What a fun, romantic, heart-warming, hijinks-filled romance! I loved the takes on classic high school romance tropes and watching the characters find their way to their HEA.

If you love fake dating + enemies to lovers the way I love fake dating + enemies to lovers, this book will feel like it was written just for you. Cute, heartwarming, campy and so fun while remaining hyper relatable. There's also a little geekiness thrown in the mix. Have recommended to many teens and read it in my book club!

This was so stinkin cute!!

This books has all the tropes we love! Fake dating, enemies to lovers/school rivals, and sports rom-com. This is a wonderful YA contemporary with a cute sapphic romance!

Kelly Quindlen became one of my favorite YA contemporary authors after I read “Late to the Party”. After reading this one Quindlen has solidified her position!! There was the perfect amount of witty banter, while also implementing high school level angst (without having it be too unbearable).

A sapphic romance with my favorite tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, and the classic "one bed" scenario. just YES. The dynamic between the jock and the cheerleader brought forth an irresistible energy. It was an undeniably cute read that captured my heart. The only factor that prevented it from achieving a perfect five-star rating was the pacing.

Absolutely love this book! It was such a great romance, and the characters felt authentically teen. Loved how she saw female athletes in different sports excelling. I also appreciated the 80s references.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to read this early. Review has been posted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

I love Kelly Quindlen and young adult queer novels like She Drives Me Crazy. I appreciate the diversity in the cover as well.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

This was an absolutely adorable book. So relatable in terms of the struggles we all face in high school, the pressure athletes face, trying to discover who you are and so much more. I would highly recommend this to any teen, not just those from the LGBTQ community. I'm sure almost anyone could see themselves in this book in some way.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

This was all I wanted in a queer YA rom com. The author does the enemies to lovers trope fantastically without being too cheesy, which is hard to do. I loved all the characters, especially Honey Bell, she just cracked me up with her enthusiasm. Really just an overall nice, warm and fuzzy read.

Another smash hit story about one of my favorite tropes! I was hesitant when I started but everything about this surprised me in the best way possible. I devoured this book and screamed my love for it from the rooftops.

The characters, the romance, the plot, everything about this was perfection. Ever since I read it, I can't get it out of my head. It was the sort of sapphic romcom I didn't know I needed. If you're looking for a fun book to read you should definitely read this!

I LOVED THIS BOOK. After reading in just one day! I had just so much fun. I'm waiting on the second book PLEASE. This is an enemy to lovers and starts off with fake dating.This follows Scottie and Irene who have to come up with a plan to help each other. I would've loved to learn more about Irene. But I love how cute they are! And enjoyed following them. This was so messy and cheesy.

This book reminded me of Love Don’t Cost a Thing but make it queer. That being said I loved it so much!
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Enemies to lovers + fake dating makes for a fun and entertaining YA romance. Big romantic gestures are always the key to winning the audience over in a book and Kate Quindlen did it so well in this novel.

I've read almost 30 books so far this year and this one already stands out as one of the best. I've been recommending it to my students and I can't keep my library copy on the shelf!

She Drives Me Crazy is an adorable sapphic high school enemies-to-lovers romance centered around sports. Scottie is a basketball star playing for a less-than-average teams that doesn't get a lot of love from her school or its cheerleaders. She's an out lesbian with a lovely family and a couple of ride-or-die friends, Danielle, Gunther, and Kevin. Her ex-girlfriend, Tally, has left Scottie's school to play on the basketball team at the richer, fancier school in the neighboring town and Scottie is still not over their completely toxic relationship -- especially after losing to Talley's team.

Let me pause here to mention that this story is set in the town of Grandma Earl, at Grandma Earl High School: Home of the Fighting Reindeer. The highlight of the town is Grandma Earl's Christmas Emporium, a 365 Christmas shop that literally put the town on the map. While this certainly isn't a Christmas story, this backdrop added some John Green-level whimsy to the storytelling that I found delightful.

