Noah Ramirez, creator of a blog called Meet Cute Diary, is an expert on crafting and sharing trans happily ever love stories. Many of his readers believe they are true until an anonymous troll starts leaving comments that the stories are fake. When everything Noah worked for starts to fall a part, he meets a new friend that agrees to a fake relationship to save the blog. He eventually has to decide what is more important: saving his blog or staying true to himself.

Meet Cute Diary is clever, heart-warming, and full of laughter. While it incorporates the usually young adult elements: complicated relationships, discovering oneself, etc. Emery Lee doesn't just skim the surface. As readers, we are provided an opportunity to think deeper on the concepts of gender, acceptance, and being yourself. I loved when the characters modeled how easy it is to ask for consent in all situations, discuss and use pronouns, and address situations that were harmful to each other. Most importantly, Meet Cute Diary is an empowering book that provides space for trans youth to see themselves in literature.

Meet Cute Diary is a beautifully written book that articulates the joys and struggles of teenage years. I know this is a book I will add to my classroom library because joyful stories that provide representation matter.

A huge thank you to HarperCollins and Netgalley for this ARC of Meet Cute Diary. I enjoyed the read and will be recommending it to others!

This book was a whole rollercoaster, from fake dating to friends-to-lovers situations, it kept me so enticed throughout the whole book. We follow our main character, Noah, a 16-year-old trans boy as he deals with living in a new state (from Florida to Arizona and finally to California with his parents), a new long-distance friendship with one of his closest friends Becca, trying to find love, AND his Tumblr blog called Meet Cute Diary, a space where he posts meet-cute stories featuring trans people. When his blog gets called out as fictional, he tries to prove otherwise by fake-dating a cute boy he met at a bookstore, Drew. The story picks up from there and Noah faces new challenges in dating and starts to realize that love isn't exactly what he makes it seem in his Diary entries.
I was so excited for this book, I really thought it would be up there with other YA romance novels but I just couldn't enjoy it as much because the main character was so annoying to read about. Noah is such a selfish, self-centered, unreasonable, kinda spoiled??, character that I genuinely felt annoyed at times reading his interactions with his friends and family. He has reasons to be upset but the way he would treat friends/family when they tried to comfort him was so infuriating. At times, he did lend his hand to anyone in need but it still doesn't make up for the many times he messed up.
Aside from this, the book as a whole was so entertaining and lovely. As I am not a trans person I cannot speak to the representation in this book, but there is a character that uses e/em/eirs pronouns and it was the first time I had ever read something with those pronouns! This book is own voices, as the character also goes by these pronouns. Noah himself states that he has a mixed background, Japanese and Puerto Rican I believe (possibly another ethnicity that I cannot recall) and the author also identifies with these. It was refreshing to see this representation, as I feel the author did a good job in not making these traits be the only personality traits of the characters but rather just a part of who they are.
Overall, I would recommend this book! I think many people can benefit from the story, even if I had some problems with the main character's behavior- there's more to the book than just that.

I read this book in one sitting, I loved it so much! A pitch-perfect YA that a wide variety of readers will enjoy. Meet Cute Diary perfectly encapsulates the young reader experience with its honesty and depiction of not only social media issues but gender/sexual identity. Emery Lee does a phenomenal job presenting all of this in a book filled with joy and plenty of swoon-worthy moments. Highly recommended.

The most notable and redeemable aspect of this book is undoubtedly the representation. It's so important to not only have trans characters but BIPOC trans characters. This novel secures a space in a predominantly white, cishet industry for BIPOC trans youth, which again, is such important and noteworthy work.

However, I could not finish the book. Halfway through, I lost interest in the main character (Noah) and his plight for romance. Noah is very self-centered and does very little emotional growth; he does not reflect on his own prejudices against white people. There is no other motivation or conflict to hate white people except for the fact that they exist. The novel would be much more powerful if white people were not the central focus of Noah's hatred and frustrations. In other words, if the writing is meant to decenter cishet white people from literature, then Noah's focus should be more on his romance, not the two dimensional white persons present in the narrative.

Additionally, the character lacks empathy, even for people he finds tolerable, like his best friend, Becca. If the attention is not devoted to Noah and Noah alone, then everyone else becomes irrelevant to the main character. This aspect of the book, I found, was highly triggering because it reminds me of the toxic friendships and persons in this period of my life.

