*3.5 stars*

This was a cute YA romance. This gave the vibes of those cheesy teen romance movies, and I really enjoyed it. I liked both MCs, Jamie was very complex and was dealing with a lot, but I appreciated how the author wrote her journey in a very realistic way. I loved Axel, he was such a fun and enjoyable MMC. Their relationship was really cute, I loved all of the cute dates they went on throughout the book. I appreciated the representation for anxiety, panic attacks, and IBS. I thought the author addressed these issues very well and I loved the messages behind a lot of this book. I really enjoy Jackie Khalilieh’s writing, she’s very good at making you feel like you’re watching a movie in your head while reading. Overall, this was a fun and heartfelt read.

This was a great young adult read! It reminded me back of when I was in high school and young love. I ate this book up. I loved the FMC, Jamie. I could really relate to her and her anxiety as I suffer from anxiety myself. Axel was such a sweetheart and understanding and I loved him! I got Never Have I Ever vibes from this book, and I loved that show. I loved how Jamie came full circle and learned her wrongs and made them right. It was not only a romance book but a putting yourself first and fixing family relationships book. I also loved all the inclusion talked about in this book. I highly recommend!! MY review will be posted on my instagram in the next few days. @paigetopagereads

Thanks to Tundra for letting me read this book early. All thoughts are my own!! 3.5 stars rounded to 4!

You Started It is a YA romance book full of family, laughs, and finding yourself after your life completely changes. To me, the theme of this book is about finding yourself and learning who you are during a tumultuous time. I really loved the parts of this book that explored Jamie’s family dynamic. I loved seeing her reconnect with her family in multiple ways. Family is so complicated, and I really loved the way this book handled it.

Jamie is such a complex character. I definitely relate to her need for a plan and knowing everything about something to help soothe anxiety. I really loved her interactions with Olivia towards the end of the book, and I’m so glad there was closure between those characters.

Axel is definitely my favorite character in this book. He may have been the youngest, but he definitely was the most emotionally mature of the core four teenagers, with Olivia right behind him. I really appreciated what he brought to the story.

While this is a Young Adult book, I do think the constant back and forth with all of these characters got to a point where I couldn’t keep up. Within one chapter, Jamie would change her mind about who and what she wanted multiple times. Ben did it a lot too, and I just found myself not really rooting for any of them to be together by the end. I really felt like they all just needed to get some space from each other. I almost needed to keep a timeline of how often they all switched around who they liked at any given time. It’s definitely realistic for high schoolers to change their minds some when it comes to romantic interests, but this was too much for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why Jamie reacted the way she did for a lot of these things, but it gets to a point where someone needs to start calling her out on it because she’s causing more issues and hurting people unnecessarily, which Axel did eventually. And I loved that he did.

If you’re looking for a very messy and complicated YA romance with a lovely side plot about family, then this is the perfect book to read!!

Absolutely adored this!
The anxiety representation reminded me of how I struggled when I was a teenager and I really do enjoy seeing it represented more in YA books. Jamie and Axel were super fun much to Jamie’s chagrin but she had some real growth which I loved following.

Just finished You Started It and I’m officially a Jackie Khalilieh fan. Axel? LOVED him. Sweet, confident, TikTok-dancing king. If you’re cringing at that, maybe unpack why joy makes you uncomfortable. He was such a lovable, sunshiney presence — totally stole the show.

Jamie… whew. As a fellow overthinker with Big Feelings, even I was like, girl, please chill. She was in her own head 24/7, which slowed the pacing — especially in the last third. I kept thinking the story was wrapping up... and then it just kept going.

Still, the deeper themes hit — especially the look at internalized bias within Jamie’s family. That part was handled with a lot of care.

Despite the slow bits, this was such a cute, heartfelt read. Fake dating, Arab rep, Toronto vibes, a dreamy love interest — what more could you want? Definitely adding Jackie to my auto-buy list.

This was such a strong young adult fake dating story. It took a moment to feel immersed in the prose, but there's so much character growth here. The characters hold one another accountable, as they should, which leads to beautiful development and self-realization.

💜 Young Adult / Coming-of-Age
💜 Anxiety / Mental Health Rep
💜 Fake Dating
💜 Opposites Attract
💜 Arab / Palestinian-Canadian & Lebanese-Canadian MCs
💜 Identity

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

Oh YESSSSSS! Sorry, let me be chill for a sec. This book is so YA it's magnificent. Sometimes, despite adult level problems or conflicts of identity, connection, community, and decisions to make, young adults are just that: young adults. So, let's get silly, heartfelt, adventurous, and hurt with these wonderful characters that Jackie Khalilieh has crafted.

