW: transmisia, mention of suicide attempt, internet trolls, hate comments, panic attacks

Meet Cute Diary is full of meet cutes giving hope to trans-teens on tumblr. I was here for this queer fake-dating story.

Noah was sassy and I loved watching him on his journey of self-discovery. He was very much a self involved teenager and I enjoyed watching him learn and become more aware.

I definitely recommend reading this if you’re looking for a teen finding himself and the obstacles along the way

This is such a fun read! I love the protagonist, Noah, and all the hijinks that he gets into. I also love how his relationships with each person in the book (brother, best friend, love interest) are all unique and believable. I often see YA characters reacting the same way to each person in their life...but that's really not how young people go through the world.

I do think the beginning could be sped up just a little bit to get to some of the more enticing scenes at the bookshop and between Noah and the love interest. That's were thinks started to really take off for me and I wish we could have gotten there a tiny bit faster. That being said, the rest of the pacing is well executed. I will be recommending that my college students check out this fun, yet important book.

Ive never been so disappointed in a book before. I am a gay trans man, who is perpetually single and yearning for love, so I was so excited for this book. And the cover??? It’s gorgeous and so cute. Ive been posting about this book for months on my insta. So I had high expectations. Well. I hated it and DNFed at 60%

The main character was unbearable. Noah is so annoying and entitled. Really dude U spent 400 of your parents money and u mad they cut u off?????? And mad he’s expected to get a job if he wants money???? And he expects everyone to be there for him and give him everything. His best friend, brother, parents. And he is so judgmental to all of them. And he expresses 0 empathy toward anyone. A poor coworker throws up on him, and instead of being concerned like a kind normal person, he gets mad and is an asshole to them for several scenes. He’s just a terrible main character, and at least from what I read he has no growth or self awareness.

Sorry but the meet cute blog sounds so unrealistic, and I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough to go along with this plot. The premise is the blog is a place to publish submissions from anons, but of course Noah makes them all up. But he sets all the stories in his hometown, Miami, and all the stories are about mlm ftm teens. Like of course you would get called out for that being fake, no one would believe that in the first place. And if he has so many followers, why couldn’t he just actually take submissions and make the blog real. It makes 0 sense. And for some reason he stops posting the stories the blogs is made for, and instead posts his own relationship. And people like that? No, if they didn’t unfollow you already, they def would after u make it your personal account for your teen summer romance.

And then the romance. ... I’m sorry what. So some dude he met just twice before somehow recognized him from his random anon blog. That. Doesn’t make sense. And my biggest book peeve is insta love, and this novel is heavy on that. Their romance sounds so creepy and stalker is, and makes me uncomfortable. And they are supposed to be fake dating, but keep making out when they are alone. O. Okay?After dating for two weeks they are both so emotionally invested and are talking about being together forever. I DNFed after they went without seeing each other for a few days, acted like the world was ending cause they were separated, and then talked about having kids. It’s been. Two weeks. I couldn’t do it anymore.

***Full review and blog link to follow later***


Meet Cute Diary is a wonderful young adult book. This Emery Lee tale features a coming of age journey for a trans boy and his non cis friend.

Noah is in town for the summer, living with his brother, and living as a boy for the first time. He runs a popular blog about trans men finding love. All of this is in an effort to give trans people hope of finding love.

In the beginning, I found Noah to be annoying. Yes, he's a self centered teen who thinks his problems are everything. But, seriously, it's spot on behavior for a sixteen year old. And wow, the social media part of this story is also spot on. Every single part of it.

Noah's journey towards finding his real self, and his real feelings about love, is a long, bumpy road.

When someone learns that Noah is the blogger, he's suddenly in a "cute on paper" romance with Drew that doesn't always feel right.

And all the while, Noah's spending time with his co-worker Devin, who's trying to figure out what gender terms work for them. Their conversations are wonderful, poignant, and well worth a read. Everything about Devin is impressive, written with knowledge and a whole lot of care. Their friendship is important, full of understanding, compassion, caring, support, and encouragement. Their friendship changes both of them for the better. I enjoy the realistic and honest feel to their relationship.

