There was a great romance written here, but the reliance and heavy involvement of social media in the plot is going to mean this story isn't for everyone. Social media is a part of our daily lives though, and it was interesting to see that so integral to the plot of a romance novel.

Love, Comment, Subscribe is a frienemies-to-lovers, there's only one bed (twice!) story, and I was here for it! Lily and Tobin have known each other for 20+ years, and have been fairly antagonistic for a good chunk of that. Lily, who was always interested in fashion and beauty (and, unfortunately, also in what everyone else--especially the "popular" kids--thought of her), left their small town as soon as she could for LA to start a career as a beauty influencer while Tobin stayed in their small town--though interestingly enough, he also made a living making YouTube videos. When a collab between their channels is first proposed--Lily's hoping to take her brand to the next level, and Tobin's looking for new inspiration--neither of them thinks it could possibly work...or could it?

I loved seeing what ideas for videos they each came up with--never have I ever wanted an instant book-to-screen conversion more, because OMG they all sounded fabulous, and I was almost afraid my imagination couldn't do them justice! (No shade on Cathy Yardley's writing abilities--she did a great job, but honestly it might have been too good, because I had a burning need to see Tobin in that suit in the flesh...;)) Their channels' current stats and most recent comments at the beginning of many of the channels was a fun touch too; I especially liked seeing followers from her channel join his and vice versa, and how commenters on both channels stuck up for both Lily and Tobin when things got dicey.

Seeing Lily and Tobin on the page together, it wasn't at all shocking to find out that their friends had thought for years that their relationship had the potential to turn into something more, despite their antagonism--their chemistry is fantastic! For a lot of the book, though, it does seem as if an actual relationship might be beyond their reach. Her life's in LA and involves going to all kinds of influencer parties and launches, and his is 2+ hours away before taking LA traffic into consideration and involves a whole lot of playing video games and pranks. Their approach to their businesses are seemingly incompatible too, a factor that will play a major role in their relationship's dreaded black moment.

I loved these two together. Their chemistry! The videos! The cuteness! I loved that Tobin wasn't afraid to admit he enjoyed things that aren't usually considered masculine, like cuddling, and that he was completely OK with letting Lily use him as her canvas for millions of their viewers to see. And the fact that he is self aware enough to know what he needed to take care of his own mental health and didn't shy away from letting everyone else know about it? 100% here for it. I also loved the way they resolved their differences in the end, with both of them admitting the roles they played in it but the person who was really more in the wrong making a truly touching gesture that showed just how much they had grown.

I cannot wait for more of this series! We get some teasers here about who might also be paired up thanks to the Ponto Beach Reunion, and it's gonna be great!

Rating: 4 stars / A

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

Loved the characters, the setting, the romantic tension, and the length of the book. We are always fans of rom-coms, but we loved the social aspect element of this one - made it feel ultra relevant on today's dating scene. Very cute!

Love Comment Subscribe is a cute Frenemies to Lovers, angsty story with plenty of heart. Lily and Tobin are young adults in the virtual age. She a vlogger, he is a gamer. Lily is the extrovert, Tobin the introvert, the list of why they shouldn’t be together is vast and long. The struggles to keep up affect us regular every-day users too. The attraction is apparent and the interactions adorkable. I am excited to see where book 2 take us

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 STARS

I loved the banter between Lily and Tobin. Love, Comment, Subscribe by Cathy Yardley is a MUST read that will join the ranks of the BIBLIO-ELITE!

I really enjoyed this book and the characters were adorable. The difference in most aspects of their personalities makes up so much for the thick tension and chemistry they have towards each other. Their banter was so enjoyable!

I also love how Lily’s strong façade softens with Tobin, along with the growing attraction they have for each other. The romance was truly one of the strongest aspects of the book.

I love how Love, Comment, Subscribe provides a peek at content creation and planning for both characters, and for that, I’m leaning towards Tobin’s process. He’s more spontaneous and easy-going compared to Lily’s uber-organized personality.

I really enjoyed how detailed the process of content creation was and how it was highlighted in the book. Content creation is a grueling process, even I’m having a hard time just repurposing content on other social media platforms because it takes a lot of time.

