"A hilariously fresh and romantic send-up to You've Got Mail about a gamer girl with a secret identity and the online bestie she's never met IRL until she unwittingly transfers to his school, from the bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties, The Obsession, and Well, That Was Unexpected.
Seventeen-year-old Kiki Siregar is a fabulous gamer girl with confidence to boot. She can't help but be totally herself… except when she's online.
Her secret? She plays anonymously as a guy to avoid harassment from other male players. Even her online best friend—a cinnamon roll of a teen boy who plays under the username Sourdawg—doesn't know her true identity. Which is fine, because Kiki doesn't know his real name either, and it's not like they're ever going to cross paths IRL.
Until she transfers to an elite private school for her senior year and discovers that Sourdawg goes there, too.
But who is he? How will he react when he finds out Kiki's secret? And what happens when Kiki realizes she's falling for her online BFF?"
I got an ARC of this book.
I really needed a book like this. It was pretty quick. It was witty. It was full of heart. It was a great rom-com. It was that sort of rom-com that makes you feel good for having read it. It really was a great book and should not have taken me as long to read it as it did.
The book is funny. There are great jokes. There are great characters. Eleanor Roosevelt needs her own book as soon as possible, thank you. While this is not as laugh out loud funny as Dial A for Aunties, it does a marvelous job of being a rom-com. It was exactly what I wanted out of a rom-com and then some. My only real critique is the ending is a bit rushed. The ending has a big reveal, the fallout, and the wrap-up all in about 20-30 pages. I wanted a bit more out of the fallout and the wrap-up. Sorry to be vague, but without spoiling the whole thing I have to be.
There was a lot more sexism than I was expecting, but it also felt like it fit the book. Kiki doesn't stand for misogyny and watching her keep fighting was thrilling. She was clearly right and I wanted her to win each and every battle. She deserved to win. I needed her to win. Kiki was just so wonderful. She was easily angered. She was insecure about boys, but also the quickest to not take any of their flack. She was complex in a way that I adored. She wasn't a cookie cutter heroine. Instead she was a gamer girl who has strong principles and a great sense of fairness.
While it is a sequel, there is not a great deal of overlap between the books. The group are slightly related, Eleanor Roosevelt appears in both, but the romance and the plot is really self-contained. So if this one feels like a better fit than the first, go for it.
4 out of 5 stars. I would recommend this book.
You can buy the book here.
~Isaiah
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