Member Reviews
Colleen S, Reviewer
The description is a play on the poem from 10 Things I Hate About You? SIGN. ME. UP. I'll start with my complaints: the names. Wren and Fuller? Dae? 10 years from now YA fiction is going to look back and think WTF when it comes to names of characters and these are two we'll be thinking of. I get it. We needed a name to make a nasty nickname out of (Wrentainer). But are you trying to tell me a kid with the first name of Fuller was never made fun of?! He's a jock. The jokes just write themselves. That's it. That's my only complaint. Well, maybe the timing too? Like, for going from hate to love, maybe it should've taken longer than 9 days? This was a sweet, short, well paced and well written YA romance novel. It's clean, it tackles real high schooler issues (see the above nickname), and I think it handles the dual POV very well. The side characters are not major, but also not so minor that they feel like plot devices. I was already hooked on the plot based on the back blurb for the book, but the bet Fuller makes intrigued me so much. And then it wasn't the typical YA bet plot. Loved it. So well done. Such a good and new take on what can be a simple trope. All in all, this book was incredibly wonderful. An easy recommendation for my girlfriends or my students. I can't wait to see what more this author will do!! Thank you to Entangled for inviting me to view this ARC! |
While this was a cute hate to love romance, I found that it was also about family and friendship. The side characters were easy to love. Well, most of them. Not everyone. Wren had been picked on since 7th grade when her retainer flew out of her mouth at a dance. Her best friend, Marissa, turned on her and started dating the most popular guy at school, Fuller James. Wren had two best friends in high school, Dae and Brandon. I seriously wanted them as best friends, too. They were so caring and loyal. Wren wasn't really ok with being picked on, but she was happy with her little group. Fuller and Marissa had recently broken up. Again. He is the star of the basketball team and needed a full scholarship for college, but he was failing AP Lit. Wren was forced to tutor Fuller in order to get his grade up enough to play in the first game. I was not a fan of Fuller or his friends. Luckily Fuller grew on me later in the book. The coach told Fuller to keep the tutoring secret, so he made a bet with his friend Marc that would give him an excuse to be around Wren a lot. It didn't take long for Fuller to start looking at Wren in a different way. She brought out the good in him. He could be normal around her, not the cocky jock he was around everyone else. Wren started to see Fuller differently, too. They started to bond over sick family members. Wren's grandpa had dementia and Fuller's brother had brittle bone disease. They started spending more time together. Fuller decided to apologize for making fun of Wren, but he didn't tell her about the bet. He just felt that she would never talk to him again and he was falling for her. As you can guess, the secret about the bet came out and things did not go well. Fuller got help from a lot of different people, including his brother, to try to win Wren back. I gave this book 4 stars. Thank you to Entangled Teen for my review copy. Warnings for bullying, dementia, brittle bone disease, and a super mean girl. |
This book was received as an ARC from Entangled Publishing, LLC - Entangled: Crush in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own. This was a treat to read. As I kept reading it, I could not help but be reminded of 10 Things I Hate About You with Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger. Fuller James is described as your typical popular guy. Captain of the basketball team and struggling at school and then there is Wren, the smart nerdy girl in school that will always be remembered for her embarrassing moment when she sneezed and her retainer fell out and hit someone. Then they get the chance to work together as Wren tutors Fuller and then sparks start to fly and Wren sees Fuller than the popular cocky jock as she knows him to be. I could not stop smiling and laughing throughout the entire book and it was such a breath of fresh air to read if you are into the teen romances. We will consider adding this title to our YA collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars. |
This was a super cute YA that was a quick, sweet read. There is nothing really new and fresh, but we are dealing with Wren, the heroine, super smart and Fuller, star basketball player. They go from hate to love and it is a nice well written romance. Thank you to netgalley for the arc. |