It’s also why I resonated more with Tobin’s character, and with his ADHD, and how he’s trying to maneuver through his burnout. It brought me back to when I was dealing with my own burnout a few years back. It’s also a reminder that fame and money shouldn’t get in the way of preserving your mental health.

Love, Comment, Subscribe is an adorable book that features high school frenemies turned unwilling collaborators with amazing banter and chemistry!

I really enjoyed reading the book, despite some slow scenes here and there. I love how the story really valued the efforts of content creators and how it’s relevant in this digital age.

I wanted to make it a point to finally be able to cover Cathy Yardley's adorable romance novel Love, Comment, Subscribe for Asian American Pacific Islander Month, so here we are!

The first book in the Ponto Beach Reunion series focuses on two former classmates, uptight Lily Wang and goofy Tobin Bui. Back in their Ponto Beach high school, they were both members of the self-described Nerd Herd, a sort of catch-all group of smart, driven and creative kids who happened to not be part of the popular crowd. Taiwanese American Lily badly wanted to get in with that latter social circle, but one humiliating lunchtime incident put paid to those ambitions. Ever since, she's been striving to be the kind of girl who'd be accepted by the cool kids, eventually parlaying her perfectionism, business degree and love of beauty into a successful YouTube channel of mostly make-up tips, with the occasional fashion feature.

Half Vietnamese American, half white British Tobin, on the other hand, was the kind of goofball who was especially skilled at pushing Lily's buttons. After high school, his interest in video games and sketch comedy led to his dropping out of college in order to focus full time on his growing YouTube channel. Featuring pranks, stunts and live game streams, he's become phenomenally successful to everyone but his parents, who simply don't understand the amount of effort and sheer work that goes into creating and maintaining his online business.

With their ten year high school reunion looming, both YouTubers find themselves at a critical career juncture. They each have millions of followers and views, but in the constantly churning world of online influencing, they need to figure out a way to take their brands to the next level or risk stagnation and worse. It's Lily who originally has the idea for them to collaborate, and while Tobin gives her a hard time about it at first -- mostly since they haven't really spoken in almost ten years -- he eventually comes around. The two need to work out how to integrate both their personas and their personalities, as well as their entirely different creative processes in order to build a successful collab. But could they be building more than just a professional partnership as they begin to discover entirely new and attractive sides to one another?

This was an incredibly cute, incredibly sexy tale of two high school frenemies who fall in love several years on, despite their differences. I love how tuned in Ms Yardley is to modern trends and technology, making for an entirely realistic story. Lily, especially, is super relatable. While I had her uptight productivity more in common with her than her eagerness to be admired -- and admired her kindness even more than her work ethic, myself -- I feel that she's the kind of heroine many people will find easy to relate to, as she's truly multi-faceted. It's so great to watch as she grows and learns over the course of the book.

A few days' hindsight has made me realize that I'm less fond of Tobin himself. For all that his job is in entertainment, he's a pretty terrible communicator. I get why he was upset at Lily towards the end, but it's not her fault that she sounded like his parents and agents and everyone else who has a brain and is concerned about him. Instead of presenting his needs maturely, he basically just freaked out at everyone who had legitimate concerns about his plans. I feel like if everyone around you is being "terrible", maybe the trouble isn't them, it's you? Maybe I, like Lily and everyone else around Tobin, am just too uptight, but I have a hard time believing that impulsiveness always leads to good things. And even so, if it was just him involved, Godspeed and all that. Him freaking out at her, a person he knows to be A Planner, because she's not immediately on board with the life-altering plans he's just laid down on her, <i>a girl he's just started dating</i>, was super gross at best, and kind of a red flag. Guy desperately needs a therapist.

For all that, he's not the worst romantic interest I've ever read, and Ms Yardley does an amazing job of making the relationship between him and Lily and all the events surrounding them flow realistically and entertainingly (and sexily!) I loved, too, how the author sets up the next few books in the series here. I'm already intrigued and semi-invested in the relationships of the other members of the Ponto Beach Nerd Herd and am looking forward to picking up the rest of the books (whenever I find tiiiiiiiiiime.)

