Falling for your best friend’s crush? Not something Tilly ever planned but it’s true what they say: cupid will get you when you least expect it. When Tilly’s best friend Teddy ropes her into a plan to woo his dream girl, she can’t say no, especially once she realises just how intriguing Katherine is. Katherine’s off limits, that is just simply best friend code. There’s no way Tilly could ever hurt Teddy by going for the girl he’s sure is the love of his life. But avoiding temptation is easier said than done as the three of them spend more time together. All too quickly, Tilly will learn that the heart wants what it wants…but that hearts are much more fragile than she thought.
The writing style of Cupid’s Revenge is certainly something different, it reads like a story Tilly is telling you without editing which is quite fun because it makes you feel the immediacy and definitely reminded me of all the awkwardness and freedom that comes with not filtering your thoughts before you speak. The writing style really captures what it’s like to be a teen who’s still figuring it all out.
Theatre lovers’ hearts will beat faster—there’s enough drama backstage to rival the actual play (which, as a newfound theatre girlie I highly appreciated) and all the references to hit West End shows that made my heart beat faster and made me itch to listen to the cast recordings again. There also comes a certain kind of community you just don’t get with anyone besides a theatre group of people. Don’t ask me to explain this, but everyone here had a distinct charisma to them that really stood out.
The actual plot is as messy as feelings are when you are a teen—we have a heady cocktail of emotions as Tilly is struggling with what to do about her growing feelings for Katherine while also not wanting to hurt her best friend who, despite having had his heart broken a few times in the past already, is a hopeless romantic. On top of that, there’s also the fact that Tilly is dealing with a personal loss and that her grandfather is about to move in with her family because he cannot live on his own any longer after a devastating Alzheimer’s diagnosis. In a weird way, this was my favourite part of the novel because I really feel like this representation is lacking in fiction. We often get stories about people living with Alzheimer’s, but rarely do we see how it affects the people around them and just how common it is to take care of an elder family member. Tilly coming to terms with what this means for herself but also for her family as well as her relationship with her grandfather was a heartfelt addition to the story.
Really, the only thing that bothered me while following Tilly’s inner monologue was just how often she kept making comments in her thoughts about her crush Katherine being naked and what she’d do to her. Now, don’t hate me, I absolutely love sex positivity in all kinds of fiction and really appreciated that depiction but it also made me a tad uncomfortable how often—and how out of the blue—Tilly immediately thought of Katherine naked with no rhyme or reason. I totally get hormones but the frequency level it was included here read more so adult book level for me than teen. But this is a very subjective opinion and odds are you won’t even notice.
One last thing that I need to mention is that this book references the lockdowns (aka it is written in a time post-lockdown) and boy let me tell you how weird it is to see Covid-19 repped in a YA book. I know that we used to talk about this pandemic being something children will read about in a few decades in history books but tell me why I found it more jarring to read it in fiction when I myself lived through it. Yet I really liked that we got to see just how much the pandemic impacted artists and the theatre industry, which might have been overlooked a lot during the last few years. Something to ponder for sure.
If you’re looking for a story with all the ups and downs that come with crushing on someone you’re not supposed to crush on, Cupid’s Revenge is going to keep you entertained with its messy, relatable protagonist, theatre shenanigans and the joys of first love.
Cupid’s Revenge is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of January 2nd 2024.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
For fans of Casey McQuiston and Alice Oseman, a girl falls for her best friend’s crush in Cupid’s Revenge , a queer young adult rom-com from Wibke Brueggemann that’s equal parts hilarious and swoon-worthy.
It was never Tilly’s intention to fall in love, but Cupid will get you when you least expect it. That’s exactly what happens when Tilly’s best friend, Teddy, ropes Tilly into a plan to woo his dream girl, aspiring actress Katherine Cooper-Bunting. It turns out Teddy’s not the only one who finds her dreamy.
But Katherine is off-limits. The only thing more important than Tilly’s feelings for someone she just met is not hurting Teddy, whose heart has been broken in the past.
Avoiding temptation is easier said than done, as Teddy convinces Tilly to help him audition for a local play as a way to get to know Katherine better―a complete horror for someone who grew up in an artsy family but doesn’t have a creative bone in her body. On top of dealing with her growing feelings for the girl she shouldn’t like (but who may like her back), Tillie is still grieving a loss while navigating her grandfather’s recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis. So yeah, that’s a lot for any sixteen-year-old to handle without Cupid’s vengeful arrows getting involved.
