Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this e-arc. I loved the romance so much. It was just what I needed ALL THE FLUFF.

I really liked this book! Fluffy, sapphic, contemporary romance for the soul. A lot of theatre madness and extremely lovable characters. Teenagers that actually feel like teenagers. I’m looking forward to reading more from this author!

Revenge of the theater nerds! I appreciate how the author uses some Shakespearean tropes to build the story, as well as the honesty of their characters. It's a fun book that gives a romcom vibe to theater.

I previously read Love is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann and loved the quirky yet endearing cast of characters in that novel. This book has a similar set of characters, and plenty of Shakespearian antics. I didn't love it as much as the prior book I read from this author, but it's still one I'd gladly recommend to queer teenagers. This book SCREAMS theater kid, in the best way.

With a plot reminiscent of the best Shakespearian comedies, Brueggemann makes sure to keep the antics at a 10 through this book. A fun coming of age for any young queer reader, especially those who love theater.

I want to thank the publisher Macmillian Children's Publishing Group for giving me a copy of their new book, Cupid's Revenge.

Publication Date: January 2, 2024

The author's name was unique as I have not read a book of theirs prior to this one. Wibke Brueggemann grewup in northern Germany as well as the United States. She studied such topics like romantic history and Renaissance art which showed through this book. Not only was this a sapphic teen romance book but Tilly and all the friends she made from joining a summer play with scenes from Macbeth and a Midsummer Night's Dream. The book itself reminded me of a Shakespeare comedy.

I am 30+ years old but I enjoy teen novels as a form of nostalgia. I was not a drama school kid when i was a teenager, but I had a lot of friends who were. It felt like I was in high school again!
The love triangle with Katherine, Tilly and Teddy was keeping me on my toes. I can usually guess what will happen in the end, but I love to see how we get there. Teddy was a character I knew well in real life; someone who loves love and falls for someone hard, even if the love is never reciprocated. I was surprised when he was all of a sudden alright with Tilly and Katherine being an item. Maybe there will be a sequel to talk about his love life.

As the author calls the UK home, they had common terms from the UK like "chocolate digestives" and "crisps". Most of what I remember is food related words that I googles along the way. I had myself giggling on how some words sounds odd to me but I'm sure it's a two-way street with comment USA terms.
Covid even held a big role in the book as well. I can tell the author may of wrote this during a tough time for us all. It made me realize that a whole generation of kids were going through the woes of puberty during a scary time in our world's history.

I gave the book an overall 3/5 stars. There felt like there was something missing but i cannot figure out what. The book was small so the pacing at times was fast and the scenes i didn't get a great picture of. If this book had 50-100 pages more I believe it would of been a lot better.

Sweet, funny, romantic, and with a side of the heavy topic of a family member with dementia. I really enjoyed this book. Tilly is a funny, engaging character and she kept me laughing as she navigating the trvails of not feeling like she fits in with her family, while falling for the girl her best friend likes, all while trying to care for her grandfather.

I really love this book and its big-hearted story with an extended cast of characters who are all doing their best to put on a sort of community variety show for charity. Highly recommend!

Read For:
Lesbians ✨️
Hurt/Comfort
Getting Together
Forced Proximity
Light Enemies to Lovers

Summary:
Tilly is dragged to a play so her best friend can impress a girl he has a crush on. With a family full of creatives, her parents, her sister, and even her Grandad who just recently moved in with them due to health issues, Tilly was the odd one out, the boring one who had nothing to do—at least in her family's eyes.

Naturally, she trips and falls for her best friend’s crush, the girl no one expected to be a lesbian too. Though just how long are they able to keep their stolen kisses a secret?

So when her best friend is no longer able to play his role Tilly has to face more than her fear of being on stage.


Review:
This book was absolutely lovely!! Thank you so much to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this eARC.

There was so much character development that happened within this book. All the side characters were detailed and really made the experience all the more entertaining.

I absolutely adore the humor and the overall writing style of this book. The pace was great, the plot was entertaining, the characters had good personalities, and the setting was portrayed quite nicely.