And for both teens, the trouble involved with their journeys are deeply explored. Being trans. Body dysphoria. Gender definitions and the ongoing fluidity of figuring of what feels right. Seeing pronoun changes throughout is stellar representation of the struggle. Best of all, there's no open homophobia or transphobia that's illustrated. Yes, it's there but it's not in the forefront at all, which is wonderful. Instead, this story is all about their ever evolving feelings about themselves.

Race is also an aspect that is seen, but not a big issue, which is amazing. Noah is tri-racial and it's never a big part of his story. How fantastic!

As well, Noah's relationship with his best friend Becca is an ongoing aspect of this story. The author excels in exploring the give and take in friendships, and the value of true friendship. Living with teen drama every day, I love the way this is explored.

I highly recommend Meet Cute Diary for anyone looking for some understanding of the non-cis journey. Trans. Non-binary. Gender queer. Emery Lee explores it all through these two fabulous characters. I wish every teen had this as required reading. I also would love to see this as movie. Visibility is important and this book is a wonderful way for anyone questioning their gender to feel seen.

3.5 stars

Noah, the m.c., is the curator of the Meet Cute Diary (MCD) blog, and he is spending the summer in Colorado with his older brother while his parents work on their impending relocation to California from Florida. A lot of changes are happening in Noah's life, but what stands out most for him - at least at the start - is what's happening with MCD. He's being accused of fabricating the stories there (this is true - he does that), and his followers are in two camps: (1) mad and (2) unwilling to believe this could be true.

The premise here is cute, and I die hard for trans rep in general, but there are some gaps. Noah begins a fake relationship with one character for the sake of the blog. While the characters agree to this mutually, the situation highlights Noah's wild attention to a set of romantic norms that are truly bonkers, his general cluelessness, and his hypocrisy. It turns out Noah cannot abide lying even though his whole internet career subsists on this for a long time. The second love interest is wonderful and predictable in all the ways, but you'll remember this character for pronouns. Lee is doing something that I admire: bringing attention to pronouns, using them, etc., but aspects of this become didactic to a distracting degree. Most bizarre to me is the ultimate outcome of the MCD, There are some points of extreme convenience and/or glossing over that felt like they really needed more attention and/or explanation. Oh, and some of the characters are real dirt bags and need more punishment than they receive.

I'm going to be VERY excited to read more of Lee's work. I'll hope for a bit more follow through and development in future installments, but I am sure I'll be entertained (as I was here).

The story is told from the perspective of Noah, a recently out trans man, as he spends the summer living with his brother while their parents are in the process of moving from Florida to California. Noah is a forthright protagonist, who doesn't mince words. Some may be turned off by how candid Noah can be at times, especially in the beginning. Lee really tries to highlight some of Noah's flaws. You know it's there to give him a hole to dig himself out of throughout the novel, but it may have been so front-loaded that some readers may be so turned off they may not get to the point where Noah realizes that some changes are needed. For the patient reader, you'll be rewarded for sticking with him.
Noah's main focus is his blog, the titular "Meet Cute Diary," which tries to present positive trans romance experiences to his avid readership. The issue is that Noah has not quite experienced the love that he projects through the blog and we follow his attempts to understand this aspect of his life, as well as understand who he wants to be now that he can finally live as his authentic self. Lee walks a fine line between presenting a romantic story without pushing it into fairy tale territory. There are many solid aspects of this story, but you definitely need to be patient through the first third to be rewarded with all the things that made this novel shine.

I enjoyed this book SO much!!! Noah is an amazing narrator and I was so happy to live in his head and go through this journey with him. Seeing a confident trans MC just living his life, navigating social media popularity and relationships with family, friends, and romantic partners was EVERYTHING. I loved the entire cast of characters, all felt unique and real and relatable in their own way. Could not put the book down when I started reading it and the representation it provides is SO freaking important - where being trans and queer is part of the story but not THE story, and showcasing the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community. My only complaint is that some of the conversations sounded a little too much like adults talking as opposed to teens, which I find is pretty common in YA, but did not really detract from my enjoyment of the book!

