Kels makes incredible cupcakes to go along with book covers for her book reviews on her blog, One True Pastry. She has a ton of Instagram followers and is killing it on Twitter. She even has the best, most talented online BFF, Nash.
Halle struggles with making friends. Large and even small groups of people causes her severe anxiety. She has a hard time figuring out what to say to people and gets all tongue-tied when she tries.
Thing is, Halle IS Kels.
Kels is just Halle's online persona for OTP (One True Pastry). Being the granddaughter of a famous editor and the daughter of Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaking parents, Halle wanted to make sure her online content was actually good instead of coasting by on her family's success. And the "double life" works for her. That is until her and her brother move to Connecticut to live with their grandfather for the year and she runs into her Internet BFF Nash IRL! I don't want to spoil the book, so I won't go into more of the plot, but suffice it say teenage angst and drama ensues.
I really liked this book. It was cute. I gave it 5 stars, which I'm sure some people would disagree with me about, but I'm okay with that. It was a fun, fast read. Some people might not enjoy it as much. It's about highschoolers. In the book, they deal with a lot of high school stuff. But I also think it's a great example of different things. The struggle to be yourself. How easy it is to get caught up in an "online life" instead of living your real life. Grief and what that grief can trigger within us. Sure this book was written for "YA" and yes there were moments when I was like WTF Halle, but those are also just normal human things to deal with. There's no real age limit to trying to stay true to yourself. It's just as easy for adults as teens to get caught up in the online hype. Grief. Well, we know grief doesn't discriminate.
There were two particular quotes that stuck out to me while reading. The first one is earlier on in the book when Halle is attending Shabbat (I think it was then) and the second is towards the end when everything has gone sideways.
"...I don't know if I believe in God, but I do believe in this. In people. Together."
"Friendship is messy. Hard. Infuriating. Awesome. Fragile. Durable. Impossible. Worth it. Always worth it."
I'm currently writing this from my apartment, during the pandemic, as it gets harder and harder to be away from the ones I love. It's another universal truth, no matter if your a YA fan or not. Friendships are hard. Sometimes they suck. But we need them. No matter your age. And not being able to see my friends (and family) has made me realize how much I took them for granted sometimes. I just assumed I'd always be able to see them.
Since Halle's thing is cupcakes, I decided cupcakes had to be the food pairing for this book. Red velvet cupcakes are talked about a lot in the book, but I went with my favorite: yellow cake with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles! Not going to lie, the cake part was from a box mix, BUT I did make the chocolate cream cheese frosting. :)
All-in-all, if you're looking for a cute, fun, uplifting book then I say give What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter a try! Also, it was 100% the inspiration for me starting this blog, so thanks, Marisa Kanter! :)
Thanks for stopping by!
-Kim
P.S. I sent my fiance this picture and he said it kind of looked like him and I so of course now I'm keeping this book forever. <3
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