A light, easy read. Like other reviewers have noted, it would have been useful to see more interaction between the two main characters as their relationship seems to develop mainly off page.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC for an honest review.

I was looking forward to reading this story but sadly it fell a little flat for me. At some points it felt like it was lacking more build up to establish more between Brad and Rose. I would have liked to have seen more of their interactions just to make their connection and relationship more stronger as I felt like it was slowly building up but didn't have enough to suddenly become what it did.

It had some cute moments and despite hating the fact Rose was basically forced to go to a fat camp despite not wanting to, when she puts the trainers in their place about making people hate themselves and rheir bodies was great.

This romance novel centers around two main characters, Brad and Rose.

Dallas takes you through their journey of insecurities from their point of view. As they grow to accept their new found confidence, due to each tackling their own fears and doing something about it, you can actually relate to how they see themselves and how they change and learn to love and accept who they are.

This Story is inspiring and motivational. It defines the fact that it is what you are inside that matters. “Beauty is skin deep” “ Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder”

I honestly could not get past the first couple chapters.

I know it was was an ARC, but the spelling errors were hard to get over. Not to mention, the quick changes in point of view, I had trouble following along.

Thanks, Carissa, For Ruining My Life is a YA book that follows the stories of Brad and Rose. Due to the actions of Carissa (Rose’s twin sister and Brad’s ex), both of these characters have ended up in some not so wonderful situations. Throughout the book, they both grow in their love for themselves and eventually develop an interest in each other.

Read if you like:
*dual POVs
*characters leaning on each other through triumphs and struggles
*a story of self-discovery

DNF 25%

Purtroppo non sono riuscita a finirlo. Lo stile non è proprio fatto per me, non riuscivo a immedesimarmi nei personaggi e a farmi venire voglia di continuare a leggere…
Mi dispiace perché la trama e l’idea secondo me sono proprio buone!

There were so many typos it was hard to get through this. But I made it though and it was enjoyable. I will be buying a finished copy when it’s published. I really enjoyed the character growth. The writing flowed great even with the typos.

This book had a fluffy and tropey premise. The writing was engaging but the plot was not very unique and felt a bit boring and stretched out. Rose was not a character I really liked or was rooting for. The miscommunication felt quite annoying and I didn't like that it was the foundation of the story. It was a light-hearted read but not my favourite.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the free e-arc.

I thought this was a great story. I loved how Brad and Rose told there stories throughout the book. This is a great YA book that is very relatable with the topics of self image as well as other teenage struggles. Everyone needs to read this book it’s definitely a page turner!

Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read and review this book!
3 stars
This is the miscommunication-trope, the friends to lovers trope, and the finding oneself trope. As the titles, the mc life seem to revolve around our villain, Carissa and god did the author really make hate her character so an applause for that. But of course Brad and Rose have other their own eternal problems apart from the main problem of Carissa. I enjoyed the dual point of views, something we don't see often that was done great. Although it felt a bit repetitive at times, it was still enjoyable. Of course there were moments where I had to close the book due to cheesiness but the romance between mc you could felt it.
Overall, it was a nice-cozy read.

Well, that sure was a book that I read. Good news? I finished it in a day. Bad news? I literally had to beg myself to keep reading the book because I'm stubborn and didn't want to DNF it.

tws: mention of fatphobia, parent with cancer, classism, mention of death of a friend, food policing/disordered eating, self esteem issues

This book was utterly, utterly predictable and honestly provided nothing of substance for me. The writing was very childish and not super detailed. The author seemed to really enjoy "telling" rather than "showing". (I did this. We did that. Brad did this. Carissa did that.) Like, every single thought, action, idea, etc was blatantly written out for the audience; there was no nuance, no subtext, nothing of depth or dimension. This was especially proven with the dual POV of Brad and Rose. If something Big happened in Rose's chapter (ie her and Brad being close to kissing), we would know how she felt about it. Instead of Brad's chapter just moving on from where Rose's chapter ended, we would get a recap of the Rose chapter and everything that happened - but from Brad's perspective. And then the same exact thing would happen from Rose's perspective. It felt so redundant and repetitive that it got to a point where I would just skim the first few paragraphs of the chapter, as I already knew what happened.

Speaking of things lacking depth - the relationship between Brad and Rose was the most superficial, boring relationship I have read in a minute. I was 30% of the way in and couldn't figure out when they were going to connect, and then both seemed to have other romantic interests and I just got bored with the idea of the "Brosie" relationship.

Additionally, there was little to no communication between Brad and Rose at all. For two people who were supposed to end up in a relationship, you'd think they'd learn to communicate. Brad and Rose continuously had miscommunications followed by miscommunications that could have easily been solved.

