THE BOOKWORM CRUSH by Lisa Brown Roberts
Synopsis
This spinoff of The Replacement Crush featuring Amy and Toff is sure to melt your heart.
Shy bookworm Amy McIntyre is about to compete for a dream scholarship, and the only way to win is to transform from sidekick to the heroine of her own life. But that level of confidence has never come easy.
The solution? A competition coach. The problem? The best person for the job is the guy she’s secretly crushing on…local surfer celebrity Toff Nichols.
He’s a player. He’s a heartthrob. He makes her forget basic things, like how to breathe. How can she feel any confidence around him?
To her surprise, Toff agrees to help. And he’s an excellent teacher. Amy feels braver—maybe even brave enough to admit her feelings for him. When their late night practices become less about coaching and more about making out, Amy’s newfound confidence wavers.
But does Toff really like her or is this just another lesson?.
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My Review
Another home run by one of my all-time favorite young adult authors, Lisa Brown Roberts. In fact, THE BOOKWORM CRUSH is her best to date. This spinoff of THE REPLACEMENT CRUSH features Dallas’s best friend Toff, aka Flipper, and Viv’s best friend, Amy. Amy is on a mission to win a social media contest and meet her idol, romance author Lucinda Amorrato. Amy totally bombs it, literally and figuratively, on her first challenge, and it’s Toff to the rescue. He helps her escape from the police after her yarn-bombing of a park bench goes wrong. While the two have known each other forever, Toff only sees Amy as Viv’s nerdy book friend, but Amy has crushed on Toff for years. She’s shy and socially awkward, but she’s not a pushover. She reminds me so much of my own teen daughter I instantly loved her. But if she wants to win this contest, she’s going to need some swagger, and no one brings the swagger like Toff. She enlists him to coach her, knowing how dangerous this can be to her heart. Toff has his own demons, though. His father is getting married again. To Viv’s mother. And a much a he loves seeing his father happy again, he isn’t happy about the wedding. He just isn’t sure why.
The more time Toff and Amy spend together, the more Amy realizes her silly crush might just be something more, and the more Toff wonders how he never really noticed Amy before now. She has a fire and a spirit he admires. And when she starts to bring that swagger he so carefully coached, well, he feels things he never felt before. Things that are as exciting as they are confusing.
Plot
The main plot is definitely the romance between Toff and Amy, but the contest is a strong subplot as is Toff’s future on the pro-surfing circuit and his coming to terms with his dad’s upcoming wedding. Told in dual POVs, we get deep inside both character’s. Every subplot supports the main plot, building tension, conflict, and complexity, making this more than just a lighthearted romance, though it is definitely that. But the subtle weaving of the subplots into the main plot makes this a story with depth. Each plot and subplot has enough contention and setbacks to keep the story moving and riveting.
The Characters
The characters are amazing. These may be my all time favorite young adult characters. Toff is adorable a clueless surfer, albeit a bit of a player, but he never leads girls on. Which is why Amy’s reaction stuns him more often than not. And Amy is everything. Not only is she sweet and shy, but also passionate and driven. When she finds her swagger, she also finds strength and determination, never willing to just settle for whatever her longtime crush is willing to offer her. He love of books and devotion to her favorite author is endearing, but watching her come out of her shell made her someone to root for.
Top Five Things I Loved About THE BOOKWORM CRUSH
1. Amy. She’s funny, passionate, strong, brave, and smart — everything I want in my teen heroines.
2. Toff. He’s cute, funny, easy going, and a little clueless, but adorably sweet. And when he makes the big romantic gesture, he goes big instead of going home.
3. Surfing. I’m no surfer, by any stretch of the word, though I’ve tried it more than a few times. But my former roommate was a surfer and the whole surf culture is like a time warp for me. The lingo, the life, all of it brings back some of my favorite memories from that time in my life.
4. Books. As both a reader and a writer, books are life. The book-centric nature of this story wrapped around my heart and hugged it.
5. Growth. I loved watching both Toff and Amy grow through the story. Amy became the fierce competitor she always was, and Toff learned to accept that life and love evolve.
Bottom Line
My favorite LBR novel and the best YA contemporary I’ve read in 2019.
Disclaimer
I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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About the Book
Title: THE BOOKWORM CRUSH
Author: Lisa Brown Roberts
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: October 29, 2019
Pages: 400
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Romance/Comedy
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Links: Goodreads | Amazon│Amazon UK│Amazon CA│Amazon AU | Barnes & Noble│iTunes│Kobo│BookDepository
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Author Lisa Brown Roberts
About the Author
Lisa Brown Roberts’ award-winning YA romantic comedies have earned praise from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal.
Lisa’s teenaged self tweezed off all her eyebrows, crashed a car into a tree while trying to impress a guy, and accidentally went to prom with someone else’s boyfriend. When she couldn’t fix any of this in real life, she made up imaginary happy endings in her diary.
Not much has changed.
Lisa lives in Colorado with her family and many, many books.
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Where to find Lisa Brown Roberts
Goodreads | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram