Artifacts of An Ex, by Jennifer Chen, is a fun YA novel. It is about relationships, both past and present, and how each one brings something to our lives. It all starts when a box of mementos are returned as a shocking way of breaking up. The receiver regroups and makes art out of what was almost trash. Thanks, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with an ARC ebook to review.

At first, I found this book difficult to enjoy. I felt like the author tried to accomplish a lot in one while also not clearly defining each character. I felt as though the characters were very one-dimensional and lacked substance at times. The love story between Chloe and Daniel was intriguing and I really enjoyed how that was developed. I felt like Chloe's relationship with her Ahma could've been better developed, yet this made her character feel far more human. As the story progressed, I did enjoy the plot line following her art exhibition "Heartifacts" and Daniel's documentary, however much of the dialogue felt very corny or cliche. I really would've loved to see more of Vincent's character to be better developed because he did serve a crucial role to the back half of the plot. All in all, this book was entertaining, however, it was not my favorite whatsoever. It did not add something new to the genre, rather it fit the basic cookie cutter love story.

A cute, light-hearted story about friendships and relationships told through art. If you are looking for a feel good book I recommend picking this one up.

The setting and the story line of this YA read made me fall in love with this book. There was great representation throughout the book as well. Overall, it was a fun and quick read.

4/5 stars

After a break up, Chloe Chang starts an art exhibit made up of other teenagers break boxes filled with memories of their relationships. When she mets Daniel, sparks fly between the two of them, but Daniel doesn't want to be her rebound. Daniel has a history of being a rebound. His last five relationships started off like that and he doesn't want to be the guy who makes someone realize they want to go back to their ex again. Chloe works on showing Daniel that she is in fact ready for another relationship.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book took me back to high school - and mostly the good parts of high school. If you are fan of YA romances, this will be right up your alley! I thought that Chloe's age seemed a bit young for all that she was accomplishing, but overall enjoyed the plot and watching her manage it all.

I am a sucker for cute covers and this definitely caught my eye! I haven't read a good YA in a while but the cover obviously caught my eye and I loved the idea of getting over an ex and art. There was a theme of familial relationships, friendships, and diversity/culture.

I would be interested in reading more books written by Jennifer Chen!

Thank you to NetGalley for the book!

Their relationship felt natural and I appreciated the slow burn friends to lovers aspect. Overall this is a cute story that isn’t just about romance it’s about family and great friends. It’s a fun lighthearted YA contemporary romance perfect for any romance fans.

This was a really heartwarming story as we follow Chloe, Daniel, Vincent, and Francesca of friendship, love, growth, and understanding. Teenage heartbreak is always so hard to capture but Jennifer did so in the most beautiful way. I enjoyed this from start to finish and couldn't put it down. I found myself screaming "NOOOOOO" when she brings in influencers and things that are not part of Chloe's personality and vision and excited with Heartifacts 2.0. This is a novel that will make your heart so happy and is an awesome read!!

unfortunately, this book was just okay for me. I did fund the whole heartifacts exhibit fascinating but there were parts when it felt a little too info-dumpy. I did enjoy Chloe as a main character, her little happy planner aspect was cute and enjoyable. Although chloes pov was pretty solid I do wish that we also got daniels POV, he felt so one-dimensional and I feel getting his POV would've immensely helped with that. Overall this book was just okay for me, it had all the elements for the perfect YA romance but unfortunately fell flat. However, I would definitely consider reading from this author again.
.
Thank you negtgalley and the publisher for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book! Chloe’s family has to move from NYC to LA when her grandma’s health starts to decline. She gets dumped by her boyfriend via a shipped box of mementos from their time together. Instead of pitching the items, she decided to make an art display of items others have also saved after breakups. Plans change a bit when on the night of her display showing, she meets Daniel who is also a creative. They hit it off, but Daniel is determined to remain just friends after having been rebound guy a lot in his short time dating. Loved the relationship between Chloe and her grandma and Daniel and her grandma.

4.5 stars!

very cute cover! a cute, light-hearted story about friendships and relationships told through art. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for a review.

Artifacts of an Ex was a cute and fun read. Perfect for fans of YA, this one has all the classic YA romance vibes with some great Asian rep.

I’ve never kept something from a past relationship.

Mostly because I feel like there’s nothing much to keep. A receipt for that one lunch you had together? It’s just a receipt. Tickets from that amusement park that opened up in town? Not necessary after you’ve already been.

But apparently, I’m in the minority of people who think this way, because Chloe has no shortage of teens to choose from who have kept a shoebox full of things from their past relationships.

I wasn’t a fan of Chloe throughout this book, as she seemed a little too wishy-washy. She sets a rule that there can be no cameras in the exhibit in order to maintain people’s privacy, but then changes her mind when she sees a Hot Guy recording his best friend’s reaction. In fact, she teams up with him to create a mini movie to play on the walls while people walk around!

I also felt like Chloe should have been older than she actually was. This book focuses on a 16 year old creating an entire art exhibit and managing it behind the scenes, but the only thing I could think of throughout was “would a 16 year old really have access to this sort of opportunity?” To just give a teenager full access to a space and let her do whatever she wants with no guidance?? I kept thinking Chloe was in her 20s, only to be surprised when a reference to her being in high school came up.