I wanted so badly to like this book - I am such a sucker for mutual pining and dual POVs, but unfortunately, this book just fell short in every other aspect of the story.

Finally, in the acknowledgments section, the author stated that this book has been written for about a decade. In the nicest way possible, it shows. The book just feels very dated - from the idea of "Fat Camp" (to the characters only ever referring to it as "Fat Camp"), to the scene where Brad uses a post-it note from his car to write down Rose's address, it was just not current.

I will say though - towards the end of the book, Rose had a whole pep talk after her final weigh-in, and it was one of the best parts of this book.

I also do hope Daniel has a good day though. He seems like a good kid.

Overall, I likely would not recommend this book; if I did though, I would probably only recommend it to a middle schooler, or someone else much younger than I.

also an honorable mention to my note of: "we have mentioned brad’s youtube channel no less than 4 times in 40 pages… we get it. he has a youtube channel. he does stand up. we GET IT."

Thanks, Carissa for ruining my life is a young-adult coming of age romance that I can already guarantee would win the hearts of many. So, let’s talk about Carissa. Just imagine that perfect girl in your school/college who is literally perfect in everything. That’s her. Perfect grades, perfect fashion sense, perfect boyfriend. She rules everything and everyone around her. You name it, she has it. But it’s not her story, no.

It’s actually the story of two people very close to her. One being her very own twin sister. Rose. Rose isn’t as quite as perfect as Carissa. She’s shy, loves food, books and music, and is fat. She’s okay with it. She doesn’t want to be perfect like Carissa but of course, Carissa doesn’t see that and signs Rose up for a workout retreat that will stream on national television.

Then, on the other hand, there’s Brad. Carissa’s perfect boyfriend…more like what he used to be. As it happens, Carissa finds a way to dump Brad and now Brad has to find a way to get back together with Carissa, be better and perfect for her. Be perfect like her. Just like Rose has to try and push her weight insecurities aside to work out and have that ‘perfect’ shape.

This book is a light-hearted teenage romance with an amazing message about self-acceptance and loving yourself (and others) despite the imperfections! Needless to say, reading this book made me want to slap this book on all those people in my life who always see faults in me and others, yes, even some of my friends and family.

I really appreciate how this author takes into account the fact that some people, even our friends and family who are really close to us, can be toxic and make us feel like shit and unloved even though in reality they just want the best for us. Just that their approach is wrong.

I love the way the author has written Carissa’s character. She’s like one of those annoying but perfect friend you have and in comparison to them, you’re always the ugly duckling or just a work in progression, second best person. I love how the author does not make Carissa a totally bad person. She thinks she always knows the right thing but she doesn’t. She cares about people around her and she’s there for people no matter how imperfect they are but the thing that makes her so annoying is that how she’s never subtle about it. THAT honestly, is very realistic and I love that about this character. (Also, when I say I love this character I don’t necessarily mean that I love this kind of person in real life. I just mean that they are written realistically and perfectly).

It is the most relatable book I’ve ever read and I already know that I will have to keep coming back to it to re-read it again and again because it is just that perfect. I’m exactly like Rose. I love music and books and I’m shy and fat. The only two things we don’t have in common is that she likes food and I’m not much of a foodie and that the romance she always wanted does come true, mine hasn’t…yet. As for Brad….

Brad…Brad…Brad….What wouldn’t I do to make you come true? He was just perfect. I have no other words to say. The guy who has the same music taste as you, waits for you in the Gym so that you both can work out together, is always supportive, doesn’t make you feel weird just because you’re fat…and…and…he ALSO writes you letters telling you about all the silly little mundane details of his life, like what he ate, what he was thinking, while you’re away. You’re kidding? Where can I find someone like him? Tell me please

Okay, enough fangirling. Let’s talk about the writing. You know when you start a new book and you have to wait a couple of chapters to finally get the hang of the character personalities and their unique voice and for you to kind of have this introduction with the author’s writing style. While reading this book, I didn’t have to worry about either of those things. Even reading the first chapter felt like I already know these characters since so long. I got immersed in the story immediately and the characters sounded so real, I could practically hear them in my head. So, yes, 10 out of 10 for writing as well.

I also loved, loved, loved the romance in this book. (Squeals) Like I said, it was so relatable. If you enjoy secret unrequited crushes, friends to lovers romance and I-like-my-sibling’s-boyfriend/girlfriend trope then this book would absolutely crush you…in a good sort of way. There are also many instances of love triangles that were really nicely done, so look out for them.

