Disclaimer: I got this ARC in exchange for an honest review from @NetGalley.

Meet Cute Diary is perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Jenny Han. Noah and Drew's story is extremely heartbreaking.It's also got a fake-dating scheme that kind of reminds me of Frankly in Love by David Yoon. Overall, I think it's a touching story that's worth the read!

Cute read! Noah is trans and he runs his blog, Meet Cute
Diary, where trans people meet their meet-cutes. The blog has become a beacon
of hope for all his trans readers; except for the fact that every single story
on the blog is made up by him. Everything is not as it should be as his parents
are in the process of moving the family all the way to California, he has not yet
met his meet-cute, and to top it off, he is losing touch with his best
friend. At least his blog is doing great… at least it was until a troll decided
to call out his blog as a fake. The last thing he needs is to lose that one thing that means the world to not only him, but also his followers. How far is he willing to go to save his blog and to regain theIf trust back?

Out of all the relationships, I liked the relationship between
Noah and his brother the most. His brother is understanding, accepting, and a
very good support in the story. There is a lot of diversity in this book including BIPOC and LGBTQIA , as well as a non-binary character, who is starting to explore, discover,
and decide on eir pronouns.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins Children's Books for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I gotta start by saying I appreciated the abundance of representation in this book. The main character is tri-racial and trans, and there's another character who is gender-nonconforming and uses e/em pronouns, something that rarely ever shows up in media. The author also does a really great job portraying the experience of anxiety and depression, although it should be noted that, <b> TW: mentions of suicide. </b>

However, the story itself left a lot to be desired. The main character, Noah, is...extremely unlikeable, and not even in a "root for the villain" type of way. Noah is straight up selfish, immature, and ungrateful and spends the entire book taking his best friend Becca and brother Brian for granted, and only turning to them when he needs something from them, while never asking how they're doing in return—which, ironically enough, Noah gets called out for this exact thing multiple times in the book! <spoiler> Brian gets Noah, an inexperienced teenager, a paying job and Noah spends the entire time being a brat? Drew goes out of his way to plan cute dates, and all Noah can think is "can't believe he didn't tell me we were going hiking and let me wear jeans" and "why the hell didn't he bring water"??? Becca helps Noah constantly with the Diary and solves a bunch of problems for him, and Noah is pissed that Becca had to study for a test and didn't have time to make a blog post immediately?? </spoiler> And yet somehow, despite this issue getting brought up several times, somehow everyone in his life just magically forgives him after yet another half assed apology without any real changes?? Even his relationship with Drew was so unbelievable—first, that this perfect guy (as described by Noah) would appear at exactly the right time to save Noah's Meet Cute Diary, and that they would just fall in insta-love after 3 dates and absolutely nothing in common? Drew was definitely not perfect, but just like every other relationship in his life, Noah was also using Drew for his own selfish needs ("I can't make him mad because then he'll break up with me and ruin the Diary"—TALK ABOUT TOXIC RELATIONSHIP!).

Even when, at the end, <spoiler> Noah and Devin get together, it was so absolutely unbelievable I thought I had missed something. Why would sweet, kind, amazing, beautiful Devin fall in love with Noah, who has literally been a TERRIBLE friend and coworker the entire time? </spoiler> This isn't even to mention the myriad of other problems I had with the book: the ending was so rushed and out of left field that it felt like the author had written herself into a corner and didn't know how to solve the conflicts, so just decided to write a rushed ending where everything magically works out, Noah suddenly has a complete 180 personality change and realizes his wrongs (but still BARELY does anything to correct them), and then everyone gets a happily ever after because <spoiler> Devin is somehow the sweetest and most forgiving person on earth and coincidentally eir dad got a promotion so the family could move to California and conveniently avoid any difficult breakups?? </spoiler>.

The most unbelievable part of this book is that Noah still has any friends and love interests at all, not because he's trans, but because he's straight up unlikeable. I only finished the book to see if Noah would finally face some consequences, but alas, that didn't happen.

I liked “Meet Cute Diary” for the story, but the characters made me love the book.

The book features diverse characters within the alphabet mafia. There is a non-binary character and the author actually lets Devin discover them on eir own. It shows the character sheepishly changing pronouns until finding the perfect fit. The main character, Noah, is a trans boy. Noah’s best friend Becca is a lesbian.

Noah spends the summer discovering what love actually looks like and letting go of fairytale romance ideals. It takes an idyllic relationship to find out what really matters in a relationship. Sometimes love is nauseatingly sweet without the perfect meet cute.

I really enjoyed this book! The representation especially is something that is so needed for teens and I think a lot of young readers will really identify with the characters. The blog vs real life scenarios made for some fun but gut wrenching moments, both qualities that I love to see in a book.

Emery Lee's debut novel Meet Cute Diary strongest attribute in certainly in its representation. In the story, we have a trans and multi-racial protagonist with friends and family that love him. There is a Cuban supporting character who is genderqueer and asexual. The protagonist's best friend is a lesbian. Minor characters in the story are also shown to be a part of the LGBT community. The amount of casual questioning and embracing of pronouns and identity is a joy to see in Young Adult literature today.

Noah Ramirez runs a popular blog dedicated to giving trans people everywhere hope for their "happily ever after." Only a few people know his secret, like his best friend Becca. When Noah decides to spend a summer in his brother's college town while his parents get their new home set up in California, he secretly hopes that finally, one of his fictional "Meet Cutes" can become the real deal. The premise of this book is very sweet, and is a relatable theme for teenagers everywhere learning to handle changes in their lives. This book discusses a range of relationships and the main character must learn for himself what it truly means to be in a healthy and dedicated relationship with another person.

