Honestly, this was a miss for me. As cliche and predictable that this was, the execution just didn't meet my expectations. Let's start with the characters. First off, Olivia (aka Carrie) wasn't anyone special. Whiny, but not the worst MC. Her reason for sending Jake (aka Elm) Katie's picture in place of her own is kind of pathetic, or at least the way she explains it made it seem so (like seriously? Acne doesn't make you ugly, self-conscious, yes, but it shouldn't be a determining factor in starting such a big lie). And yes, Olivia is one of those girls who is actually pretty but is not aware of it. Something else that really bothered me, other than the obscene lie, was how Olivia treated Katie. No major spoilers here, but when Katie makes a surprise visit to Olivia, Olivia doesn't actually treat her in the nicest way. It rubbed me the wrong way when Katie was helping Olivia with her lie, but jealousy has a way of ruining things I guess. When the whole drama unfolded, I did not find myself sympathizing for Olivia, more like 'you had it coming' kind of feeling. Overall, Olivia just didn't handle the situation well and she had me rolling my eyes after every bad decision she made, which she was aware of. Out of the main cast of characters, Jake and Katie were probably the best ones. Jake is a cute dork, and Katie is that best friend that will always have your back. Oh, and her aunt was cool too. I'll just leave it there.

The romance wasn't that bad. Olivia and Jake were cute, though it was a bit underdeveloped for my taste. I'm not a fan of romances that kind of start a bit too quickly. We do know about the online relationship between Carrie (Olivia) and Elm (Jake), but if you take the online factor out, Olivia and Jake haven't even known each other that long, nor that well. That irked me a bit. And the ending was rather cheesy, but I'm glad it ended at least on a happy note.

Overall, if you're looking for a quick cheesy romance novel, this might be for you, even if it wasn't for me.

This is a book I was really excited for for exactly one reason. It's a romantic comedy about horror movies. I love horror movies, love everything about them, and when I found out this was about two horror fans falling for each other I was sold. And, even though I had problems with this book overall, I'm glad I read it and I'm glad it's getting published because it shows just how fun horror can be. I'm so happy there's a romance where the two bond over horror movies that isn't "I'll put this on to scare you so I can protect you" or "We're both 'weird' and 'damaged' and that's why we like this." Olivia and Jake are just two people who love a genre and wanted an experience that would grow that love. And I thought that was fantastic.

However, Happy Messy Scary Love is, in my opinion, what happens when the plot of a book is too thin. The premise, that Olivia is secretly the girl Jake has been chatting with online and who sent a picture of her best friend Katie to in a fit of insecurity grows real old, real fast. There's a lesson here in that, if there's a will they/won't they type situation, the situation surrounding that has to be either realistic or believable. And in this case, they weren't because there never seemed to be a firm understanding of Olivia's character. She was presented as this sort of easy-going girl, with a procrastination problem but then was this insecure wallflower concerned with how others view her.

Insecurity is a relatable topic, but it's hard to make interesting because the way we deal with our own insecurities are varied and wild. They manifest in different way and we deal with them as such, so reading about how someone else deals with it runs the risk of seeming disingenuous because it's not how the reader experiences it. For Olivia, she separates from her issues. She separates from her school, her script, her online identity. And that's fine, but there's never any introspection on Olivia's part as to why this is. She remains the same beginning to end and it never feels like she grows, just apologizes for getting caught.

Main character issues aside, I do think that Happy Messy Scary Love is a romance that a lot of people can get behind, acting as a love (HA!) letter to my favorite genre.

Ooh. I liked this! When I first requested it on NetGalley, I was a little hesitant. The story centers around Olivia; unlike everyone else, she has no plans for summer, having been rejected from NYU’s screenwriting program. So her plans are to stay home, binge-watch horror movies, and chat with an online friend, Elm. But then Olivia is forced by her parents to work at a ziplining company over summer, and there he is. Elm. or Jake. Olivia recognizes him from the photo he sent her. There’s just one problem: when Elm had asked for a photo of her, she sent a photo of her beautiful best friend, Katie.

It’s that last part that I was scared about. I’m tired of reading books where the main girl is oh-so-gorgeous but doesn’t know it. That was definitely in this book, to some extent. But the way it was written wasn’t as annoying as all those other books. Instead, Olivia’s insecurities were explained and fleshed out, and what was typically an annoying trope to me became something I could really relate to. I was prepared to roll my eyes and be irritated at the lies and the cliches—but I didn’t.

The plot for this reminded me a lot of Alex, Approximately (also a book I liked), but overall the pacing of the book flowed well. I definitely liked how the story was not JUST about the romance—the story also talked about thinking about the future, stepping outside of your comfort zone, and remaining confident and persistent in the face of rejection. As someone who has already been through the college application and admission process and is constantly reminded of the looming dread of having to search for a job, it was great to read a book that reminded me of how I was able to get through obstacles in the past.

There were some scenes in the book that were a little over-dramatic, which is probably the only reason this book isn’t a full five stars. In the beginning, the fact that Olivia didn’t have summer plans was made out to be a dramatic, shameful secret—which was unnecessarily dramatic, in my opinion. Some of the arguments between Olivia and Katie were also kind of theatrical.

The writing style was very typically YA, but I’d definitely still recommend this to any YA readers—especially those who aren’t tired of the “anonymous online friend” cliche. Happy Messy Scary Love is coming out May 2019, so keep an eye out!