I will say, however, that I enjoyed the relationship between Chloe and Daniel. Seeing his reluctance to get into a relationship because of the relationships he had been a part of in the past and how similar those girls were to Chloe was an interesting take on this type of love interest, and especially made his big declaration of love near the end an exciting moment (though hers made me legitimately cringe so hard I had to put the book down).

I don’t think Artifacts Of An Ex was a bad book, but I also can’t say I particularly enjoyed myself with it.

I reached 14% and had to call it quits on this book because it had started annoying me so much. Maybe it gets better, but I don't have the mental energy to push through and find out.

Let me back up a bit first, though, and explain why I wanted to like this book. It's the story of a high schooler who moves across the country with her family, only to get long-distance dumped by her heartless boyfriend who pretends everything is fine until she gets the package he sent containing everything she'd once given him and a crappy breakup letter. She decides that instead of trashing the mementos, maybe there's value in using them for her art exhibits. Thus, the concept of 'Artifacts of an Ex' is born. She also, seemingly (based on the cover and blurb), finds new love along the way. And, of course, makes new friends as well. The concept sounded unique, fun, and like it'd be a sweet and mostly light read. That's exactly what I was in the mood for: something saccharine-sweet and not overly stressful, about moving on and overcoming a bad breakup.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the reading experience I encountered.

Now, at first, I rather liked the book. I even liked the protagonist, Chloe. I mean, how can I not feel empathy for a character who was cruelly dumped and who's struggling to fit in after moving cross-country? She seemed nice enough for the first ten to twelve percent, so all seemed to be going well... Until it wasn't.

Turns out she's the kind of girl who thinks someone is both gay and in a relationship yet still ogles him excessively - including publicly staring at his butt - while mentally acknowledging and dismissing that she really shouldn't be doing it. And who thinks that being the curator of an art exhibit entitles her to steal the phone of someone who was filming a friend observing the exhibit (containing pictures of himself!) while citing some nonsense about the privacy of the people in the exhibit. Between that nonsense and the often-cringeworthy dialogue, I very quickly fell into disliking Chloe and being more annoyed than entertained by the book.

On top of that, I ran into the situation where basically everyone these days adds a grandparent with Alzheimer's or dementia into their book, but nobody includes content warnings for it. I know maybe it's a bit much to ask, but for me I find this kind of content deeply upsetting and sometimes full-on triggering. Every time I get put into the head of a character who's watching that decline, I just want to curl up and cry, feeling like I'm reliving my own, similar trauma. I prefer to know what I'm getting into so I can detach myself and brace for it, or completely avoid the story if I'm already in a dark mindplace. But I didn't get any warning, and it's certainly not something I expected from a light YA romcom type book.

So, yeah. This book and I just are not meant to be. It's a shame, but it is what it is. And I think it's best for both me and the book that I don't keep pushing myself to read more. Not all books are for all readers, after all.

That said, I do think this book has so much potential to work well for others with different writing style preferences and character behaviour tolerances. Don't let my explanation of why it doesn't work for me deter you, unless you also happen to hold the exact same preferences I do. And even then, free samples exist for a reason if you'd have otherwise considered this book. But it's not for me and I'm not interested in ploughing through to the end when I'm already so annoyed and not even a quarter through.

(Note: Netgalley FORCES a starred review, but I do not believe in starring reviews for DNFs unless they contain something absolutely egregious. This book doesn't deserve to be rated lowly by me, and I will not be including a star rating on Goodreads. I'm sorry that I had no choice but to include one here.)

Artifacts of An Ex was a cute and heartwarming exploration of teen love, art, and moving on. The premise of the novel sounded super intriguing, and I loved how unique the art aspect of this novel was. I really enjoyed seeing Chloe and David's artistic nature come into play with their unique exhibits and filmmaking. Their cultural backgrounds as Korean American and Taiwanese American teens living in LA was also super interesting. These were perhaps my favorite aspects of the novel. While the romance was sweet, I did feel like it dragged on for much of the novel. So much of the story was Chloe repeatedly asking David out and being rejected because of her very obvious feelings for her ex Jake, and it did feel repetitive. Additionally, the dialogue felt very unrealistic for a group of teenagers living in 2023. It definitely felt like the characters' dialogue had been written by an adult writer writing outdated Disney Channel-esque dialogue. For these reasons, I would rate this book 3.5 stars.

This book wound up not being my style, since I like closed door romance, and right away the character is talking about sex. No wonder she has a hard time breaking up with her ex when she has made that connection that shouldn't be taken lightly.

This is exactly what I was hoping from it, and more. It's a solid debut YA romcom, and one that has me very excited to see more from this author!

What really stood out for me in this book are two elements: the incredible eye for detail, and the focus on art. Every description in the book is so vivid and detailed that it was so easy to picture everything, and it made for such an enjoyable read to know so many details about every scene. It made everything feel very real.

And it was so fun to read about Chloe's art project, which was given a lot of thought and attention, and sounded so very interesting. Chloe goes through a lot of growth through working on this project, so it's truly entwined with the story.

this was such a cute romance, i loved that it was with exes. this was so realistic as well. i was happy with flow of the story

This book was so stinking cute! I had a tough weekend and this helped me get through it. It's a feel good, romance, sweet, cute book. There's growth from the character from angst and getting her emotions out to really finding herself.