Another beautiful father-daughter story. That’s a cool thing you do, Ms. Goo. It takes a lovely story up to wonderful. 💜

This was great! Clara was prickly and kind of unlikeable, but I loved that about her! I thought the way she and Rose dealt with their animosity and gradually became friends was awesome and real, and I liked her coming to terms with the fact that her friends might not actually be the greatest after all. Hamlet was sweet if a little boring, but I think the main focus here was her relationship with her friends and her dad, not the romance. Maurene Goo has so far done no wrong for me!

This book was a fun, light romance with diverse characters. The story explored family dynamics, self discovery, and growing up.

Thank you, Macmillan, for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"People who would be there for you even when you messed up and behaved like a jerk? They were the good stuff."

I'm sure that I'm not the only one who noticed that people of color (e.g. Koreans, Filipinos, and more) are becoming popular in literature nowadays. Readers continue to crave for more diverse books, whether it be in regards to race, sexuality, and religion. With that in mind, books like this are great because they can make all kinds of readers feel represented.

By looking at the pretty cover, one can easily deduce that The Way You Make Me Feel is about an Asian girl. It follows Clara Shin, who is both Korean and Brazilian. She is particularly famous (or infamous) for her ability to cause mayhem and piss people off. After Clara gets into a catfight with her African-American nemesis named Rose Carver, both of them are obliged to spend the whole summer working on Clara's dad's food truck, the KoBra. They continue to get on each other's nerves but eventually realize that it is possible for them to be friends. To make things more interesting, Hamlet, a hunky, Chinese barista nearby, seems to be crushing on Clara. Get ready to be entertained by a story of family, love, and friendship.

For the most part, this book was a fun read. I gave 3.5 stars to I Believe in a Thing Called Love last year, so I expected to have a similar reading experience. Unsurprisingly, I encountered the same virtues: diverse characters, beautifully simple writing, and a touching family dynamics. I also didn't have a hard time finishing this book because the content was very easy to process or take in.

I particularly loved the close relationship between Clara and her dad, Adrian. Adrian practically raised Clara on his own; Clara's mom was an Instagram celebrity who couldn't stay in one country. Hence, it was interesting that Clara seemed to favor her mom, who clearly didn't prioritize the right things. There wasn't supposed to be any competition, but I was on Adrian's side all the way because he never made Clara feel neglected. He was a permissive parent at the beginning of the book, but thankfully, he became wiser and stricter. At the end of the book, Clara couldn't have asked for a better dad.

Clara and Rose's hate-to-love relationship was also fascinating. I was surprised that even worst enemies could become best friends. After spending much time together, they learned to understand and accept each other. I didn't feel sad at all that Clara decided to "ditch" her old "friends" who only brought out the worst in her.

As for the romance between Clara and Hamlet, it was sweet but instalovey. Even Rose thought so! Haha. She was shocked to learn that Clara and Hamlet became a couple after just one date. LOL. Looking at the bright side, it was nice that Hamlet did not pressure Clara to confess her love for him. According to Hamlet, they would follow "Clara Time," not "Hamlet Time". That was such a cute and feminist thing to say.

The only problem I had with this book was...Clara. She was super annoying, especially at the beginning of the book. In fact, she was the one who made me understand the concept of girl hate because she had nothing but derogatory things to say about the females she encountered. And she had a public catfight with Rose, for crying out loud. Clara wasn't this mean or aggressive to any of the male characters, so I couldn't help but describe her attitude as a manifestation of girl hate. With that in mind, it was a miracle that she was able to make a best friend out of Rose.

Furthermore, it bugged me that Clara kept on comparing Hamlet to a dog. Chinese people are kinda known for their willingness to eat dogs, so go figure. :( I'm not sure if this counts as racism. Thus, please correct me if I'm wrong. Is it okay for Asians to be racist to fellow Asians? Ugh. Whatever.

Overall, I liked reading The Way You Make Me Feel mainly because of its emphasis on family dynamics. Still, in retrospect, some of its themes/aspects were contradictory (e.g. female friendship and girl hate, racial diversity and racism). If you loved I Believe in a Thing Called Love, you might be disappointed in this book. I hope that you'll enjoy it more than I did.

Clara Shin enjoys pulling pranks. Some might say a little too much. Especially when she goes a bit too far at the junior prom. Her punishment? Being forced to work on her dad's Korean-Brazilian food truck all summer. Alongside her sworn enemy, Rose Carver.

