This was so adorable and at the same time had so much feeling. Ramona has had a crush on Caleb for a year, but she doesn't know how to tell him. Instead, she hides behind her cosplay name and writes him a poem and gives him her email. They immediately start chatting and Caleb can't help but want to meet the girl he has told his deepest secrets to.
In the mean time, Caleb starts working at the diner that Ramona works at and the two get close in real life too. When world collide, will Caleb understand why she did what she did, or will he not want to speak to her again?
This is my first book about Cosplay and while I don't understand it for myself, I loved the integration of it in this book. I do understand the feeling of wanting to belong, espeically in high school. This gave Ramona the creative outlet and let her be who she is without judgement. I felt bad for her a lot of the time because she seemed so lonely, but with her Cosplay friends she lit up.
I thought this reminded me a little of You've Got Mail, but I also think it was deeper than that. These two were just trying to navigate growing up and making mistakes.
Thank you to Dreamscape, Netgalley and Alisa Emrich for an early copy.

Ramona is a teenage anime fan and cosplayer living in Georgia, After finding herself to nervous to talk to her crush, She decides to write a note for her crush and leaves it in his locker. She is surprised and delighted to find that he has sent an email back to her cosplay alter ego Rel, The two end up starting an online friendship where she finds out Caleb her crush is also a nerd. Ramona ends up befriending Caleb when he starts working with her at the local diner, leaving her in the awkward situation of having to tell Caleb she is Rel.

To start with I really loved Ramona and her character growth and development, she starts off shy but slowly begins to come out of her shell due to her friendship with Caleb. Ramona's struggles where also super relatable with feeling like her parents don't understand her and the bullying she faces from other members of her family due to her interests. I found the stakes realistic and resolution very satisfying, even if it was slightly on the unrealistic side. Caleb, Ramona's love interest, is also easy to relate to, he feels like he needs to hide his more nerdy interests because he is fairly popular, and the fact that his love of lord of the rings is from a connection to his grandfather really helped flesh him out.
Overall The story was a good time and very relatable.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book wasn’t anything new or exciting for me but the plot was cute and I enjoyed listening to it!

This is an adorable youth romance. Ramona has a crush and she's done a thing. she is really into cosplay, anime and such. She doesn't feel like her family supports her; unfortunately, her best friend recently moved away.

so meanwhile she has revealed herself to her crush but anonymously. Will she be brave enough to let her crush know who she is?

Nerd Crush takes us through what it felt like to crush on someone. The uncertainly of that crush will reciprocate your feelings, and friendships and the uncertainty of the future

I loved that Ramona lived her true self regardless of those around her judging her choices.

A great coming-of-age book for those "nerds" out there who need to remember to live their truth

Zoleka Vundla who voices the character is awesome with distinct voices. everyone sounds different and as I would think based on their personalities. The voices add that extra love to this story

A sweet story of a shy girl. This book is definitely for the ages 14-16. Great narrator on the audio book. The FMC struggles to overcome her shyness and tell the boy she likes how she feels. Good character development with her as a person and with her relationship with her parents. Deals briefly with lack of POC representation in cosplay and fantasy.

NerdCrush is an adorably wholesome nerd love YA novel. I truly loved Ramona/Rel so much. The chance to read a book that has a character that is into cosplay, manga, and anime all were big pulls for me. Ramona's introverted nature and her love of nerdy things and talent at cosplay made her a cute lead. Caleb seemed so sweet as well and him genuinely becoming friends with her was great. Ramona and Caleb were just so sweet as their relationship was forming. I will admit I wished Caleb and Rel had been friends longer before things speed up with him and Ramona, but I'm not mad at it. I think the narrator did a great job bringing the characters to life too. It made it an easy listen so props to the narrator. It's just one of those sweet, cutesy love stories that make you smile. I give this a 4/5 for sure. Thank you so much to NetGalley & Dreamscape Media for the chance to listen to this little slice of wholesome love.

This was a solid read / listen. I love the narrator I think that she did a great job I really bringing these characters to life. I enjoyed the main character and I love nerdy characters so much.

