This was a really fun, quick YA contemporary read. If you're looking for something cozy and a little predictable, but with enjoyable characters and engaging writing, I definitely recommend picking this one up!

As soon as I requested and received this arc, I looked at the title and the cover and immediately expected a cheesy rom-com that would make me smile, but wouldn’t be all that memorable. I have never been more wrong in my life. How To Not Fall In Love follows Harper Jamison, a girl who, after working in her mother’s bridal shop and witnessing way too many wedding meltdowns, has fallen out of touch with the idea of true love, or even love in general. Her best friend Theo, however, falls in love too easily, and usually finds himself nursing a new heartbreak every week. So Harper offers him something; lessons on how to not fall in love. But as he starts taking her words to heart, she learns to open up her heart to the wild world of being in love.

This book was AMAZING. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. The first thing I loved was how the author didn’t have conflict where there usually is conflict; for example, unaccepting parents, enemies, expectations. Instead, it was a normalized healthy atmosphere. I saw one review talking about how they loved the amount of sex positivity from the parents in this book, and I wholeheartedly agree. It was such a nice change to see a supporting parent who helped their child through absolutely everything.

I loved how not one person was demonized. There was no villain in this book. There was just two kids trying to figure out what they wanted. It made me really happy. Speaking of, I LOVED the other relationships in this book, namely Harper and Pippa. Their friendship was absolutely golden, and (as I said earlier) didn’t have that conflict element that many authors put into friendships. I also loved Harper’s relationship with Felix, and I loved how he wasn't slandered whatsoever.

Now onto the main relationship; Harper and Theo. I’ve never been a friends to lovers kind of person, but this book has changed my mind. It was messy, fun, and so dynamic. I loved how they weren’t a picture perfect relationship, and how it was made very clear that there were issues. But they fit together so well. I loved both of their characters individually as well. I absolutely ADORED Theo. I love characters like him; the attractive yet completely nerdy type. Absolute gold.

Plot-wise, this book was still perfect. Like I said earlier, I expected a cheesy rom-com, which meant I expected a cliche plotline. This was anything but. The tropes were insane, and I was not expecting some of the twists (trying not to spoil, so I’m leaving it there). It was such a welcome change.

Overall, this book blew me away. It is so much more than just an average, cheesy, cliche rom-com. It’s dynamic, funny, fast-paced, and an amazing depiction of complicated, modern love. If I could give this more than 5 stars, I would. Absolutely worth it.

This was a sweet and hilarious romance between friends to lovers.

Harper and Theo are childhood friends, they are neighbors, grew up together and shared the cutest memories, but they cant more different, Harper doesn´t believe in love and is guided more by her head than by her heart, meanwhile, Theo, literally is a knight with shiny armor who can play the accordion and write poems

I loved all the characters, they are realistic. likable and a little quirky. Harper is a smart girl and a hard worker, she helps her mom with her bridal shop and wants to study business to help her with finances, she has a strong relationship with her mom, who trusts Harper and gives her good advice when she needs it.
Theo is adorable, he always gives his heart and does big things, not afraid to be different and be true to himself. And Pippa is a great friend, her personality is very colorful and bright, everyone needs a Pippa in their life.

It's summer, Harper is too busy for a serious relationship, but she doesn't mind the idea of ​​a summer love affair, and Theo, on the contrary, he wants the HEA. Both will go through a series of adventures and misadventures, especially Harper, her head and feelings can be a mess and she needs to focus and think about what she really wants.

It's fast-paced, if you want something cute, laugh and relax this is ideal

I received this story as an e-arc. Oh my gosh! I could not stop reading it. I did have some issues trying to download it. Luckily I did get some help from Netgalley! Thank you.

Back to the story - I love all the names in this book for the characters. The beginning of the book hooked my attention and kept going throughout the entire story. When I kept reading on so many interesting things were happening with Harper. I loved the fact she helped her mom out and that their relationship was pretty interesting.

