From the Bookshelf of Literally Leander…

This Time It's Real

Ann Liang

Start date: July 1, 2024

Finish date: July 31, 2024

Discussion: Book Discussions - 2024

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Showing 2 of 6 topics — 10 comments total

Book Discussions - 2024

* June: Chaos & Flame
By Leander Publi… · 2 posts · 6 views

last updated Jun 10, 2024 09:37AM

* May: Stars and Smoke
By Leander Publi… · 1 post · 4 views

last updated Apr 30, 2024 09:50AM

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What Members Thought

Aug 07, 2023 Kristen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: romance, family-and-friendship, contemporary, young-adult, celebrities, cute-n-fluffy

I guess my point is that I do believe in love. Really. I'm just not convinced that kind of love could ever happen to me.

After Eliza Lin turns in an English essay about meeting love of her life, she expects to get a grade and move on. She doesn't expect the essay to go viral overnight, nor for her newfound internet fame to bring her dream internship to her front door. The only problem? The essay was completely made up--she's never dated anyone, much less been in love. But she can't give up the opportunity to jumpstart her writing career, even if means lying to everyone. First, though, she'll need someone to pretend to be her perfect boyfriend... and she has her eye on Caz Song, the up-and-coming actor and fellow student at her international school in Beijing. But what happens when feelings start to feel less than pretend?

Okay so first, I'm a sucker for fake dating tropes. And two, I'm a sucker for celebrity/non-celeb romances. So here I am. *waves*

I really liked Liang's debut, If You Could See the Sun, and given that not one but two of my favorite romance tropes were happening in this book, I knew I had to read it. And truthfully, I loved it. 5 stars.

I've been in a major reading slump lately and was worried that my general apathy towards reading would lead to negative feelings about This Time It's Real, but I adored every moment of this book. Eliza is a very real narrator who is flawed and has fears--namely drifting apart from friends due to her family's history of moving from one country to another. She has a bit of a character arc over the course of this relatively short novel, but the romance is first and foremost. Other characters, like Eliza's love interest, Caz, are fairly well fleshed out for the roles that they play, though no one is quite as multidimensional as Eliza.

Despite the two obvious tropes, I felt like this book was also, in a small way, a love letter to Asian dramas. Of course K-dramas have become uber popular alongside K-pop, but Chinese dramas also have a special place in my heart. There are a few "drama moments" that were included that just heightened how much I loved this book.

All in all, this is a super sweet, cute, fluffy romance. The chemistry between the leads was awesome and the banter was perfect. The only thing I wished was different was the end of the book--I felt like there was still room for the story to play out and wrap up Eliza and Caz's relationship and the lies it was originally founded on. ...more

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Oct 15, 2022 Christine marked it as to-read

Shelves: literally-leander-book-club

Mar 13, 2024 Susan Stearns rated it really liked it

Sep 01, 2023 Leander Public Library added it

Shelves: age-group-young-adult, multicultural-representation, romance, contemporary-fiction

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