Unfortunately for me this one dragged a bit. I'm not quite sure how that's possible seeing as I listened to it all the way through in one sitting but it just felt a bit over dramatized for something that's been done already multiple times. You end up with these two people and one of them has an alternate online persona that they contacted the other person with and then they become close in real life as well and the online persona becomes this big secret etc. Been there done that. It's done okay and I didn't dislike any of it I just wanted a little bit more.

There were a couple timeline inconsistencies. The whole book takes place over maybe 6 weeks and there's a couple points where the character says it's been weeks of something but it literally could not have been weeks because it's such a short period of time for the entire book.

I'm interested in what this author will write next. I really did enjoy our main character, she is a Black teenager whose best friend just moved away and is super nerdy and not very social and she's got to kind of learn and embrace her own nerdiness and find joy in it for herself. We love empowerment stories.

This was cute!

I loved all the little aspects of identity touched on in this, and Ramona's character development, as she learns to be more of who she is and stand up for herself, both within her family and at school. The cosplay / nerd culture parts were especially fun to read about!

The biggest weakness in this was the romance. It was mostly fine- there's a lot of stories out there that use a digital secret identity trope like this, and its use here was pretty standard. Also, it wasn't my favorite implementation of the trope, as it can kind of come across as Ramona can definitely come across as creepy if you think too hard about it. Since Ramona / Caleb develop a rapport so early in the story, it should have been pretty obvious to Ramona that Rel was unnecessary .

It felt a bit strange that she was getting to know him at about the same pace as both Ramona and Rel. I would have been more on board if Rel / Caleb's friendship developed for a bit longer before Ramona started talking to Caleb.

Despite this though, the overall story was still cute, and I'll definitely be checking out more by this author!

3.5

NerdCrush is a sweet, wholesome, and low stakes YA romance novel that I devoured all the way through!

Ramona is a lovable, relatable MC for nerdy girls everywhere. She’s creative, intelligent, and kind, but socially anxious and her truest self in a digital setting. Caleb is a cool, considerate love interest, who was earnest about his intentions. Ramona’s relationship with her family is probably also relatable to many teens, feeling unseen, but still loved. I also love that the teens had jobs.

Really, I just found myself so invested in Ramona and rooting for her. The author did a great job of developing the characters without stalling the plot to do it and also respecting the MC for exactly who she was through the entire story.

This was very cute. I really enjoyed the writing and the narration for the audiobook was great. I would highly recommend this on for anyone looking for a fun YA romance.

NerdCrush is an excellently crafted teen romance. Romona is a sixteen-year-old with a crush. She is afraid of rejection so she starts to correspond with him as her cosplay alter ego, Rel. Being behind the mask as Rel makes it easier for Romona to open up and talk with her crush.

The writing perfectly captured the teen awkwardness of having a crush. All the over thinking and over analyzing along with the fear really transported me back to being young and afraid.

There are a lot of messages in this book and it was all great. My main takeaway is whoever or whatever you are, you are enough. You do not need to hide or be anyone but yourself.

This is a great book for a young reader or even people like me who just want to be sent back in time.

I love a story about a nerdy Black girl! This one is delightful, and the narration by Vundla was so good. I love the cosplay angle, particularly when considering how much Black girls already mask to fit in.

Thanks to Netgalley, Running Press Teens and Dreamscape Media for the ARC and audioARC of this.

The cover and concept to this are so adorable, I love a good cosplayer book. I’ll admit, I didn’t really know of people doing it as an original character, and I kinda don’t understand the appeal, so it’s maybe my own fault I didn’t really click with this. Overall, I thought the story was cute and fluffy, but the writing was kind of odd, in a way that reminded me of fanfic. I would definitely recommend it still if you’re interested, though, as the storyline was reasonable.

Thank you Net Galley for an audio copy of NerdCrush by Alisha Emrich. This is a stunner of a young adult book. I could really relate to the MC because I'm so much like her! Loved it!