The grief was written so well in this book, how the loss of one of her close friends affected her. Tilly mentioned several times about death, how her Grandad could die and she would be the one there to find him or when her best friend Teddy was skateboarding she freaks out about him almost getting hit by a car. It's in the subtle things and the pain and panic are really brought out front and center. Seeing Tilly heal and not see Grace was really nicely done.

And the relationships, both romantic and platonic were so wholesome. I loved how there wasn’t really any homophobia with any of the characters. I also quite liked how this book ended, the relationships were great.

Lastly, I loved all the fanfiction talk. It was so funny when Teddy mentioned about how fanfiction dynamics worked and also his love for CareBears.

Overall, this was just an amazing read and I'm happy to have read it. Definitely one of my favorite sapphic reads of the year.

Release Date: 02, January 2024
POV: First Person
Spice: 🌶️🌶️
Rep: Lesbian (MC), Lesbian (LI), Non-Binary (SC), Gay (SC), Dementia (MC's Grandad)


⚠️Content Warnings:
Graphic: Dementia and Grief
Moderate: Cursing and Mental illness
Minor: Child death and Death

I wish I loved this more, but there was a lot of miscommunication and I hate that the most in a story. I think others will enjoy this more than I did.

3.5 stars

Tilly has been roped into a scheme by her best friend, Teddy, to help him land the girl he currently has a crush on: Katherine Cooper-Bunting. Thus, Tilly helps Teddy prepare an audition for the local play. Sincer Katherine is an aspiring actor. Too bad Tilly doesn’t consider herself creative.

What TIlly also doesn’t bank on is developing feelings for Katherine Cooper-Bunting. And have those feelings reciprocated. To top it all off, Tilly also has to help out as her Grandfather, who has Alzheimers’s, moves into their house.

Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for an advanced copy of Cupid’s Revenge by Wibke Brueggemann to review! I am officially into reviewing 2024 books, which feels both weird and exciting. And it looks like there are some great books coming out this January you’ll want to keep your eyes on!

This is a very character/dialogue driven story. Though I’m not an English teen, the tone and the pace of the dialogue did feel accurate to teens, and Brueggemann overall does a great job of capturing that teen feeling. There’s some love drama, some trying to figure out where your future is going, some trying to figure out family drama. It all works together pretty well.

At times, however, the story did feel a bit repetitive to me. I think that’s due in part to the miscommunication trope, which isn’t my favorite in rom-coms. Just talk to each other already! Especially when it came to Teddy and Tilly. I know grief partly factored into it, I just wish they had been able to work things out sooner.

Despite that, there are some well developed relationships throughout, and the characters were pretty well rounded. It’s a light, fun read which will be great to start out the year 2024 with!

This book was a wild ride, so much happened but then again it also felt like a normal teen romance. There were a surprising amount of deaths, and serious topics brought up in this novel. It was hard to truly embrace this to be on the romcom spectrum just because of all the stuff Tilly (the mc) experienced. I would also like to note when I saw that it was two best friends crushing on the same girl, I thought Teddy was a girl as well, it was quite a surprised when he was introduced in the beginning. But that did make this book more fun to read! There are highs and lows to this book, I enjoyed seeing the development and introduction to a variety of characters and a more realistic and serious look into how Alzheimer's can affect a person and their family. I just wish that Grace (who is mentioned periodically but not a main focus point) got her story fully fleshed out. It felt like there were more things to be addressed regarding her relationship with Teddy and Tilly and how her death impacted their relationships with each other and their families. It felt almost deserving of a short prequel (i would be interested in reading that). Overall, this book was a good read and something that I would request for my library to purchase and add to my recommendation for friends list.

An addictive, but also truly emotional read. It was so well-written, too. Young adult readers will love this one.

I absolutely love the concept of this book, but had a hard time getting into it. It is, however, super well written and so so cute.

Holy, Holy Shit. I adored this book. I absolutely tore through it. It was such a heartbreaking mix of emotion I felt like I was watching a really fantastic coming of age movie the whole time. The characters are electric and so real, I felt myself genuinely panic alongside them. And as someone who has been through what Tilly has been going through, it really hit close to home. I cannot reccomend this book enough.