Lastly, I was a little disturbed that a 16-year-old boy is dating an 18-year-old man. There are many emotional differences between a college freshman and a high school sophomore/junior. This book seems like it should be written for a New Adult audience.

I wanted to like this. And I liked parts of it. But overall I found Noah to be very unlikable, immature (yes even for a 16yo), very selfish and not aware of his own privilege. I also found the Tumblr references dated, or is just that I stopped using Tumblr after the fosta/sesta law. (I am almost 3x Noah's age).

I loved how easily Noah related to Devin's transness and gave em the space to explore who they were. I still LOL about Brian thinking you could buy a binder at Target. The book was easy to read and I did finish it. But overall it was just okay.

This is a very fun book with great trans and non-binary representation. One of the characters even gets to try out a variety of pronouns with the support of other characters, finally deciding e/em is the right fit for them by the end (which I think are author Emry Lee's pronouns as well). I loved seeing all the support that almost all the characters provided for one another in terms of queer identity, and the one overt transphobic response is swiftly shut down (and there are never slurs used, in case prospective readers were worried). I did think that main character Noah was a bit grating and selfish at times, but this seems mighty realistic for a 16-year-old. I appreciated the growth he showed by the end of the novel, though I did wish he'd had a bit more growth when it came to his relationship with his bff, Becca. Overall, I'm so glad this book exists, and I hope it finds its way into tons of teens and early-twentysomethings' hands!

A cute romance with a strong voice and a likeable (but flawed!) main character. I think this book walked the line very successfully of being a trans romance without being an Issues Book. It tackles a lot of different topics of gender and sexuality, but in a way that feels very sincere and natural to the character. This isn't a book to teach straight/cis people about Gender, it's, much like Noah's blog, a cute trans romance for a trans audience, which is exactly what YA needs.

Gosh this is just the sweetest trans romance! Noah is a likable and entirely flawed character and I rooted for him every step of the way even when it was so clear he was screwing up. And Devin! Oh Devin was such a wonderful, sweet love interest. I particularly loved the way e's journey through pronouns and identities was woven into the story. I hope teens who need this book find their way to it because it's life changing to know you don't have to know who you are at any age!

Oh my gosh, this is fake dating + YA romance all rolled into one in the MOST unexpected way! The representation in MEET CUTE DIARY was so valuable and authentic to the author, and it was refreshing to see such easy acceptance of pronouns and identities in literature.

Noah was a really interesting protagonist. His idiosyncrasies and insecurities were front and center and really drove some of the plot, and it reminded me how big a believer I am that characters make us think, “The right choice is staring right at you if you’d just see it!” also allow us to see how trauma and the growing pains of not only any adolescent but especially those of trans youth colors their ideas about love, relationships, and what the path to happiness and fulfillment can and should look like. I loved the little plot twist in this (no spoilers!) and, while there is a trigger warning for basically one sentence of transphobia, the way that Noah’s people stood up for him and made strong choices as a result of that expressed transphobia is important for trans youth and ALSO allies to see. Trans and queer youth will see strong, loving representation in these pages, and allies will really have a guidebook for how to be respectful and accepting - and what not to do.

I’m so grateful I got to read MEET CUTE DIARY! It is a beautiful exploration of identity, relationships, self-acceptance, friendships, and internalized societal expectations. Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this advance e-copy!

Meet Cute Diary is cringey-teen-love in the best sense. As a trans masc person I always get nervous reading other people's ideas of what being trans is like but Noah is sweet and clueless and just so badly wants to be in love. I think some could find Noah’s naivety annoying but I think it’s important to the story that Noah so whole-heartedly believes in what he’s doing. It’s a very accurate portrayal of the way we think of the key relationships in our lives and the importance we take in our own stories compared to the ones our friends might be going through at the same time. I kept waiting for there to be a Big Conflict and there wasn’t one to the degree that I assumed there would be but Noah’s anxieties are a constant throughout. I do think the pacing can be somewhat fast in parts but overall I think it’s a sweet story featuring a diverse range of characters, and gender identities and sexualities, that will be highly received.

A cute trans love story whose hero makes some missteps (in love and life) as he tries to save his popular Tumblr account, with good anxiety rep and a marvelous final love interest.