*e-arc provided by Netgalley and the publisher*
This was not at all what I expected, and I was so pleasantly surprised by the turn it took! It follows Noah, a trans boy navigating first loves, new jobs, and a new city over the course of a summer.

The writing of this story is very easy to read, very simple. I felt like a friend was telling me the story, it was so real to teenage feelings. Noah was a pretty flawed protagonist, sometimes I was angry at him for how he acted, but I never liked him as a character any less.

I think the highlight of this book, for me at least, is Devin, a camp counselor Noah befriends over the summer. E was so kind and e really made the turn of the story's plot seem realistic. (Also, the inclusion of a non binary character that experiments with pronouns and identities was SO VERY appreciated, love to feel repped in a book) I really loved the setting of the novel, the camp-summer vibe was perfect for this time of year, and it reminded me of my time as a camp leader.

Noah's relationship with his blog didn't interest me as much as his relationship with the other characters did, but I really appreciated what it represented for Noah and his followers. I almost wish something like that existed irl!

The highlights: Neopronouns! The romance! The friendship! The brother relationship! The humor!

I cannot recommend this book enough, and I highly encourage everyone to pick it up when it comes out next month!

Meet Cute Diary, by Emery Lee, is exactly that — cute. It tells the story of Noah, a trans teenage boy who is staying with his brother for a summer in Colorado. While there, Noah plans to work on his blog (the Meet Cute Diary in question), hang out with his brother, and fall in love. When he meets Drew, the cute boy at the local bookshop, he seems to have the last step all figured out. But when he gets a job at a summer camp with his brother, and meets Devin, things get a little more complicated.

Meet Cute Diary has a lot going for it. The queer rep throughout is amazing. Beyond Noah, who is unabashedly trans, there are characters exploring their gender identity, and other queer side characters as well. Noah and his brother are mixed race, and while this subject could be explored in more depth, it certainly informs their decisions on the page.

Unfortunately, Meet Cute Diary suffers from a relatively unlikable main character. Noah is annoying in all the ways teenagers can be annoying — he is selfish and self-centered, quick to judge others, a little rash. And while that all makes sense and is usually fun to read in a YA novel, the fact that his selfishness and quick judgements are so often rewarded is a little harder to swallow.

The side characters sell this one. Noah’s brother is charming and interesting, in spite of little time on the page. Noah’s best friend, stuck back in Florida and not entirely happy with Noah’s behavior, is a character who could carry a whole book, and Devin’s exploration of identity gives the book a lot of its depth.

Another wonderful thing is that Noah’s family, and Devin’s too for that matter, are entirely supportive of his being queer. Although there is space for books about trans and queer characters with unsupportive families, of course, it is nice to see the opposite sometimes as well.

The Meet Cute Diary suffers at times from skating past an issue rather than diving in very deeply. Concepts are raised and dropped without enough tile spent on them. In spite of this, and Noah’s supreme unlikability, Meet Cute Diary is a cute, fun, gender-affirming novel, perfect especially for any gender-questioning teen.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quill Tree Books for the ARC!

This book was so, SO great in terms of diversity and representation! And the story was fantastic! I sat down on a Saturday morning and blazed through this in one day. Highly, highly recommend!

Oh fuck, there went my heart. It got run over by MEET CUTE DIARY, had a few vanilla lattes dropped on it, and now it lies between the well-worn (digital) pages of this ARC...
In other words, please please please go read it, it is overwhelmingly adorable and sweet!

Noah Ramirez believes himself an expert on romance, after all-he runs a popular blog about it.
The only thing is that every beautiful love story he posts- is fake.
Once he is exposed by a troll, he’s willing to do whatever he can to take away the negative spotlight: even dating Drew, a fan of his blog. Together, they agree to fake a relationship to save the blog, the only thing? Noah realizes relationships aren’t as easy in real life as they are to make up.

