Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book! I was super excited to read this twist of weird Science as this was a movie I was obsessed with as a teen. This book did not disappoint and gave me the same feelings that the movie gave me when I had seen it for the first time. But it is 100% a book that can stand on its own and you don’t have to be a fan of weird science to love this one!

I thought this book was funny and I didn’t hate the narrative style. I feel that Katie and Libby’s interruptions really showcased the strength of their friendship. I also really like Guy. He was so pure and too good for Katie. My problem with the book is that a lot was going on and I’m not sure some of it was necessary. Like the bulling, which at times was a little much. Overall it was an enjoyable and funny read.

DNF - Did not finish. I did not connect with the writing style or plot and will not be finishing this title. Thank you, NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy!

I had such high hopes for this one, and it just wasn't what I was hoping for. While I adored the concept and the diversity in the characters I felt this one fell a little flat for me., I kept wanting something MORE. Having read other books by Guillaume I am sure to pick up future titles from them, but this just wasn't a favorite.

Thank you NetGalley + Peachtree Publishing for the chance to read and review this book.

This book just didn't hold my attention. It reminded me of a Disney Channel Original Movie and I think I would have loved this book if I was still in middle school or even highs school but as it stands I think I am a little too old to really enjoy it.

Katie is 16 years old and never been kissed, so she and her friend do what any two girls in that circumstance will do - they created a boy! And not just any boy, but the perfect boy for Katie, literally. And Guy is the sweetest, sexiest, cutest boy around. But as we all know, things rarely turn out perfect.

I loved the feminist take on Weird Science. Katie and Libby are best friends who actually act like best friends, including calling each other out when one or the other is making a mistake. I also liked the other kids who hung out with them. I had a problem with the amount of bullying that happened at school, though, which not a single teacher seemed to see, even though it was happening pretty much right out in the open. That was a bit of a sticking point for me, but that's probably the mama bear in me coming out. I was pleasantly surprised by how sweet and emotional the story was otherwise. This was a very quick read for me because it was well written and the pace moved along at a nice pace.

In summary, I really liked this book and highly recommend it. I'm giving it 4/5 stars.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley free of charge in exchange for my honest review.

*Thanks to Netgalley for a free e-arc in exhange for an honest review*

This book was a fast read for me! It was cute, funny, and heartfelt.
The general premise is not to be taken seriously because it is silly and asks us to suspend desbelief, but as long as you read this book with that in mind, it's an enjoyable read.

The characters were likeable(if not frustrating at times-ehem, because mean girls, and Katie had her moments of being too self-centered too) and despite it feeling like an anime/manga/k-drama (there's a japanese manga that has a similar premise called Absolute Boyfriend) and being ridiculous at times, it was funny and easy to go through.

I also really enjoyed the more serious parts of the book, the diversity, and the talks the characters have.

A few small things that bothered me, though:

It seemed too young at times, the characters seemed younger than 17, despite there being talks about sex (it did feel more middle grade than YA for big portions of the novel.)

I'm also not a fan of the format of having the main character write down the story with her best friend, it did disrupt a bit the flow of the story.

Regarding the ending, I liked it! But...I did feel like the whole "main plot" of Katie and Libby creating a boy wasn't exactly solved, and instead the book ended up focusing on something else.

-Despite that, it's a cute enjoyable book to spend an afternoon reading!

YA fiction. Katie is searching for the perfect guy and her first kiss. So when she accidentally creates that perfect guy for her, she can't even imagine what might happen next. This book's premise parallels "Weird Science" (but for girls) and may appeal to the younger crowd of YA readers.

'You Were Made For Me' was a fun and unique read that made me smile and laugh. The idea of a girl accidentally creating a boy was super cool however, I didn't love the book. I thought the characters were realistic which was wonderful! But they annoyed me at times and I didn't really connect with any of them. I also didn't love the writing style as it was very conversational, but I know that other people love reading books written that way!

Overall, I did enjoy this book but I didn't love it.

The book was inspired by "Weird Science", and it was great to see the take from a girl's perspective. However, I felt like the writing could have been better. It was not something I can see myself re-reading.

As an 80s kid with an obsession with Weird Science, I knew immediately that this was going to be the book for me! It was my first read by this author and it did not disappoint! I love feminist retellings and the main character Katie is a delight! You Were Made For Me has a diverse cast, which I applaud. And the references.....SO. MANY. REFERENCES! You're not going to miss out on anything if you don't get them, but what a great read for people like me who are old enough to understand them!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the author for an eARC of this title, in exchange for an honest review.