One of my favorite things was that, even though there were certainly miscommunications (they're humans after all), the main romance was full of such thoughtful and clear communication to ensure that needs were being met while having as much fun as possible. Jamie's learning to deal with/the way she has learned to manage IBS and certain situations (due to anxiety and autism) were very relatable to my particular experiences. All in all, this book was exactly what I was looking for, and I look forward to reading Khalilieh's next book ❤️

I thoroughly enjoyed You Started It! This was such a cute story with a lot of heart. I LOVED Axel's character! If you're all up in the Goodreads reviews cringing over him being a dancer who likes making TikToks...grow up and stop being embarrassed of everything!! Axel was so sweet, lovable, and fun. 10/10 big fan.

Honestly, I found our female main character, Jamie, pretty annoying. She was very critical of everyone around her, overthought everything, and had BIG feelings and got super caught up in her own drama. I've been known to overthink things and have big feelings, but SHEESH. Even I thought this was a lot. I think that dragged the pacing down--from 70% onward, I was like "okay is this book over yet? Let's wrap it up!" It just kept going and going and going and could've been done way sooner.

Aside from that, I really liked the theme of dismantling your own internalized discrimination at your ethnicity, like Jamie's mom was doing with regards to Arab men.

All in all, a fun read with an adorable cover and awesome love interest! Definitely worth reading.

Genre 📚: YA Contemporary, Romance, Coming-of-age
Tropes 💁‍♀️: Fake dating, Opposites attract
Rep ✔️: Palestinian-Canadian main character, Lebanese-Canadian love interest
CW ⚠️: Anxiety, claustrophobia, panic attacks, alcoholism
Rating ⭐️: 4/5

New auto-buy author unlocked. I just finished Jackie Khalilieh’s Something More and immediately jumped into You Started It. And now I want her next book. Her characters are endearing, easy to root for, and so full of life that I’m willing to forgive them for any teenage rage and miscommunication (I’ll get to that in a sec).

Jamie’s family life has been messy and unpredictable, making her an anxious planner. She likes knowing exactly where her life is going — so it’s a total nightmare when her boyfriend of three years suddenly dumps her for another girl. Thankfully, the new boy in town Axel swoops in, and like a true romantic hero, he covers Jamie by pulling the fake dating card. They begin a partnership (he helps make the ex jealous, she helps with his TikTok biz) while also developing a friendship (he joins her on her bucket list mission, she gets to know his lovely Arab family). It’s all adorable.

Then, the miscommunications started happening and all hell broke loose. It was hard to read Jamie constantly self-sabotage, but it made sense with her character and what she’d been through. What was important for me was her arc, how she handled it and grew from it, and honestly, the execution was pretty damn satisfying. She had a lot to work through — not just with Axel, but with every relationship in her life — and she fully committed. Were some of her tactics cringe? Absolutely. But the girl’s, like, seventeen. We were all cringe at seventeen.

I love Jackie and her writing. She writes truly beautiful stories with beautiful characters. It was a great storyline, it flowed perfectly and the challenges felt realistic. The only thing was the dreaded third act breakup for me.

This one was a bit too YA for me.
A perfect rom com story for an actual youth reader.
The characters are well written and the story is easy to read and follow. Definitely recommend to any teen romance readers!

3.5 stars, rounded up

This is a very cute, very high school romance story. Jamie and Axel and Ben and Olivia really read like high schoolers, from the way they talk to the way they react, think, and behave. It unfortunately highlighted the age difference between me and these characters. I enjoyed the story but had to keep shutting up the voice that wanted them to be more mature or less emotionally fraught. And that's a me problem, not a book problem.

Axel is my favorite! He's so sweet and enthusiastic and unapologetically himself. I found Jamie a little harder to connect with. I loved seeing her growth, especially around some heavy topics, but I wasn't as invested with her as I was with Axel.

This book covers a lot of topics: Palestinian heritage, Arab heritage, alcoholism, abandonment, anxiety, teen pregnancy, and more. And while I applaud Jackie Khalilieh for tackling so much, it felt like a lot of these were glossed over. The impact even one of these would have on the characters and their lives felt underwhelming.

Technically, the pacing of the book is off. The fake dating situation came about too soon, which pushed up the timeline on everything that came after. The ending dragged a little before we get to the HEA. The dialogue was cringey and stilted at times, too. And this is just me being picky but is that really the best title?

All that aside, it's still a cute, fun read! I will happily recommend this to the younger readers in my life.

<i>Many thanks to NetGalley, Tundra, and the author for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.</i>

When I say I loved this book, I’m saying it with my whole chest. I love the characters and premise. I love Axel so much and I need to read more from this author.

Better Than the Movies meets Olivia Rodrigo's Sour in a new YA romance novel from Something More author, Jackie Khalilieh.

Seventeen-year-old Jamie Taher-Foster has big plans for senior year. She's made a list of things and places in Toronto she and her boyfriend of three years, Ben Cameron, need to check off before graduating. And the biggest plan of all: a very special night for the two of them at the upcoming Winter Formal. But then Ben arrives back home after a summer away with an unthinkable announcement: he wants to break up.

And when Jamie discovers him with Olivia Chen the next day, she is determined to get him back. Even if that means fake dating the younger, curly-haired, TikTok dancer Axel Dahini, whose bicycle she accidentally ran over.