At times, the book can be frustrating due to Noah's self-centered and dramatic nature. Many opportunities to provide support for friends and loved ones with dialogue are often exchanged for venting sessions and rants. Noah is a judgmental person with a quick temper, and none of these things change by the end of the book. Early on, opportunities for genuine connection are brushed aside for fantastical blog ideas. By the end of the book, Noah does learn some things about what it means to recognize others' needs (and his own), but there is a feeling that it is "too little, too late" to make a fully satisfying ending.

Such a sweet and heartfelt debut! I wish there were more uplifting books about trans and non-binary people like this around when I was younger. This is sure to help queer teens see that they are not alone and have every chance for joy and romance in their life (something I was not made to feel like as a teenager).

I cannot speak on the accuracy of the portrayal of Trans characters in this story, as I do not have that personal experience. I will say that Noah as a main character seemed a bit of a mess and felt pretty selfish - he never seemed to show any interest in his best friend's school work or anything and was upset whenever they weren't available; he's angry at his mom for cutting off his credit card after he spent over $400 in one week, I could go on. I realize that this was intentional to a degree, but I feel like this was never fully addressed. Noah's role in the story felt a little forced. Again, this was necessary for the plot to progress, but I do wish it had felt a little more natural. Overall, the story was fine. I think the representation is important and this is definitely worth having in classroom libraries so that students can read about diverse perspectives.

Oh. My. Gosh.

I knew that this book being one of my most anticipated releases for 2021 was a good choice, but DANG. This book was AMAZING and I tore through it. As a nonbinary person who is still figuring things out, seeing good, real trans and nonbinary rep that's not just about coming out and transphobia is SO necessary. And this is amazing representation.

Devin's story is what got to me the most. It's so rare to find representation of folks who are still figuring out their identity and pronouns, and it's even rarer to see that explored in a safe environment and in a way that's accepted by the people around them. Some of my best friends have gone through similar things of changing their pronouns, and this rep is going to help so many young adults learn that identity is not permanent, that our identities as queer people can shift as we grow. You don't need anyone else to tell you who you are, and you don't need to cater your identity or pronouns to anyone else. You're valid.

This is the story of Noah, a trans boy who is staying the summer with his brother in Colorado. Noah runs a blog called Meet Cute Diaries, which posts meet-cute stories to show trans people that they can find love, too. The problem? They are all made up and someone knows. As Noah tries to save his blog, adjust to out life in Colorado, and maybe find love, he struggles to keep it all under control.

I guess it is important to note that I don't usually enjoy romance novels, but read this because it has queer characters. So, remember that.

I thought this book was okay. I will break this down further by discussing specifically characterization, plotting, and writing. First, I found Noah to be an annoying main character. I get that he is struggling, but he is so self-centered and I get it is supposed to be a journey for him to realize this and correct it, but I never feel like this actually happened. I just didn't care about his journey that much. However, I found Devin to be a much more interesting character and kind of wish the book would have been about em! I wish we learned more about eir life. I even found Drew, for all his flaws (and I mean, Noah also had his flaws so...), an interesting character and wish his motives and story could have been explored more. Second, plotting: This ties into characterization, but I felt that the plot was a bit loose in parts. It relied so much on Noah being unfair to those around him that loose ends flew all over the place and I found that to be a little underwhelming. Third, writing: I think Lee's writing is overall good. It kept me engaged even with the parts I didn't enjoy. Maybe some tune-ups with the characterization and plotting and this could have been a fun and heartfelt novel! But it ended up falling flat for me because I never connected with the main character and got bored with the plot.

Meet Cute Diary follows newly out trans teen Noah, who is staying with his brother, and navigating romance with other queer teens. Strengths of this book include showing the contrast between a terrible partner and a caring one, family acceptance and gender exploration, while the entire tumblr blog storyline was a major weakness. Drew's involvement in it felt forced, which might be kind of the point. It was a three star read for me.

Noah Ramirez thinks he’s an expert on romance. He has to be for his popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary, a collection of trans happily ever afters. There’s just one problem—all the stories are fake. What started as the fantasies of a trans boy afraid to step out of the closet has grown into a beacon of hope for trans readers across the globe. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book. This was a great book that allowed to talk about young love.

I really enjoyed this book. It was really cute and honest. There was also lots of representation for BIPOC and the LGBTQ+ community. The main character was multi-racial, and even though the book was set in Denver, Colorado, a predominantly white town, there was still lots of diversity in every scene. I also really liked how another character was able to experience with pronouns and decided on e/em pronouns. I think that neopronouns should be normalized in books and media and it's important to have representation for nonbinary individuals who don't use he/she/they pronouns. The main character, Noah, learned a ton throughout the series, not only about himself, but also about his blog (the Meet Cute Diary), and he also learned about friendships and relationships. I think this book accomplished exactly what the title says it will: be a cute book that reads a bit like a diary about a boy and the people he meets. I would definitely recommend this book because to YA romance readers, but I think the book can also be seen as more of a coming of age book than a romance. Overall, this book was a super fun and adorable read that I think will be a loved by many YA readers.

Loved it! So, so adorable. It was wonderful to read a trans romcom from an ownvoices author. So romantic, with all the best tropes. An all around good read.

The trans rom com fake dating trope (with a twist) story I never knew I wanted, but clearly always needed.