I had a hunch that this book would be up my alley to read and it was. </p>

I can see how some people might see this book as a triangle love story but to me it seemed more about Harper's sense on love and how to figure out how love works in a relationship. She learns how to cope with those feelings. I also believe these same concepts go to Theo. The story focuses on Harper as the main character and I think Theo would be the second main character. Felix, Pippa, Harper's mother and Theo's family also come into play which is great.

Such a sweet novel with friendship and love! I really liked it.

So if you are looking for something sweet, fast paced, coming of age of what love is, friendship and a geek like me who likes great endings, then you need to read it.

Some things that I liked:

Harper helping her mother out at the bridal shop

Communication between Harper and her mom about birth control

Loved Theo's creativity of stories and LARPing

Harper and Theo sharing a tent

Treehouse

Kissing

Harper and Theo share and help each other with SAT/ACT vocabulary. There were some words I did not even know.

Love that Theo plays the accordion

Funko Pop is mentioned

Harper finding out who she is and what love it

Theo finding out who he is

Pippa's description

The ending!

How Not to Fall in Love by Jacqueline Firkins was delightful! It is set in New Hope, PA which is one of my absolute favorite places. Many of my own teen days were spent exploring the shops and I could immediately picture Main Street and the bridge over the Delaware. The two main characters are only 17 and it is the summer before the start of their senior year of high school. Harper has sworn off love, but her best friend Theo is a sensitive soul who always falls hard but gets his heart broke. So Harper decides to teach him how not to fall headfirst over heels in love and he agrees as long as she also agrees to give dating a try. When I read the description of the book, I thought that meant dating each other, but the story took a different path towards finding love. Sometimes you have to make some mistakes first. The book is marketed as a YA book for 14 and up, but sexuality is a very open topic in the book. The characters are diverse and all uniquely crafted. I think part of the big appeal for me was how familiar I am with the location and being able to picture the scenes, but the story was woven with so much detail that I had no trouble envisioning everything else. It was a feel good story even if it did start out in the friend-zone… I am also thrown by the fact that dating apps for teens are real and do exist. Who knew?

Harper is a rising senior in high-school, spending the summer working at her mother’s bridal shop. She’s not a typical teen, while most of her class is spending the summer in her small town, New Hope, PA, relaxing and going to parties, she is working 40+ hour days, trying to help her mom keep the shop afloat. After a series of bad business decisions on her mom’s part, Harper, an aspiring businesswoman, stepped in to take over the books and some sewing. Being surrounded by brides and wedding chit-chat all day is proving to be challenging though. After an ill-fated summer romance from the previous year ended in heartbreak, Harper has sworn off love and the brides at the shop just make her more cynical.

Theo, her long time best friend, could not be more of Harper’s opposite. He wears his heart on sleeve, constantly falling in love, and is always authentically himself; fencing, LARP-ing, playing the accordion, helping Harper study SAT words because he loves vocabulary, and wandering around without shoes. One day Harper comes home from the shop and finds Theo bawling his eyes out over another girl who broke up with him after 2 dates because he came on too strong. This is always Theo’s pattern and Harper doesn’t want to see him keep getting hurt. They make an agreement; she will give him lessons on how not to fall in love and Harper will go on a date and try not to fall in love.

What begins in lessons about how not fall in love, turns into a story about how to fall in love. This is a very sweet contemporary YA romance about opening up oneself to the possibility of love. Light-hearted, with realistic characters. Would definitely recommend.

Cute book! I liked it, but did not love it. A fun romance that is generally sex positive, but a little lackadaisical about sex in a way that I don't know if teens are? I loved the bridal salon/ Ren faire settings. It was easy to tell from the beginning that the two main characters would fall in love, but the journey was still satisfying to read.

If you like friends-to-lovers romances, this book is definitely for you. It's one of my favorite tropes in this genre, so I absolutely adored this cute, quick read. The characters were likable, the premise was fun, and the writing was great. The title of the book is catchy and makes sense, and even though it's probably more of a YA romance (the main character is 17), and my inclination is more toward the adult romances, I still found it very enjoyable!