Anyways, after Scottie loses to Tally's team, she accidentally runs into Irene Abraham's car in the parking. Irene Abraham is a queen bee of Grandma Earl High School: smart, pretty, popular, and a cheerleader. She and Scottie aren't friends...in fact, Scottie is still bitter with Irene over an incident where Irene had Scottie's car towed from a party as a mean joke. Irene also reveals that she is vying to be the school's first cheerleader to be voted Student Athlete of The Year, a huge honor that is denied to cheerleaders because most students don't view cheerleaders as athletes.

Thanks to some meddling from Scottie and Irene's moms at the scene of the accident, Scottie is roped into driving Irene to school daily while her car is being repaired. Thus begins the forced proximity for these two foes. Forced proximity quicky begets a fake dating scheme where Irene and her cheerleaders also agree to cheer for Scottie's basketball games in the effort to bring some crowd magic to her team.

I don't think it's spoiling much to reveal that there is more to Irene than Scottie originally understands. As the two girls get to know each other better through verbal sparring and some heartfelt moments, their feelings become...complicated. Scottie is using the fake dating to win back Tally and Irene has motivations of her own, but both girls realize that what they thought they wanted might not be what they really want. This is a pretty standard enemies-to-lovers plot, but I was completely here for it.

For me, the magic was all in Irene's character. She has walls built up for good reasons and good god she can be mean sometimes (in fact, both girls border on too mean at points...it got a bit exhausting), but I really identified with her character on a lot of levels. It can be hard to give a lot of authentic sympathy for the sad little popular girl, but I do feel that it worked here. Small town politics are their own beast and I felt like the pressures Irene felt, combined with her innate personality, were relatable for me.

All in all, this was a super cute sapphic romance that probably had some problematic elements (such as Scottie paying Irene to fake date her or the some of the toxicity regarding Tally), but also had some really good messages. Both Irene and Scottie eventually focus on dealing with the emotional clutter in their lives in order to make space for something real, and both girls take time to make space for a healthy relationship in their lives. The side characters were also delightful, particularly Gunther and Honey-Belle (the granddaughter of Grandma Earl), and I loved watching new friendships bloom as characters from opposing social circles spent more time together.

FINAL GRADE: A  I loved this and I highly recommend it. It's not spicy, since it's YA, but it's been a great addition to my WLW romance novel binge of 2022. I can't keep my library copy on the shelf, so I'm considering buying 2-3 more copies to meet the demand from my LGBTQIA fiction-hungry high school students! Librarians will want to be aware of trigger warnings for bullying, homophobia, teen drinking, and some sensual kissing. But overall this is a win and I'm sure it will be a top read from 2022 for me!

"I like it! Picasso!"

Oh, and complete side note...if you are active on TikTok and know Sedona Prince, the women's basketball star from The University of Oregon who went viral last year for exposing gender inequities with March Madness, she is how I pictured Scottie in this story. Scottie = Sedona in my head for no real reason except that I don't know many basketball players in which to map my images to. Just thought someone out there might appreciate this or feel the same way?

The audio of this book is excellent. I really loved reading this story and I can't wait to recommend it in an upcoming Queer YA recommendation episode,

She Drives Me Crazy is a queer young adult romantic comedy. Scottie loses her first basketball game of the season. The loss hurts even more than it is to her ex-girlfriend. After the game, she gets in a fender bender with the head cheerleader, Irene, also her nemesis. The accident spurs forced carpooling while Scottie’s car is repaired and then a fake-dating set-up. And you know how fake dating often goes…

Three words to describe this book: Delightful. Rich. Heart.

Cover: This is a gorgeous bright and vibrant color. I love the emphasis on sports as that is a big theme in this novel.

Tropes: So many. Forced proximity, enemies to lovers, opposites attract, and one bed!