This reads a little younger than I like my YA, and if the 16-year-old MC is making a joke about Millennials all being old and married, I think it's safe to say I am not in the target demographic! That makes it very difficult to judge objectively, but I think younger readers will have a much better chance of liking this one.

I found the MC unlikable and borderline obnoxious at times. At first, I thought this was on purpose to setup a growth arc, but I started to accept the grating personality and the younger writing feel weren't going anywhere around 20% and would have DNF'd if I weren't reading an ARC.

On the one hand, the MC is 16 so the immaturity is definitely accurate. On the other hand, he was accurately immature in ALL the ways and constantly having snide, judgmental thoughts about the people around him. The book seems aware of some of this, but I'm not sure it really gets how much this kid takes his middle/upper-middle class privilege and happy, functional family dynamic for granted, and that hits the wrong note for me. Repeatedly.

Despite these issues, it's an incredibly easy read, and I was surprised how quickly I blew through it considering how much I disliked the MC.

The friendship he develops with his co-worker and their conversations about gender were the highlight for me. Not so much the content of the conversations, but just how easily and naturally Noah created a safe space for Devin to explore non-binary gender identities. That was lovely, and I really liked their whole dynamic, as well as the nuances of Noah's relationship with his female best friend back in Florida. Devin and the easy narrative flow saved this from being an outright disaster for me.

Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee

This was honestly one of the best young adult romance novels I have read in a while. And that’s saying a lot because I LIVE for YA romance. And I especially live for queer YA romance stories. So this book really had everything for me.

I instantly fall for books where I can connect with the main character, and this was no exception. Although Noah and I are very different on multiple fundamental levels, I still fell head over heels in like with his character. He felt so real to me. He was written in a way where he was very human, not everything about him was extremely likable or perfect, and that just made me love him even more.

The LOVE in this book. Omg. I cried happy tears twice because this story really catered to the hopeless romantic inside of me. It was like being a teenager again and reliving what it felt like to fall in love with someone for the first time. Seriously enjoyed the romance in this so so much.

Perhaps the best part for me was the queer representation. This story is all about trans love. I mean, Noah’s blog that he runs throughout the novel is (in his words) meant “to bring love to trans kids in need,” and I feel like that’s what the novel itself did. It was a dramatic and love-filled story about trans, queer teens. One where both sexual orientation and gender identities are explored. I loved and appreciated the conversation in this novel so much.


Being queer myself, when I read a queer love story I think I have come to expect an experience of homophobia or ‘bad luck’ for the queer characters I love. But this book didn’t have that, and I am so beyond thankful to have a story like this out there.

This book is perfect for people who like Adam Silvera, Kacen Callender, Becky Albertalli, and Casey McQuiston.

CWs: mentions of panic attack, su*cide, and transphobia

Such a cute novel that explores gender identities and the complicated vines of romances. Truly a nice read!

Disclaimer: I got this ARC in exchange for an honest review from @NetGalley.

Meet Cute Diary is perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Jenny Han. Noah and Drew's story is extremely heartbreaking.It's also got a fake-dating scheme that kind of reminds me of Frankly in Love by David Yoon. Overall, I think it's a touching story that's worth the read!

Cute read! Noah is trans and he runs his blog, Meet Cute
Diary, where trans people meet their meet-cutes. The blog has become a beacon
of hope for all his trans readers; except for the fact that every single story
on the blog is made up by him. Everything is not as it should be as his parents
are in the process of moving the family all the way to California, he has not yet
met his meet-cute, and to top it off, he is losing touch with his best
friend. At least his blog is doing great… at least it was until a troll decided
to call out his blog as a fake. The last thing he needs is to lose that one thing that means the world to not only him, but also his followers. How far is he willing to go to save his blog and to regain theIf trust back?

