Finally Fitz follows Fitz, a young bisexual fashion influencer who, after being broken up with by the girl she literally moved to New York with for the summer, enlists her childhood best friend to pose as her boyfriend to make her ex-girlfriend jealous and win her back. Levi, similarly nursing a broken heart and wanting to get his ex back, is all too happy to reconnect with his best friend after unexpectedly running into her again. What neither of them realise is that the relationships they want to repair might be the ones they were actually faking…
The publisher said take five but Marisa Kanter heard change lives.
I don’t even have words for how much I loved this book. I went in with very little expectations and left the story feeling like I just ran a marathon because wowee do these characters go on a emotional rollercoaster.
Kanter expertly portrays just how messy and magical friendship dynamics can be. From those friends that have shaped your development to those new ones you make in the blink of an eye but can’t ever see yourself letting go of again, the beauty of this story is in (re)connecting with the ones that make you feel like you can be yourself around them.
Finally Fitz really hones in on relationships and not just romantic ones. One of the driving forces of Fitz’s desire to make it in the fashion industry is to prove to her family that she also deserves to be a priority for them and that she can make it on her own. Babied by her sisters and often looked over by her parents who are always busy and had to juggle affection between so many kids, Fitz just wants to be valued and seen. While I don’t have siblings, I could absolutely feel how tough it was for Fitz to be left out of all the conversations and, no matter what she did, not getting the chance to connect. It’s a subplot that adds so much to her character and helps you understand why she is the way she is and how she deals with failure and insecurities in her professional life.
Overall, that really seems to be the theme of this book: Making you as the reader feel like you’ve been stabbed. The third act conflict was especially brutal. The way Kanter managed to portray how much the people you love can hurt you precisely because you show them your vulnerable side which they then use to destroy you was so humbling.
Lest you think this is all pain and no fun, though, rest assured that Finally Fitz also has epic moments of friendship, shenanigans and the most wholesome acts of romance that will make your heart flutter. Fitz and Levi have an insurmountable amount of chemistry from the very first time they reconnect and while they’re both struggling with broken hearts, they end up mending them together. Rarely have I seen such a strong connection between two characters as is the case with Fitz and Levi. Every interaction was laced with emotions —good and bad ones—and even when they were fighting, you couldn’t help but notice just how much love was behind it all. The twist to their fake romance and the eventual blow-out was so well done and left me gasping.
I could list five hundred other things I loved about this book but one that needs to be mentioned is the focus on social media and failure. Fitz has created this whole empire with her fashion Instagram and Levi has a plant-focused Instagram and both of them reflected their individual personality to a tee. Fitz wants her life to be picture perfect and is her own worst critic while Fitz wants to be the caretaker that makes this world a bit brighter—yet doesn’t realise that he sometimes focuses on the wrong things to mend. I loved all the discussions surrounding expectations vs. reality when it comes to social media, how you constantly second-guess yourself and what you post and how sometimes, finding your way back to authenticity is extremely hard especially when others use your successes to make you feel bad or tell you you don’t care about what’s real. I think this storyline overall is what makes this book work so incredibly well and what will have readers connect with Fitz and her fight for her voice to be heard.
Overall, I can’t wait to reread this book the moment it releases.
Lovers of the childhood best friends and fake dating trope will devour Finally Fitz, a touching romance featuring insightful discussions on social media’s influence on our sense of self, that is perfect for fans of Emily Henry and Ashley Herring Blake.
Finally Fitz is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of April 23rd 2024.
Will you be picking up Finally Fitz? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
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.
