This is an honest review, so I can’t (and won’t) lie: I have conflicting feelings about this book. I chose it because it seemed fun and lighthearted, as well as I really enjoyed the first sentence of the book, creative as it was — “The day I created a boy started out like any other”. The conversational writing style also interested me at first, but after a few pages, it started to be annoying. The comments and bantering between Libby and Katie felt like they were trying too hard to be funny; of course, they nailed it a few times, because even a broken clock is right twice a day, but the failed attempts are still too many.

About the characters, I really enjoyed Libby’s and Theo’s: their problems, reactions and concerns felt real to me, unlike Katie’s, that seemed to be ripped from a Disney channel movie, but with sexual comments, which leads to the next point: the narrative felt juvenile, even a tad immature. Without the sexual comments, it’d be a very good middle grade book, for kids around 12.

I’d talk about how Guy’s character felt flat, but it made sense in the narrative for him not to be as complex as the other characters, considering he technically wasn’t even a year old. Besides, his reaction upon discovering experiences, tastes, feelings etc. felt heartwarming and creative, which I give Jenna kudos for.

A characters that also felt flat, but wasn’t supposed to, though, was Mikayla Fitzsimmons, as well as her friends and fellow antagonists (the group that had not-so-lovingly been named ‘unholy trinity’). They felt like villains from a teenage movie from the ‘00s, with no redeeming qualities, almost as Katie was everything good in the world, with Mikayla as her polar opposite. Things aren’t quite like this in real life and I can’t see there was an attempt to make reference to that: the moment where Katie was in her archenemy’s bedroom during a party and sees her in a more human light. I thought that would’ve been developed, not necessarily with Katie starting to like her bully, but processing what she’d seen that day, but that was never mentioned again.

I gotta congratulate the author on representation, even though I personally think that the main romance could’ve used a little bit of it. There’s an openly gay character in the narrative and an aroace one with a coming out scene — which I loved, but personally thought that should’ve been mentioned/hinted at earlier or after the coming out part.

Another point I find important to talk about is, the book claiming to have a feminist twist. I don’t quite get that part: except for the fact that women are doing the objectifying of Guy (Katie and Guy’s relationship was very physical, and a woman from Katie’s family kept touching his abs in a way I personally found totally creepy), I didn’t see what that was about. Yeah, there were some quotes where Libby commented about blaming the victim in situations, which felt too unnatural for a mature book (which I assume that was the intention of it, since it deals with mature topics like sex, grief and bullying in a descriptive manner), and Theo reassuring Katie that he wasn’t slut-shaming her in one of their discussions.

In conclusion: if you’re looking for a romantic comedy that you would’ve liked as a child and now you’re a bit too mature for that, but you want nostalgia alongside themes like body image struggles and non-heterosexual sexualities, then you absolutely should try this one, but it wasn’t what I was looking for.

This YA romance was delightful, fun, and just plain cute. Here, less than popular Katie and her best friend Libby sort of, accidentally, sculpted and baked a perfect teen boy replica who then magically came to life. And it turned out that, once real, he was a super devoted boyfriend to the never been kissed Katie. It's described as a modern, feminist retelling of the eighties cult movie "Weird Science," and just by the description, I could tell this would be super cute and fun. Which it was. The book's written like a post-experiment diary from Kate, with interjections by Libby, as they recount this story in the first-person perspective. Sure, it's a bit slow to start before the boy they make, Guy, comes to life. But once he does, it ramps up and I just find myself so compelled by the language that I have to know what happens next. Sure, this premise is completely off-the-wall bonkers, but I'm actually into it. It's just a fun and cute YA. A great one-sitting read. Then, there's Theo, the boy next door who definitely, positively has a crush on her but she doesn't see it, and also the most popular boy in school who she's always liked. So, there's a whole bunch of things happening here. But in the end, it was such a cheesy, cute teen romance, but enjoyable nonetheless.

this is one of those binge-readable books! absolutely adorable and funny and heartwarming. absolutely hilarious, the characters were very real to the point where they annoyed me at points lol. but I absolutely loved this book

This was so cute and fun! I loved the concept of this book, how it was like a Weird Science re-write. I could NOT get over the adorable-ness of this. Best for fans of Jennifer E. Smith, Jenny Han, literally every contemporary lover will love this too. Definitely will reread when I get my hands on a physical copy.

Thanks for the publisher for pooviding an eARC of You Were Made for Me in exchange for an honest review.

You Were Made for Me is kind of Weird Science genderflipped, with our 2 uncool 'nerd' girls accidentally great the perfect boyfriend for protagonist Katie and chaos ensues. It tells you its a feminist flip on it, but beyond the objectified character's gender no longer being female, I didn't really pick up on the feminist angle. The biggest reason it didn't work for me probably just comes down to the comedy style not knowing my thing which I know pretty much from the get-go.

It's told as if Katie's writing this out to keep a record of it with her best friend Libby popping in in italics occasionally to interject. The humour and writing style felt a little too in your face for an older YA audience but there are also a lot of references to sex & sexual themes so I don't think its targeted at the younger demographic the humour would better match.

I also really couldn't stand Katie. The narrative kind of calls her out for it, but Katie never really has to apologize or even fully acknowledges her a lot of her faults and fixing her hurt relationships almost always became the responsibility of the person she wronged. Not all protagonists need to be likable but based on the conclusion, I have a feeling Katie was definitely supposed to be.