Okay, I’m going to be absolutely honest. I was not a fan of Noah. To me, he was very whiny and judgmental without reason, making assumptions on everyone the moment he met them. The whole book, he got on my nerves and caused me to not enjoy the story as much as I so desperately wanted to.
But, this is a YA contemporary novel. A story about a 16yr old boy who realizes love isn’t all that he thought it was. A boy that is already dealing with the judgments from the world around him about him being trans, it makes sense why he is so quick to judge. So I get it.
It took me a really long time to, but I understand Noah’s attitude on life, and it matches a sixteen year old really well (if not a bit more juvenile).

Other than that, I love the idea and plot of this story. A blog about trans people falling in love, spreading the hope and joy for everyone that they too would one day have that moment? I LOVE that! The idea behind it is really cute, and it was really interesting being able to see what it looks like from a bloggers point of view, versus what it looks like from their followers point of view.

The story definitely had a lot of ups and downs, and showed the truth about relationships and how all is not as it seems. It’s intriguing enough that you can’t help but turn each page in excitement, never knowing if it will all fall apart or will end merrily.

Overall, if you’re wanting an interesting read with lots of representation and a real storyline, then this would be a great read for you!

((Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins Children’s Book publishing for an ARC in replace of an honest reveiw

I'm obviously biased, but I think this book is pretty good. This is a story all about showcasing that trans people deserve happy endings, but also happy beginnings and happy middles. Recognizing the humanity of trans people goes beyond seeing our oppression, and requires believing that we deserve to live full and happy lives that focus on us finding love, building friendships, and taking joy in our expression of self. Ultimately, that was the goal of this book, and I think it does a pretty great job of it.

This book was an absolute joy! More stories about trans joy please! This was just an absolute stunning debut and I cannot wait to see what Emery writes next!

Don't even get me started on how much I loved Meet Cute Diary! Noah's voice is so perfect. He's got all the snark and sarcasm paired with so much heart; you can tell how much he cares about the readers of his blog. I was so in for the ride of how Drew and Noah's relationship developed, and Devin's exploration of gender and what feels most authentic to em was beautiful!

Meet Cute Diary is a new YA LGBTQ+ contemporary romance by Emery Lee. Just thinking about the amount of representation in this book makes me heart happy.

The lead Noah Ramirez is triracial ( white, Japanese, and Afro-Caribean), he's also trans and bisexual. Noah's best friends is a lesbian and there is a character who is gender-nonconforming who settles on using the e/em pronouns. I love that the book will be broadening readers knowledge of pronouns because I know it did mine. The book also mentions tough topics such as depression, suicide, and high anxiety.

I kind of skipped over what the actual book is about, but I think the synopsis is prefect so if you haven't by chance read it scroll up and do that lol Anyways I loved the idea of Noah's blog, the Meet Cute Diary, where it's sole purpose was to give trans kids like himself hope of finding love. Thanks to internet trolls who are the worst he ends up scrambling to keep it going. That's when the fake dating trope with a boy who inspired one of Noah's meet cute posts begins. I don't want to write spoilers, so I'm going to stop there but let's just say it doesn't turn out like your typical fake dating scenarios.

I really enjoyed Noah, but he's not without his faults and annoyances. He is a bit overdramatic and a bit self-centered, but I mean this is a YA book and what 16-year-old doesn't think the world revolves around them. Thankfully he eventually acknowledges and works to fix his faults, especially when it comes to his friendships. I loved his brother Brian, he was so supportive of Noah's transition and was always ready to jump to his defense. I also love the gender non-conforming character, I don't want to say eir name because e is not mentioned in the synopsis but I loved em. E was adorably awkward, so sweet with eir love of art and the camp kids, and my heart broke every time e had an anxiety attack. The book emphasizes the importance of not letting others affect your pronoun decision. It's up to no one but you to decide what pronouns fit you and once you choose it doesn't mean that can't change if they don't feel right.

In the end, Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee is a must-read with a great cast of characters and a story that keeps you invested. Like the blurb for the book says if you're a fan of Felix Ever After you're really going to enjoy this book. It's one I will be preordering, so I can add it to my shelf when it releases and one I'll be recommending often.