This book had Kelly's heart written all over it, book blogging, Instagram'ing, and baking. There were other elements that really resonated with me as well but I'll get to those. Halle is living with her grandfather for her senior year and has a very successful blog and Instagram called One True Pastry where she pairs books with cupcakes--hello, amazing!--but she uses an alias for her online persona for many reasons. Anxiety, her grandmother's infamous name in the book world, privacy; but when she comes face to face with her online bestie Nash, she freezes and doesn't tell him his online BFF is Halle is real life...eep!
I don't mind a good miscommunication in a storyline...if it isn't dragged out unnecessarily. I have so many things I loved about this book but I like to start with the negative and end with the positive. Two things really bothered me with this book and held it back from being almost 5 stars for me. One of those things is a moderate spoiler--stop reading now if you don't want to know--and that is how long she keeps her identity a secret. Oh. My Lanta. WAY too freaking long! It got to the point of ridiculous and I was not happy about it, this could have been a much tighter and shorter book and honestly, should have been.
The second bothersome event was there is a thread of plot where a YA author says she wants her books to be enjoyed by people of all ages and not just teenagers. Halle and her internet friends all take major offense to this and I didn't like the rhetoric that adults shouldn't read YA. While I 100% truly believe YA is FOR teenagers, it does the genre a disservice to minimize it's reach and importance overall to say only people of a certain age (and maturity and intelligence level, etc.) can read these books. I don't really know the author's motivation in having this as a plot point because it made the characters, to me, appear immature and egocentric and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Ok, now let's talk the great stuff. The baking. THE BAKING was so fun! I loved reading about Halle's process and ideas for how to incorporate a book cover into her cupcakes. When she talked about her blog and reading and reviewing books it brought me way back to when I started my book blog and how excited I was to make new friends and talk books and get all hyped on all things literature! The drama on Twitter was also a familiar landscape, oh the drama of the book world, things I will never miss.
Another theme/plot Halle works through is the loss of her famous editor Grandma who helped cultivate her love of books and baking. She was really close to her Grandma and the loss of her is felt with every book and cupcake. I lost my Grandfather when I was a teenager and I still feel that loss and how hard it was to lose such an important person in my life at that age. Her grief and trying to work through that was an aspect that deeply resonated with me. It was very sad but I loved how this was dealt with, especially helping her Grandfather deal with his grief and how they all moved through it together.
Her anxiety of never feeling like she can fit in with those around her is the reason she keeps her identity a secret for so long. I understood and empathized with her desire to be liked for herself and not her online persona but it still went on for too long. I loved seeing Halle grow into herself and realize her self-worth and how special and wonderful she is. I also found her hot and cold routine with Nash endearing and adorable. Le sigh.
I wanted so badly to give this book 5 stars because there was so much amazingness in it but what I didn't like, I didn't like a lot. Still worth reading but go into it knowing a few things might be annoying.
What I {Didn't} Like About You: the length, the miscommunication, the Twitter drama, the cancel culture, the anti-adults reading YA
What I {Loved} Like About You: the baking, the reading, the blogging, the YA books, the Instagram, the romance, the grief, the family dynamics, and Halle herself.
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