This book was sent to me as an ARC on NetGalley. However, all opinions are of my own.A weird fiction book I've read. How do you accidentally create the perfect man? Thats exactly what happened. However, Katie still wasn't happy. It just shows that we could wish for something and it doesn't mean it makes us any happier.

While I was definitely older than the intended audience, I thought this was a cute and enjoyable story about friendship and personal growth. The story itself reminded me a lot of the film Weird Science, which I watched too many times when I was younger having sleepovers with my cousin.

You Were Made for Me is a cute and hilarious YA book perfect for fans of Disney’s “How to Build a Better Boy.”

Katie Camilleri dreams of a boyfriend with shaggy hair, ocean blue eyes, and charm. And that’s what she gets... Katie wakes up to find Guy in her room, with a beautiful smile yet nonexistent personality. Follow along the journey to see one of the most creative and just plain-out weird books you’ll read this year.

"You Were Made For Me" is a YA contemporary novel about a teenage girl named Katie who accidentally creates a teenage boy. However, things don't exactly turn out as well as she anticipated, as she puts all her focus into this guy and neglects her best friend in the process, but by the end of the book, any conflicts caused over the course of the story are resolved. I thought this was a pretty good book and that a lot of YA contemporary fans would enjoy it.

I DNF'ed this book at 49%. It was extremely slow-moving and the dialog was not engaging enough for me to follow through. The storyline was also getting confusing, it was hard to even see the story progression and how things were going to pan out. I'm not sure if I would recommend this book to anyone. I am thankful for Netgally and the publishers that provided me the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Gender-swapped Weird Science? Sure! Beyond that though, I think that Guillaume shows exactly why getting what you wish for isn't always what it's cracked up to be, and also shows the serious consequences of introducing what's essentially a giant golden retriever of a human into a world he was never meant to exist in. If you don't take yourself - or the novel - too seriously, you'll have a blast.

I’m not sure why but I wasn’t able to connect to the characters why reading this. I did like the story, but I just wish that I was able to connect with it more.

If you like 80s and 90s vibe movies, I think you would like this book. It definitely gave me "Weird Science" and "License to Drive" vibes. I liked the trio - Katie, Libby, and Theo - they were a nice mix of friends. It had me laughing in a few parts. I would most likely reread it when needing something to bring up my spirits.



Thank you Netgalley for lending me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was provided to me for free by NetGalley for an honest and unbiased review.

Opening Line: The day I created a boy started out like any other.

It’s quirky and works well here. It gives you that weird vibe of not a normal rom-com.

Even the opening page works well. I liked having both Katie and Libby telling the story. Until I didn’t. Until it became over done and tired and weird. It would have worked a lot better had Libby’s bits popped up for comedic relief. It worked well when Katie was talking about kissing and it also worked alright when Libby was there for moral support, but most of the time it felt forced and like Libby’s voice was used to direct the story to a specific plot point.

I have to put in a personal disclaimer. The author is Australian, the book is (presumably) set in Australia. I know next to nothing about the Australian book market or expectations, so this book will be written by a book reader/review from the United States of America (so some stuff that might seem odd to me might not be so odd to a reader in Australian or another part of the world).

The book feels like it was written in two parts. Part one - for a young teen, maybe even a tween (ages 12-14). And part two - the older teen (ages 15-18).

The young teen parts focused on juvenile topics and skewed young, as in I couldn’t see anyone over the age of 14 enjoying the topics. Then you were whiplashed into a conversation about wanting to jump someone’s bones.

Some of the young and juvenile topics included; farting, the kitchen ‘magic’, Libby insisting she’s a scientist because she stirred together some ingredients. The whole tone of Katie wanting a boyfriend and that’s her only real goal.

The whiplash moments (where even I - a grown adult - felt uncomfortable at times); the phrase ‘jump his bones’ was used more than once. There were a weird few lines about Viagra. There was more than one innuendo about Katie’s intimate parts. A few penis jokes/references. Even a mention of masturbation (used as a joke but still jarring).

Then the book skews the age even higher (to actual adults) by referencing the Brady Bunch, the movie Titanic, the band ABBA, and I know I’m missing one more but I didn’t write it down.