If there is one trope I cannot seem to quit, it’s the ‘best friends who don’t realize they’re in love until they do’ trope. I once watched 13 Going on 30 three times in the same day, starting again at the beginning as soon as I got to the end.

I picked up How Not to Fall In Love on NetGalley because it seemed like it might be up my alley. Then I forgot enough about the synopsis that I couldn’t quite be sure where things were headed as the book began. Yes, she made a bet with her best friend, but that bet seemed to entail…another love interest?

Yes, my friends — we have ourselves a classic YA love triangle. Er, quadrangle?

The basic premise of the book is this: Harper works in her mom’s wedding dress shop, dealing with fretful brides and petty arguments between bridesmaids. A summer fling left her heartbroken and certain she’s going to avoid love like her single mother before her.

Best friend and boy-next-door Theo, on the other hand, gets heartbroken about once a week. He falls fast, and hard, and easily, and… girls tend to run in the other direction after one too many earnest texts, seven-course picnics, or accordion serenades.

How to solve these problems? With a bet, of course.

Harper agrees to teach Theo how not to fall in love, but she has to prove she’s got the chops by asking someone out herself. She sets up an online dating profile for him and finally gets up the courage to ask out the cute boy who works out in the gym across the way from her mom’s store.

Said love interest is cute, sweet, and seems like an all-around great guy. Harper definitely has feelings for him, but there’s just the tiny matter of the fact that, in taking the perfect photo for his dating profile, it suddenly occurs to her that her nerdy friend Theo is hot. Oops.

You probably guessed this from the aforementioned trope obsession, but I heedlessly threw myself on the ‘best friends in love’ ship the moment Theo made his way onto the page. Never mind that the other love interest is introduced first, or that he really does seem like a pretty great guy.

Oh no, hand me a sensitive best friend in a Dungeons & Dragons t-shirts who’s prone to getting his heart broken and spending the weekends off LARPing in a field somewhere. Sold, 100%, every single time.

As much as I love a classic love triangle, they can be a bit clumsily tossed in at times. Part of what I enjoyed/agonized over in this book is that both guys are viable options for Harper. Her confusion about her feelings in choosing between them feels genuine and authentic, and I was impressed by how much we see her think through the conflict on the page.

A lot of times it feels like these love triangles exist more in the minds of fans than the characters themselves (looking at you, Katniss Everdeen). It was refreshing to see Harper genuinely trying to untangle her own emotions as she realizes it’s possible to have feelings for two people at once and try her best to go about managing that in a way that’s honest and careful of everyone’s feelings.

Even as I raged every time Harper did anything that went against my chosen ship, I felt that regardless of her final choice, I would have a strong sense that she thought it through and chose wisely in the end. This isn’t one of those stories where there’s an obvious choice because one love interest isn’t fully fleshed out or is secretly kind of a jerk, and I liked that nuance.

Even if, in my mind, there is only ever one actual option when you’re choosing between two guys and only one of them makes his own chainmail.

It’s also nice to see guys who cry without shame or judgment, as Theo does, and have a strong female figure who has chosen to be single in her adult life for valid reasons. That choice being respected even within the universe of a teenage rom-com felt refreshing, especially in a woman who sews wedding dresses for a living and could easily be portrayed as bitterly single instead of happily so.

As you can tell, I would give this book more than five stars if Goodreads would let me (I need more rating options, but that’s another topic for another day).

Not only did it play to all my favorite tropes, but it approached the teenage love story in a way that felt believable. No one was making any promises of forever in the end, and we got a much more realistic “happily for right now,” which I appreciate.

I highly recommend this book if you like a good love triangle, appreciate the occasional fencing tournament, or if you, like me, cannot get enough of the best friends realizing they’re in love trope.

How Not to Fall In Love will be released on December 21st, 2021. It is available for preorder on Amazon or directly from the publisher, HMH.

