Any Boy but You, Julie Hammerle

Netgalley copy in exchange for an honest review. 

The Blurb

Elena Chestnut has been chatting with an anonymous boy late into the night. It’s a very You’ve Got Mail situation, and she has no idea who he is. He can’t be Oliver Prince, hot-and-bashful son of the family running the rival sporting goods store. Their fancy sales strategies are driving Elena’s family out of business. Elena’s mystery boy has teamed up with her in their latest sales strategy, an augmented reality game, to help her win the grand-prize plane tickets. Money’s so tight Elena’s going to miss senior year spring break with her friends if she can’t win this game.

The girl Oliver's fallen head-over-heels for online had better not be Elena Chestnut. She's his angry, vindictive Latin tutor, the daughter of his dad’s business rival, and the one girl he’d never even think of kissing. She’s definitely not his online crush, because that girl is funny, sweet, and perfect.

When Oliver asks to reveal their names at the Valentine’s Day dance, their IRL relationship will either ruin what they have online, or they’ll discover just how thin the line between love and hate really is.

My Thoughts

Here is a general overview of the state of my heart after reading this book (or even while reading this book): aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwww! I am a puddle of warm and sweet feelings. 

This was so sweet and heartwarming, I do want a big hug right now. It was not too much sweetness, though, and it tackled quite a lot of nice topics, such as sexual identity, divorce, with on the one hand seriousness and on the other hand a lot of fun and humour, too! These many ingredients made the perfect recipe for a heartwarming novel that made my heart melt, for sure! 

The characters were incredibly realistic and funny, thanks to Julie Hammerle’s writing, and I enjoyed reading the quick, snappy chapters. One thing I particularly liked was that the reader gets elements from both sides of the story, which is always a bonus for me: you get Elena’s perspective, and you get Oliver’s as well.

I also liked the whole message behind the book: no one is truly bad and evil, you have to dig in to discover the beauty in people. Of course there are always extreme cases and I’m not asking everyone to see in pink and everything. But for once, when life is hard and tough, reading a positive book makes people feel great.

It certainly worked for me.

★★★★★

Links 

Goodreads 
Author's website 
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