“Friendship is messy. Hard. Infuriating. Awesome. Fragile. Durable. Impossible. Worth it. Always worth it.”
Marisa Kanter! Girl, this was cuuuuuuutesy. I appreciate your passion and knowledge for everything YA! I’m all about the abbrevs, tbh. Clapping 👏🏼 it 👏🏼 up 👏🏼 for this debut novel. 😜
Internet friends turn into IRL crushes. Halle Levitt is just a kid who bakes cupcakes that match book covers and has an opinion, like everyone else on the internet. Eye roll 😛. Halle created One True Pastry (OTP) under the pen name Kels aka 😎 incognito. Her blog, OTP, is dedicated to the two greatest things on Earth- YA books and cupcakes. Hi, I’m SOLD🙋🏼♀️. Nash Stevens, fellow blogger and crazy talented graphic novelist, is Halle/Kels pixel BFF. They chat about anything and everything. With the exception of who she really is🙈. Kels + Nash = Endless 😍 heart eyes😍. THE OTP. I ship them! Guess what! Halle arrives to spend senior year in her gramps small town where she just so happens to run into IRL Nash. 😱GASP! Nash has infiltrated Halle’s life. Halle has infiltrated Nash’s life. He invites her into Le Crew. Yet she remains a secret🤐 because she doesn’t want to ruin the non-awkward magic of their digital friendship. However, she’s falling for Nash IRL… but he’s in love with Kels. Love triangle! Fake love triangle? It’s more like a line since it’s only two people. EEP! Gramps is beyond precious! He’s a ⚡️Potterhead and it’s darling. Gramps took the sorting hat quiz. He’s a Hufflepuff. But has yet to come to terms with his Puff-ness.
All the HP references made me feel super young at heart and left me grinning 😁 like a Cheshire cat. Another thought…Nash and Halle deal with grief. Even though, on the screen as Nash + Kels, they thrive on sarcasm, banter, and angst, they deal with their grief as Nash + Halle. I related to Kels’ life lesson on friendship- 👭🏼real friendship- it’s not easy. “It’s knowing the world might be a trash fire, but it’s less trash when there are people to help navigate the darkness.” I love that. SO true in this season of quarantine. Check on yo’ friends! If you like the perfect escapism in the form of YA romance, this is for you. Now, who has curbside pick up for cupcakes?🧁
🎶 song: Sugar by Maroon 5 🎶