There’s only one thing that I have to complain about here and that is the fact that I felt that the story stretched in a few parts where it wasn’t really necessary. Like there were many parts in there about misunderstandings, and how someone would say something intending something cute and romantic but the other person takes it completely in the wrong direction…that was very interesting and rose the stakes but near the end, it also felt kind of stretched and unnecessary. Like the story could have resolved way before than it actually did. The pace became slow because of that, at least from my understanding.

The rest was *chef’s kiss*!! If you are fans of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, you should definitely check out this book. I would give this book an overall of 5 stars! Yay, I know. I guess this is my second five star read this year. So happy!

I wouldn’t have had the greatest opportunity to read this book, had it not been for Netgalley. So, I would like to give my many thanks to Netgalley and the author, Dallas Woodburn for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Highly, highly recommend for all teen/school romance lovers! The book comes out on the 8th of February, 2022. Mark your calendars! ❤

Thank you for reading.

Brad starts his senior year and he has everything going for him: he is hosting the morning announcement show and he’s madly in love with his girlfriend, Carissa. … At least until Carissa unexpectedly dumps him.

Rose is on cruise control, a wallflower who never quite lives up to her twin, Carissa’s perfection, especially since Carissa is popular and thin and Rose is overweight. She’s comfortable… until Rose signs her up to be on a weight loss reality show.

This book is told from Brad and Rose’s perspectives as the struggle and come to terms with how Carissa’s decisions have “ruined their lives.” But both soon realize that maybe she hasn’t ruined their lives after all… especially as they become closer with one another.

My take: This book was so dang sweet. Yes it had a ton of teen angst and Brad and Rose’s constant miscommunication was painful. But, this was also a book about discovering who you really are; a book about permission to step away from a stereotype, about being brave and going for what you want. I was so worried this book was going to devolve into Brad falling for Rose when she lost weight (because we), but it was the exact opposite of that. It was empowering and brought me back to my awkward teen days. This was a fast and super cute read. Do I wish the miscommunication wasn’t so drawn out? Yes. But the end result is uplifting and adorable..

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Unfortunately, I was quite excited for this book as it had plus size representation in a romance novel but I had to DNF this book at 13% due to the file not only missing many parts of words, I had been filling in the blanks but I gave up when i had seen words entirely gone and showing the € symbol.

From what I gathered in the first 13% of this book is that Rose, the plus sized main character is in a severely toxic environment and it is not showing the acceptance and ability to love plus size people but the fact they are encouraged to change and try and fit societies standards. The representation is overall toxic and can be very triggering to people who are plus size and reading this seeing a bad start to the direction of positive representation. I may come back to this later with a better and updated file but I am not sure about it due to the rough start of how Rose is treated

DNF in 60%, I was very excited about this book because the synopsis was pretty interesting. I love YAs and hate to do a bad reviews, but this book is so toxic. Probably the idea of it was to make us to not like Carissa but for me she is just a toxic mean teenager. I actually like the parts at the radio station and that’s it. Everything would be great if they just talk!!! Unfortunately this book was not for me sorry

I was excited to read this book after seeing the eye-catching title and reading the synopsis. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. This book was bogged down with lots of dialogue that didn't help the story progress. I didn't feel a connection with any of the characters and I felt like the main characters (Brad and Rosie) didn't have any chemistry. Even though I knew going in that this was going to be a book about their romance, I felt like it didn't naturally progress from the beginning. It was like one minute it was about their separate lives and the next minute they suddenly couldn't stop thinking about each other.

I especially hated Carissa. I recognize that the writer intentionally wrote her character in a way that we hated her but it was a little too over-the-top mean girl for me.

I am not usually a young adult fiction fan so I think that this book has potential for other readers out there who like the genre.

⚠️: body shaming, death of a loved one, cancer

Sorry but I couldn't finish it. I know it is a YA book. I knew that when I asked for it but honestly, it was too childish for me.
I was struggling from the very first line so I decided to quit.
Again, sorry.

DNF @ 30%. I love myself which is why I don’t think I can put myself through this book. Both main characters are ANNOYING. Brad and Rose are LOSERS. Brad’s shaking and crying in front of the whole school because he got dumped and Rose just lets herself be taken away to fat boot camp like girl what?????

Normally I love novels like this but for some reason I couldn’t get into it. I picked it up and put it down so many times that it left me frustrated.

This is a story of Brad, Carissa, Rose and a lot of miscommunication.
Brad and Carissa have been together for a while now when out of nowhere Carissa breaks up with Brad. He feels like his life is about to fall into shambles so he makes a detailed self improvement list to win her back.
Meanwhile Carissa's Twin Rose is on a Reality TV show Help Me Lose Weight and Live Again.

There is a lot of miscommunication involved between the three of them which is basically the central plot.