A bisexual teen girl tries to make her ex jealous by faking an Instagram romance that leads to surprisingly real feelings in this hijinks-filled rom-com perfect for fans of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and She Gets the Girl . Ava “Fitz” Fitzgerald has worked hard to create the picture-perfect life she’s always wanted. She spent her junior year transforming her passion for sustainable fashion and upcycling into a viral online platform, maintaining a 4.0 GPA, and spending every free second with her soon-to-graduate girlfriend, Danica. And this summer she plans to take it all to the next level by attending a prestigious summer fashion program in New York City and convincing Dani that they can survive a year of long distance. But when Dani dumps her before classes even start, accusing Fitz of being more invested in growing her online persona than deepening their relationship, she’s left not only heartbroken, but also creatively blocked. Fitz will do anything to win Dani back, even if that means taking a break from the platform that she’s worked so hard to build. But just as she decides to go all-in on a hiatus, a chance encounter reunites her with Levi Berkowitz, her childhood best friend that she hasn’t seen since elementary school. Levi is struggling with heartbreak of his own, and this cosmic coincidence sparks a new use for her social media savvy. Fitz offers to help Levi craft a fake relationship online to make his person jealous…if in return he can pretend to be her boyfriend in front of Dani to make her jealous. If all goes according to plan, by the end of the summer they’ll both be reunited with their perfect partners and get to rekindle their friendship in the process. Sometimes even the most carefully designed plans can come apart at the seams, though. And when real history leads to not-so-fake feelings, Fitz will have to decide if she’s finally willing to let go of what she thought was picture-perfect and choose what might actually be right for her.
Publication Year: 2024
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0~~Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC!~~
2.5/5 stars rounded up.
I honestly don't have many feelings about this other than it's fine.
There are a lot of important/relevant themes for YA readers, such as mental health, identity (personal, queer, or otherwise), navigating friendships and family, all things that should have resonated with me but didn't. I was half-way checked out by the halfway mark because my care for this story began to severely wane.
This bled into my investment into Fitz and all the other characters. It felt like Kanter was trying to make the whole cast much more interesting than they were. Levi's mom, for example, is shown to be this badass mom with tattoos and ~life experience~, but she only shows up two or three(?) times throughout the story and I never felt anything about her beyond what's told to us. It seems like all the characters have one main thing, and that's all there is. Levi's a plant dad, Dani's an actress, Em is the distant roommate, I just could not find a reason to care about any depth when I really wasn't finding any.
Despite my thoughts, I'm sure this would make a fine, maybe impactful, read to any teen who happens to pick it up. It still has good queer rep, and the discussions of perfectionism and mental health are done really well.
Overall, this wasn't for me, but I believe this book will have its audience when it releases.
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