Character Development: This YA has rich character development of both Scottie and Irene. What I particularly loved is you see them both change and grow from their mistakes. I love the personal development, the relationship development, and the friendships both characters have. The banter between Scottie and Irene was fun to read and felt authentic. I also LOVED Honey Belle. At first, you think she is going to be a ditzy cheerleader, but she shows an amazing amount of emotional intelligence.

World-Building: This book is set in a smallish town whose claim to fame is a large Christmas Emporium that is open year-round. The high school mascot is the Fighting Reindeers.

Plot & Pacing: I found myself engrossed by this novel and devoured it in two days. I thought the pacing was spot on and kept me engaged.

Verdict: Definitely recommend it! This book had a great balance of light and airy along with exploration of self-worth and toxic relationships.

ARC was provided to me by Macmillan Children’s Publishing, in exchange for an honest review.

If you want a teen romcom in an F/F YA book, this is the read for you!

I'm getting caught up on 2021 reviews, and I listened to this several months ago and don't remember a lot of details, but what more do I really need to say than that and also showing you that cover?

This is enemies to lovers and fake dating! It is very much like a teen romcom movie: the two of them get to know each other over their music choices on the drive. They have miscommunication. They both open up about their insecurities. Scottie realizes that, despite being hung up on her toxic ex, maybe the girl she's been looking for has been right in front of her this whole time. There's also the "only one bed" trope. They even discuss teen romcom movies!

I listened to this as an audiobook, and it was a quick, fun listening experience! It's cute, and the ending is cathartic and sweet.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC!

This was a sweet, nuanced, YA contemporary that I loved as much as Kelly Quindlan’s previous release!

This story follows Scottie who is not having a great time. After losing the first basketball game of the season to her ex-girlfriend’s team in their first match since their breakup, Scottie gets into a fender bender with her nemesis: Irene Abraham. Things only go downhill from there when their mothers suggest the “perfect” solution: that the two carpool together until Irene’s car is out of the shop. Scottie and Irene are equally unhappy about the arrangement, but grudgingly tolerate one another for the time being. That is, until Scottie sees an opportunity to get back at her toxic ex and bribes Irene to play along. Thus ensues a enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, teen rom-com for the ages.

This was such a fun read and I’m upset that it took me so long to get to it! It was the perfect amalgamation of tropes that I love, and they were all done so well! Scottie and Irene were both interesting, flawed, lovable characters who I couldn’t help rooting for. I also loved how realistic this story was and how it portrayed Scottie’s struggle to get over her toxic ex and the actual steps she took to do so, as opposed to simply sweeping the problem under the rug with an HEA. I also loved seeing Irene’s character development and how she came to admit and make up for her past mistakes. The character portrayals and issues discussed all felt very true to the high school age range. Irene and Scottie also had great chemistry and such a sweet romance!

This is the perfect book if you’re craving a sweet, light, fluffy, YA contemporary! I loved it!

“High school nemeses fall in love in this queer YA rom-com.” Plus this sporty cover is all I needed to know. I love the basketball and cheerleading vibe with the pink.

After losing in basketball to her ex-girlfriend in their first game since their break up, Scottie then gets into a fender bender with the worst possible person: her nemesis, the beautiful yet incredibly mean, Irene. Things get even worse when their moms get involved and the girls are forced to carpool together until Irene’s car gets fixed. But this opportunity presents itself as a way for Scottie to get back at her toxic ex when she bribes Irene into a fake-dating scheme.
I have a soft spot for fake dating and this is also an enemies-to-lovers, both tropes are done greatly and woven together so well.
This is just an overall fun, heartwarming, quick queer book. I love that this is a queer sportsbook, I feel like this is an area that’s missing in books. I liked how the teens felt like teens, the school setting felt real, and there wasn’t too many over the top drama just to be drama parts. Is this the best love story ever written? Naw. But it was a joy to read, was it a good way to pass time. For sure!
I like that it covered many important topics like relationships, both healthy and not, family and the stress of school & sports. The side characters are shown as bright, romantic, strong friends.
If you are looking for a real, yet fluffy cute queer romance then this is a book you should try.