Out of all the relationships, I liked the relationship between
Noah and his brother the most. His brother is understanding, accepting, and a
very good support in the story. There is a lot of diversity in this book including BIPOC and LGBTQIA , as well as a non-binary character, who is starting to explore, discover,
and decide on eir pronouns.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins Children's Books for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I gotta start by saying I appreciated the abundance of representation in this book. The main character is tri-racial and trans, and there's another character who is gender-nonconforming and uses e/em pronouns, something that rarely ever shows up in media. The author also does a really great job portraying the experience of anxiety and depression, although it should be noted that, <b> TW: mentions of suicide. </b>

However, the story itself left a lot to be desired. The main character, Noah, is...extremely unlikeable, and not even in a "root for the villain" type of way. Noah is straight up selfish, immature, and ungrateful and spends the entire book taking his best friend Becca and brother Brian for granted, and only turning to them when he needs something from them, while never asking how they're doing in return—which, ironically enough, Noah gets called out for this exact thing multiple times in the book! <spoiler> Brian gets Noah, an inexperienced teenager, a paying job and Noah spends the entire time being a brat? Drew goes out of his way to plan cute dates, and all Noah can think is "can't believe he didn't tell me we were going hiking and let me wear jeans" and "why the hell didn't he bring water"??? Becca helps Noah constantly with the Diary and solves a bunch of problems for him, and Noah is pissed that Becca had to study for a test and didn't have time to make a blog post immediately?? </spoiler> And yet somehow, despite this issue getting brought up several times, somehow everyone in his life just magically forgives him after yet another half assed apology without any real changes?? Even his relationship with Drew was so unbelievable—first, that this perfect guy (as described by Noah) would appear at exactly the right time to save Noah's Meet Cute Diary, and that they would just fall in insta-love after 3 dates and absolutely nothing in common? Drew was definitely not perfect, but just like every other relationship in his life, Noah was also using Drew for his own selfish needs ("I can't make him mad because then he'll break up with me and ruin the Diary"—TALK ABOUT TOXIC RELATIONSHIP!).

Even when, at the end, <spoiler> Noah and Devin get together, it was so absolutely unbelievable I thought I had missed something. Why would sweet, kind, amazing, beautiful Devin fall in love with Noah, who has literally been a TERRIBLE friend and coworker the entire time? </spoiler> This isn't even to mention the myriad of other problems I had with the book: the ending was so rushed and out of left field that it felt like the author had written herself into a corner and didn't know how to solve the conflicts, so just decided to write a rushed ending where everything magically works out, Noah suddenly has a complete 180 personality change and realizes his wrongs (but still BARELY does anything to correct them), and then everyone gets a happily ever after because <spoiler> Devin is somehow the sweetest and most forgiving person on earth and coincidentally eir dad got a promotion so the family could move to California and conveniently avoid any difficult breakups?? </spoiler>.

The most unbelievable part of this book is that Noah still has any friends and love interests at all, not because he's trans, but because he's straight up unlikeable. I only finished the book to see if Noah would finally face some consequences, but alas, that didn't happen.

I really enjoyed this book! The representation especially is something that is so needed for teens and I think a lot of young readers will really identify with the characters. The blog vs real life scenarios made for some fun but gut wrenching moments, both qualities that I love to see in a book.

Emery Lee's debut novel Meet Cute Diary strongest attribute in certainly in its representation. In the story, we have a trans and multi-racial protagonist with friends and family that love him. There is a Cuban supporting character who is genderqueer and asexual. The protagonist's best friend is a lesbian. Minor characters in the story are also shown to be a part of the LGBT community. The amount of casual questioning and embracing of pronouns and identity is a joy to see in Young Adult literature today.

Noah Ramirez runs a popular blog dedicated to giving trans people everywhere hope for their "happily ever after." Only a few people know his secret, like his best friend Becca. When Noah decides to spend a summer in his brother's college town while his parents get their new home set up in California, he secretly hopes that finally, one of his fictional "Meet Cutes" can become the real deal. The premise of this book is very sweet, and is a relatable theme for teenagers everywhere learning to handle changes in their lives. This book discusses a range of relationships and the main character must learn for himself what it truly means to be in a healthy and dedicated relationship with another person.

At times, the book can be frustrating due to Noah's self-centered and dramatic nature. Many opportunities to provide support for friends and loved ones with dialogue are often exchanged for venting sessions and rants. Noah is a judgmental person with a quick temper, and none of these things change by the end of the book. Early on, opportunities for genuine connection are brushed aside for fantastical blog ideas. By the end of the book, Noah does learn some things about what it means to recognize others' needs (and his own), but there is a feeling that it is "too little, too late" to make a fully satisfying ending.

Such a sweet and heartfelt debut! I wish there were more uplifting books about trans and non-binary people like this around when I was younger. This is sure to help queer teens see that they are not alone and have every chance for joy and romance in their life (something I was not made to feel like as a teenager).