It is the summer before Harper’s senior year of high school. She works in her mother’s bridal shop. Her mom is the creative one who designs the dresses, while Harper is the one who handles the business side of things. After years of watching petulant and picky brides, Harper has become a cynic when it comes to love. Harper has neglected her friendships over the past year while helping her mom who has found herself in some trouble with the IRS. Harper and her co-worker, Pippa, discreetly obsess about the hot guy who works out at the gym across the street from the bridal shop. Felix goes to school with Harper, but he’s always seemed a little out of her reach. Harper’s best friend and next-door neighbor, Theo, is a hopeless romantic who is always falling in love. One day after work Harper finds Theo, broken-hearted after his latest breakup. They strike a deal. Theo agrees to Harper’s offer to teach him how not to fall in love if she can date someone without falling in love. Harper finds herself drawn to both the athletic and sweet Felix and the quirky and adorable Theo. Will she end up with either boy in the end or will she sabotage herself when she can't admit her true feelings? This is a sweet story about finding love and holding on to it. The characters are well developed (I especially loved the colorful Pippa). It's a fast-paced fun read that will take you back to your first love memories. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a cute yet predictable little love story. It did make me cry, though. I absolutely loved the character of Theo. he was fun, earnest, totally himself, eccentric and just wonderful!

Harper is studying for the ACT’s so throughout the book she and Theo use ACT vocabulary words to help Harper study. Some of these, my Kindle dictionary didn't even know. This was a great additive.

It was a little young for me and not really my thing. I had some trouble getting into this, but I am not the target audience for the book. I think the teen/YA group who likes romance novels will love this book.

Thank you to Net Galley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Book Group/ HMH Books for Young Readers for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

#NetGalley #HowNottoFallinLove

OH! MY! I am a sucker for romance stories and when the blurb said it is about two different people, one a cynic and another a hopeless romantic, I decided to dive right in and I am not disappointed. Loving this heartwarming tale and I am rooting for them.

"How Not to Fall In Love" by Jacqueline Firkins is a sweet and frustrating story about two best friends who have opposite approaches to love. Harper runs her mother's bridal shop and sees the worst of the wedding industry, while nursing a devastating heartbreak from last summer. This has given her a dark and cynical view of love. Meanwhile, her best friend and next door neighbor Theo throws himself full force into every possible relationship, leading to lots of heartbreak. They decide to offer each other lessons in how to fall (or not fall) in love.

While I was often frustrated with the miscommunication between the characters in the book, I couldn't stop reading it in order to find out what would happen. The story had a few twists I wasn't expecting, and the ending left me smiling. Throughout the book, the two main characters studied vocabulary for the SATs, and their frequent use of large vocabulary words was both funny and interesting. It also lead to an interesting subplot about the meaning of words and how we use or misuse them.

Overall, this book was a fun and fast read, with quirky characters and smart banter. I really enjoyed it and will keep an eye out for other books by the author!

Sometimes you just need a fast romance/quick read to relax and this book delivered. It was fun and the characters were well written. I’d definitely recommend it to a friend.

How Not to Fall in Love is a sweet YA novel about Harper and her best friend Theo. Harper is cynical of love after a bad breakup while Theo is still seeking love after MANY breakups. Harper agrees to give dating a chance if Theo will let her teach him "how not to fall in love."

I love Theo's character. 100%. He is eccentric, an empath, and just completely his own person. While he dealt with bullying as a child, he has finally come into his own. I love that he wasn't the typical cookie cutter jock or the adorable boy next door... he was a real character with unique interests. One who went against what is considered "the norm" and owned it. I thought Firkins did a fabulous job of writing about finding someone who loves you for who you are. Basically that it takes all kinds of different people and personalities to make the world go 'round - and that you shouldn't settle for someone who doesn't value who you are.

The relationship between Harper and her mom was very open. I appreciated that her mom spoke to her candidly about sex and relationships. In many YA novels the emotional weight of sexual relationships is overlooked, but Harper's mom made sure to acknowledge she wasn't just giving her body to another, she was giving her heart and her emotions and that it was a big step. Kudos to Jacqueline Firkins for including this!

A sweet novel of love and friendship - and bonus points for having interesting characters! Thank you to HMH Books for Young Reader and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.