Bookishly Ever After, by Isabel Bandeira

I was really excited to get my hands on an ARC of Bookishly Ever After, by Isabel Bandeira. The book was released earlier this month and I think it will appeal to lots of YA book lovers for one reason -it’s all about being in love with books. Genius! There are things I loved about the book and things that bothered me. To be totally honest, the formatting of the ARC was really wonky, which I think could have messed up my reading experienced. But I’m trying not to let that biased me. But before I give more of my opinions, here is the book blurb: In a perfect world, sixteen-year-old Phoebe Martins’ life would be a book. Preferably a YA novel with magic and a hot paranormal love interest. Unfortunately, her life probably wouldn’t even qualify for a quiet contemporary. But when Phoebe finds out that Dev, the hottest guy in the clarinet section, might actually have a crush on her, she turns to her favorite books for advice. Phoebe overhauls her personality to become as awesome as her favorite heroines and win Dev’s heart. But if her plan fails, can she go back to her happy world of fictional boys after falling for the real thing?

I totally loved the idea of a book nerd main character, but in fact the way this was handled ended up being my biggest complaint. It felt like the whole you like books so you are a total nerd and don’t know how to act around boys or social situations thing was overplayed. I understand there might be correlation between those things, but the book seemed to treat them as causation. This rubbed me the wrong way, not enough that I didn’t enjoy the book though.

Dev and the romance were definitely my favorite parts of the book! I liked Phoebe a lot as a character. Even though she was nerdy and awkward, she was very sure of herself in other ways.

I’m definitely excited to see what other readers think when they read the book!

*I received an ARC copy of the book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.