But then you get a ‘current’ pop culture reference to a meme (I’m using this picture as an example because I don’t know the actual origin of the meme): https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/853/127/c2d

It made it all very confusing to identify the target audience for the book and made the book feel more and more like it was written by an adult trying to be a teen, but not quite remembering how teens act and behave.

Here is a word for word excerpt from the book to give a jarring contrast of the young feel of the book. For context, Mikayla is the mean girl and bully. Nat is Katie’s (the main character) friend. Emily is Mikayla’s friend. The ‘me’ character is Katie. They are at lunch and Mikayla is mad that Katie had spent some time with Mikayla’s boyfriend the day before.

Mikayla laughed. “You guys really are tragic. Look, it’s not like Declan is ever going to be interested in you anyway. It’s just annoying to try and scrub the stench of loser off him after you’ve been near.”
She reached down and picked up Nat’s chocolate milk. Looking me dead in the eyes, she took three big gulps of it, finishing it off and crushing the empty carton in her hand. She had a chocolate mustache and she ran her tongue along her top lip to remove it.
“Aren’t you lactose intolerant?” Emily whispered beside her.
Mikayla was still staring at me. “Yeah. I am.”

This is the weirdest exchange I’ve ever read in my life. To be fair Katie and her friends laugh after Mikayla leaves, but it honestly sounds like they’re max nine or ten and not fifteen+ year old teens.

The book also doesn’t shy away from language. I’ve censored all the words, not for myself, but because it’s what I do in all of my reviews. (I also know that words we associate with ‘bad’ in the USA are not considered ‘bad’ in other parts of the world)
Use of the word arse a handful of times
Use of the f-word (7 - mostly by Theo)
Sh*t (20)
H*ll (5)
D*ck (1)
B*tch(es) (4)
A$$ (2)
D*uche (1)
G*dd*mn (1)
Far too many uses of G*d (in varying degrees of use) for me to track one by one

Okay, getting back on track. I think the book wanted to try to point out that perfection doesn’t exist, but it never quite gets there. Guy - the boy Katie and LIbby created - is perfect for Katie, supposedly. But he’s clingy, and annoying and refuses to see any of Katie’s faults. Everyone around Katie, who knows about Guy, gets upset that she can’t see how Guy is, but Katie never talks to anyone about all of her concerns. They stay internal and it leads to unnecessary drama throughout the book. There is also the problem of Katie still finding other guys attractive and having conflicting feelings about Guy. But, again, she never talks about them not to a friend and not even to Guy.

I had a difficult time trying to figure out how the book was paced. The set up is very clear, the girls created Katie’s perfect man/boyfriend. But a lot of the conflicts along the way, and even the break into the different acts, were never well defined. I felt like the story dragged at many places. There was a lot of set up to have most of the action happen after the 80% mark.

I don’t want to throw a bunch of spoilers in so I’m going to be careful how I word things. I found it very obvious who Katie would end up with within the first few chapters. Their final conversation felt very odd and forced as the book spent little time setting up their relationship and making it meaningful. It left me feeling more annoyed than anything else that they never really had important moments to set up the relationship.

The ‘fight’ with Libby was a bit over the top and all because Katie couldn’t keep her mouth closed and listen to her friend. This did feel more authentic than other parts of the book and I think it showed how focused Katie had been on Guy, which should have been a good place for some introspection later, but it never happened. They went back to being friends without much of a reconciliation phase.

To make this book ‘better’ I would up the age of the entire story (I think the best option since the story does focus on a boyfriend and older teens tend to care more about that than younger teens - in the broadest sense of the word). Get rid of the weird mean girl drama and make the drama between Mikayla and Katie have more substance to it and have the resolution be a mutual understanding rather than a “Boom! Mic drop” (yep, I believe that’s the commentary in the book after the mean girl drama is resolved). Because nothing is really resolved.

And the nothing resolved problem continues throughout the book. Nothing is resolved regarding Declan and his intentions. Nothing is resolved with Katie’s parents and their opinions about Guy and Katie dating. Nothing is even resolved with Guy.

The end of the book makes it sound like <spoiler> they’re keeping Guy captive in Katie’s basement </spoiler> or something equally as weird.

The premise of the perfect boyfriend is also very young and the book either needs to take a HARD turn in to real magic or it needs to age everything down and cut all the talk about sex and most of the swear words and make this be more appropriate for the 12-14 age range.

I can’t say I’d recommend the book as it left me confused.