Tensions are high, initially, but over the course of being trapped in such close quarters, Clara and Rose learn to work together, and work together well, at that. As the summer goes on, Clara and Rose's blossoming friendship strengthens. Clara also seems to have caught the eye of Hamlet (yes, that's his real name), a boy who works a coffee cart at one of the food truck's regular stops.

But those are not the only relationships that are examined over the course of this novel. Author Maurene Goo does an excellent job of balancing Clara's various relationships over the course of this book. From the strong relationship with her single father to the tenuous one with her world-traveling mother, Goo fleshes out the character of Clara through these relationships. Goo also demonstrates Clara's growth through the growing distance between Clara and her so-called "previous life" friends, Felix and Patrick, friends that, admittedly, bring out Clara's rebellious side, however much it might be to her own detriment. But this change and the developing and unraveling of relationships are part of adolescence and growing up, and will happen, whether we like it or not.

One of the great things about Goo’s writing is her ability to write about interesting characters that will appeal to all types of readers. This title takes an interesting look at the Korean American experience - one that differs from the one that is presented in I Believe in a Thing Called Love. While it took me a really, really long time to like Clara, this was overall another solid, entertaining, and authentically diverse YA book that will be super attractive to my teen library patrons.

Laugh out loud funny and food trucks! Really loved this book because it was so fun.

All props to Maurene Goo. The Way You Make Me Feel is one of my favorite YA contemporaries of 2018. A large part of my love is due to Clara, the Korean-American main character and narrator. She’s prickly and sarcastic and fun-loving. After a prom prank gone horribly wrong, her father forces her to work on his Korean-Brazilian fusion food truck for the summer. If that wasn’t bad enough, her arch nemesis Rose will also be womanning the truck with her. Clara refers to Rose as a long-lost Obama daughter and Rose’s ambition is truly something to behold. The two girls are bold and clash constantly, but you’ll be relieved to know that it doesn’t take long for them to work through some of their differences and become awkward pals.

Clara finds time to flirt with Hamlet, a cute sign-flipper who is so not her usual type. He’s caring and considerate and also kind of a dork. He’s concerned with her emotions and, man, Clara’s emotional journey in this book is so fantastic. There’s a reason it’s called The Way You Make Me Feel, which works for so many facets of the book. Clara’s changing friendship with her snarky group of high school buddies was one of my favorite parts of the story.

There’s a lot of privilege tucked into this book—most of the characters are wealthy or wealthy-ish. Clara’s mom is a successful instagram influencer who’s also a bit of a flake and Hamlet’s parents live in China to manage their business. I found myself wishing that the book had done slightly more with money issues, but I ultimately realized it’s really nice to see a bunch of massively successful people of color who don't have to answer for their success. (Heaven only knows we have enough books about rich white kids.)

The humor is spot-on, the situations are just ridiculous enough to be believable, and the descriptions of LA food are mouth-watering. Also, how delectable is that cover? Pre-order this immediately for its May release.

(Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for my e-galley!)

I absolutely loved this book! I really liked the main characters. Well, all the characters to be more precise. I thought the pacing was excellent. I also really liked the overt political commentary in this book.
I also really enjoyed the cultural richness of this book. This was done exceptionally well.
The development of the relationships throughout the book was also excellent. I enjoyed seeing how Clara matured and re-evaluated her priorities. This was done in a way that was believable. I found myself cheering for the MC, even as I sometimes cringed about the decisions she made.
I would highly recommend this book!

From the publishers:
From the author of I Believe in a Thing Called Love, a laugh-out-loud story of love, new friendships, and one unique food truck.

Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined. But maybe Rose isn't so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) crushing on her is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad’s business. What if taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind? With Maurene Goo's signature warmth and humor, The Way You Make Me Feel is a relatable story of falling in love and finding yourself in the places you’d never thought to look.

My thoughts:

I have changed my job/location/school/grade level three times in my career. I started as a high school teacher at a public school, moved to an independent middle school and I am currently teaching university students who want to be teachers. In the three interviews I was always asked: how do you teach multicultural students? In the 26 years that I have been teaching, I have ONLY taught multicultural students, so this question always stumps me. I do not know how to teach monocultural students. I don't know what lame answer I gave, but looking at my recent reading choices, I think my answer is that I continue to look for literature and stories to bring into my classroom that allow my multicultural students to see themselves in the stories. This is one of those stories. It does not matter if I do not have Korean/Brazilian students. I have students that are two or more ethnicities, raised in an American society that often just sees them as "other" or are "seen" as stereotypes of some form of the model minority.

