If you/then you:
- If you liked Lara Jean Song’s POV in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, you’re going to adore spending time in Noah Ramirez’s mind
- If you want to read How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days but make it How to KEEP a Guy in 10 Days, then you’ll love Meet Cute Diary
- If you love meet cutes, you’re going to eat up the ones in this novel
Review:
First things first, this book is a trope heaven because you’ve got fake dating, forced proximity, friends-to-lovers, meet cutes and so many more. From the get-go we have Noah Ramirez, who spends his time dreaming up trans meet cutes that lead to epic love stories and posting them on his blog ‘Meet Cute Diary’ and that alone was such a validating, encouraging thing to have in a YA novel. Noah gives trans people, or anyone on the LGBTQIAP+ spectrum really, hope that they too can have a great romance. However, when someone accuses Noah of fabricating the stories, his only chance to save the diary is by showing his stories are actually real and what better way to silence the haters than by fake dating someone and posting about it online?
The drama in this one was high and there sure was a lot going on. From the treacherous relationship Noah enters into with Drew that has more ups and downs than a rollercoaster to Noah’s struggles with his best friend Becca who won’t call back and his trouble of finding a job that will get his parents off his back, Noah’s got a lot on his plate. Throw into that meeting the person who made him feel like it was okay to come out as trans and the illusion of surety kind of shattering, and you have one hell of a book. And though I absolutely enjoyed the ride, I had some quarrels with our main character.
If this were one of my term papers for university, I’d here go on an epic rant about Noah never quite leaving the state of solipsism and how his avoidance of moving into intersubjectivity prevents the reader from truly connecting to his struggles. Alas, you’re all safe because this is a book review and in the simplest of terms, I had a hard time staying in Noah’s mind because he is often selfish and inconsiderate of the people in his life that have done a lot for him. I’ve read in one review that Noah should get to be a teenager and that means he is going to be selfish and self-absorbed and honestly? 100% agree. We’ve all been at that stage in our teens and that’s what is going to make Noah so relatable to a lot of readers: he isn’t perfect, he makes mistakes, he cares about the wrong things sometimes and that’s all part of growing up. This is definitely on the younger side of YA and it’s completely valid how Noah behaves. I just wish that Noah’s realisation of how he treats others badly would have been included earlier in the narration instead of just shy of the end, since we get Noah saying he wants to do better, without ever really seeing him changing.
The introduction of Devin in around the first third of the novel, however, almost made up for my issues with Noah. Devin is a pure cinnamon roll, someone who hasn’t figured out their identity yet and on top of that, lives with anxiety and panic attacks. My favourite part of this book, by far, was this exploration of Devin who changes pronouns to try and find the ones that fit, to realising that they might never find the “right” words. I loved how supportive Noah was when Devin would ask him to address them with different pronouns and how Noah slowly realised the importance of being a good friend to someone who’s struggling.
Another thing I adored about this book was Noah’s relationship with his brother Brian. Brian is so supportive of Noah coming out and does everything in his power to make his brother feel safe, especially when others trivialise Noah’s identity. It’s the kind of big brother I think everyone wishes for and the few times these two spent time together really left me feeling wholesome.
So, despite not being fully on board with our main character, I really enjoyed this book. From the discussions surrounding sexuality and gender identity to figuring out what it means to be a presence online and becoming a commodity instead of a human being, to family bonds and restoring friendships, not to mention all the fake dating and compulsively readable progression of Noah’s and Drew’s relationship, this book has a lot going for it and I can see it becoming so many people’s favourite which has me beaming!
With a lot of heart, heaps of drama and a riveting cast of characters, Meet Cute Diary is a paradise for trope lovers and anyone who needs a reminder that friends are the real treasure to be found!
Meet Cute Diary is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of May 4th 2021.
Will you be picking up Meet Cute Diary? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
Noah Ramirez thinks he’s an expert on romance. He has to be for his popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary, a collection of trans happily ever afters. There’s just one problem—all the stories are fake. What started as the fantasies of a trans boy afraid to step out of the closet has grown into a beacon of hope for trans readers across the globe.
When a troll exposes the blog as fiction, Noah’s world unravels. The only way to save the Diary is to convince everyone that the stories are true, but he doesn’t have any proof. Then Drew walks into Noah’s life, and the pieces fall into place: Drew is willing to fake-date Noah to save the Diary. But when Noah’s feelings grow beyond their staged romance, he realizes that dating in real life isn’t quite the same as finding love on the page.
In this charming novel by Emery Lee, Noah will have to choose between following his own rules for love or discovering that the most romantic endings are the ones that go off script.