Though she and Axel have nothing in common aside from their shared Arab heritage — she's a messy, type A with anxiety; he's carefree but meticulous — their forced time together brings them to better understand one another. And for Jamie, it just might mean learning that not all experiences or people need to be crossed off a list.

This was a cute fake dating romance. I was also really invested in the plotline with meeting with her father again and discovering more of her identity.

A beautifully messy, heartfelt exploration of heartbreak, growth, and learning to embrace who you are.

Jamie Taher-Foster, a seventeen-year-old with big plans for her senior year, is thrown for a loop when her boyfriend of three years, Ben, breaks up with her just before the Winter Formal. In an effort to win him back, Jamie ends up in a fake dating arrangement with Axel Dahini, a carefree TikTok dancer she accidentally ran over with her bike.

Despite their stark differences, Jamie’s anxious, type-A tendencies and Axel’s laid-back yet meticulous nature, their forced time together leads to mutual understanding and growth. Jamie starts to realize that life isn’t just about ticking off boxes or checking off lists.

Khalilieh excels at crafting complex characters, and Jamie is no exception. She’s messy, anxious, and full of insecurities, yet incredibly relatable in her flaws. Watching Jamie navigate her own emotional chaos and slowly open up to who she really is was an empowering experience. Axel was the perfect balance for her—kind, charming, and patient, and their dynamic was one of my favorite parts of the story. The scene at the Arab wedding was an absolute highlight!

The side characters, particularly Amo Eli, added a lot of depth and humor to the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Sooooo… I’ll be honest, at first I wasn’t that into Jamie and her character as a whole. Although, I KNOW why she acted the way she did, her dad left abruptly, then her boyfriend of three years dumps her for another girl... Jamie was going thru it.
Jamie and Axel’s story was very sweet, Axel got her out of her shell, her comfort zone, and made her realize that not everything needs to have rules or be planned out. I really liked that they both brought the best out of each other, saw each other’s interests/hobby as something that is a part of one another. I think both Axel and Jamie (mostly Jamie) grew as their own person, held themselves accountable, and bettered themselves.

I don’t suffer from extremely bad anxiety like Jamie does, but I do have so I really liked the anxiety representation. Reading how it’s different for others, because it’s true, someone’s anxiety can be as badly as Jamie’s maybe even worse. And while I’m reading a fictional romance story, I really love reading and learning about other cultures, things that the authors put in based on their knowledge and experiences.

Honestly, I did enjoy this book. It took me longer than it usually does to finish a book, but that’s a me thing, been a major reading slump for every book I start. And once I started this book I didn’t want to not finish it because I knew It’d be good, and it was.
Overall 3.5 maybe even 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️’s !!

This book was absolutely adorable. I love being able to read books that I know my students will enjoy, and this is for sure one that will have to hit the shelves! I also think I will be going back and looking at her other books because these will definitely be a hit!

Endless praise to Jackie Khalilieh!

Full disclosure, if I had known that You Started It was YA before I started reading it I don't know that I would have requested it, which would have been a HUGE MISTAKE. This was such a fun, lighthearted read and as a former Torontonian it was so nostalgic to imagine running around the city and going on these cute dates.

Enough fawning; let's get to the summary.

Jamie Taher -Foster is a 17 year-old girl with a plan: once her boyfriend of three years returns from his stint as a camp counsellor, they'll start their senior year and check off all the to-do's on their list (including touristy dates and losing their virginities at the winter formal) before heading off to University and living happily ever after. But all of Jamie's plans come to a screeching halt when her reunion with Ben ends with a breakup because he wants to be with someone who is more spontaneous.

Jamie is determined to win him back, and enlists the help of.... a random stranger whose bike she just ran over with her car in an attempt to flee the scene after witnessing Ben kissing another girl in front of his house. Naturally.

Axel (the cute and carefree Arab hottie, now without a bike) and Jamie start to fake date, running around downtown Toronto and experiencing everything the city has to offer, all the while navigating the coming-of-age challenges that shape us into who we are. In reconciling their roles within their larger family dynamics, healing residual feelings of trauma, and facing their biggest fears, Axel and Jamie find more than they anticipated in their unexpected partnership and might just fall in love along the way.

I loved everything about this book and really appreciated the focus on Jamie navigating her complex family dynamic as her situation really resonated. I laughed out loud more than once at comments made by sassy Amo Eli and really liked the redemption of both parents (as we learn more along with Jamie). I recommend this book to any fans of the YA/romance/rom-com genres, even if YA isn't your usual thing: this was a good reminder for me that romance is so fun even without spice!!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc of You Started It.

Unfortunately, this novel didn’t quite catch my attention like I had hoped and was excited for when I requested it. This is definitely a book that is targeted to the YA audience which is why I’m sure it would be a good read for the younger ages. It touches on tough topics that I know so many are going through right now, which could help them feel connected in that aspect. Just because it wasn’t for me, doesn’t mean it’s not something I’d recommend to those I feel would really enjoy it! Thank you, again.