Clara is a strong, messed up, broken protagonist that could be any of my students. She is head strong and stubborn but she is salvageable. This kind of voice from Maurene Goo is fresh air for my students.

#1-This cover is AMAZING. I would buy this based on the cover alone.

#2-This book just made me happy. I think I was smiling the whole time I was reading it. The descriptions of LA, mouthwatering food(get me to the nearest food truck!!) and lovable but complex characters made this book beyond enjoyable.

#3-Friendship!Romance!Delicious Eats! Character Growth! This book made me want to use a lot of exclamation points!

This book! I cannot remember the last time I cared about four characters as much as I cared about these four.

At the exposition the uncertainty felt about Clara, the sixteen year old protagonist of The Way You Make Me Feel really makes the reader feel that they want to reach into the book and smack her upside the head for some of the boneheaded stunts she pulls without a thought. But the OMG turns to ILY as Clara does that growing up thing. I found her wise cracks amusing and even borrowed some of her language because the dialogue was so well written. If you're a foodie, this book will make you hungry and the urge to run out to a food truck will be the biggest need in your life. After wrapping up the reading because the ending, the description of LA, WOW. Great imagery and fun characters. And there's some good lessons in there too. I'd insert a smiley emoji here if I could. :)

A fun contemporary YA book that features great characters and excellent relationships between them. As several others have said in reviews, the relationship between Clara and her father was particularly wonderful. I look forward to recommending this to teen readers.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Maurene Goo is definitely an author to watch. I really enjoyed her last book, I Believe in a Thing Called Love, and I was excited to read the ARC for this one as well. More books featuring diverse characters in the main roles are desperately needed, especially ones that are so rich in culture in addition to be really well-written and entertaining. Goo does such a wonderful job of bringing in elements of Korean and Brazilian culture, including food descriptions that make your mouth water. The book also reads like a love letter to L.A., and the city is almost like a character in the story. I love when authors are able to bring the setting to life like that. Clara is a really complex and interesting character who experiences a lot of growth over the book. The relationship between her and her father was wonderful, and I always enjoy when YA books have great parent-teen relationships. I also loved the friendship that develops between Clara and Rose, and I enjoyed what built with Clara and Hamlet as well. This is one I will definitely recommend and I look forward to more from Goo in the future.

When they aren't chilling at 7/11, Clara Shin lives for pulling pranks with her besties Felix and Patrick. However, when Clara's prom prank goes more than a little too far, she's left facing some serious consequences; namely, having to spend the summer working at her father's Korean-Brazilian food truck with her arch nemesis: Rose, the overachieving class president.

I loved that Goo's protagonist Clara is a feminist, funny, smart girl who learns the value of opening up to the people who care about her. This book is fresh, funny and heartfelt. I adored it, and was extremely hungry thanks to all the delicious descriptions of food.

Not at all what I thought it was going to be, but overall a pretty enjoyable YA read.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.
When I initially began to read this book, I could not put it down. I loved the dynamic between Clara and her father, and it did feel like a version of the Gilmore Girls. I also liked Rose and how Clara and her interacted throughout the book. Towards the middle of the book, I just lost interest. The addition of Hamlet's character added a fun addition to the book, but it wasn't enough. It felt like the story was not entirely developed and there were side stories that were never wrapped up, so they felt random. I would be interested in reading more by the author.

I read an advanced reader copy of The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo (chosen partially because of the beautiful cover!), and now I can't wait to read her other books. Her characters, especially Clara and her dad, are incredibly well-developed. I loved the Gilmore Girls comparison between Clara and her dad because it was so accurate and their relationship, even when they were upset with each other, was wonderful to read about. Goo's writing felt so real--the clashes between two high school girls, the awkwardness of a new crush, the struggle as you form new relationships and outgrow others...all fantastic. As an added bonus, the food descriptions made me wish the KoBra was a real foodtruck. Do not read while hungry. ;)

I really enjoyed this one and couldn't put it down! The combination of a great main character, interesting and fun location, enjoyable secondary characters, and that awesome food truck made this one a win for me. Clara's relationships with her parents led to some interesting dynamics. I would certainly give this title to fans of contemporary, realistic fiction.