Love, Comment, Subscribe (Ponto Beach Reunion #1) by Cathy Yardley was published October 1 2021 by Montlake and is available from all good booksellers, including <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/15382/9781542030007">Bookshop!</a>

When I first found out about Love, Comment, Subscribe, I knew I wanted to read it based on the summary. Not only that, but the main characters are Asian. Even though there are more options for diverse characters now, that wasn't the case for me growing up. So it's refreshing to see someone like me in any form of media.
Their frenemies-to-lovers relationship was something I enjoyed; the banter was fun and cute. I loved the characters. I could relate to Tobin. Yet was also able to understand why Lily was the way she was.
Love, Comment, Subscribe touched upon mental health, which is a topic that has a stigma surrounding it, especially in most Asian cultures. People should normalize talking about their mental health; it is an integral part of who they are. Cathy Yardley did a good job talking about it. Your past impacts your present and future. The character's background added to the story and is not just an information dump; it added depth to the characters and made them more relatable. I felt seen and understood as I was reading. I had never read anything from Cathy Yardley before, but I can't wait to read the next book in this series.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

What happens with two influencers who have known each other since children but have never gotten along collide years later? This laugh out loud slow burn frenemies romance is what! A joy to read.

This book feels like it was made for me. It has ADHD rep and has two of my interests in beauty YouTubers and streamers. I love how the author has put it all together. The main characters were adorable together and I loved learning more about their history with each other. This novel shows that sometimes what we’ve been looking for is what we had all along, someone who accepts us and loves us for who we are. I cannot wait to read the rest of the series!

Really enjoyed this contemporary romance - starring Asian romantic leads! A beauty influencer and a gamer influencer love story, it was a fun, enjoyable story that I felt captured all the unseen work and effort that influencers potentially do to keep up the brand, and exploring the burnout from that.

I absolutely adored this book. It’s a fun quick read that has great humour as well as incredible commentary on how social media, and especially being an internet influencer, can impact mental health. Love, Comment, Subscribe has that same sweet romance feel that I got from Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare.

Both the main characters characters are well fleshed out with representation of Lily being of Taiwanese descent and Tobin being half-Vietnamese, half-American with ADHD. Their relationship developed so well, from enemies to lovers, to friends, to falling in love. It was so good seeing their relationship slowly blossom and Cathy did a great job at writing this slow burn. But yet, there was a great tension throughout the entire book and once things started to happen… it only got more intense. As for the “spice” level, there aren’t many sex scenes but there is definitely that tension there. Spice wasn’t added in here just for the sake of “spice”, the scenes that were always added a little something to the narration or plot. It was the perfect balance for this book.

With it being an internet based book, the portrayal of the internet was either going to be hit or miss. I think Cathy Yardley captured the internet (at this present time) incredibly well, with a lot of references, slang, and just overall interaction. Although I’m not usually a fan of pop-culture references in books, I was enjoying this book so much that I really didn’t mind it at all. And as a blogger, I felt like Tobin’s and Lily’s individual approaches to their own content and work were realistic and refreshing to see two differing angles.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. From start to finish it was just such a fun and sweet romance. I adored Tobin wholeheartedly, and ship them together. Cathy managed to capture the internet and what it is like to create content on the internet so well, and loved the central message revolving around mental health. I cannot wait to see what comes next in the Ponto Beach Reunion series!

I liked this. It was a fun, enjoyable read but I'd recommend people to not increase their hopes with it. Though it's very average at its best, it certainly is enjoyable and joyful once one starts reading.

4.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Really, really enjoyed Love, Comment, Subscribe!
Fun and informative, and a unique storyline that kept me interested the whole way through!
Lily Wang and Tobin Bui are You Tubers, but both of their content needs a shake up, so they decide to do some collabs. What makes this fun and entertaining is they are frenemies from high school, and their banter and chemistry really shines through!
Personal growth and reflection, the aim to keep growing through “likes, comments and subscribing” and Tobin’s ADHD are woven throughout this story in a thoughtful, sensitive and engaging way. I was hooked!

The "Ponto Beach" series follows two members of a high school friend group who end up becoming YouTubers. While the romance was a bit lackluster, this novel does redeem itself with the friendships. It was also nice to have read a romance with both an Asian heroine and an Asian hero. To read my full review, please see attached link.

This is a super fun, enjoyable read. The story flows easily and while it is a bit stereotypical at times, overall this is a cute, feel good romance.

I liked the set up - high school friends/enemies meet 10 years after graduation when their agents suggest they do a collaboration for their youtube channels. I don't really follow any youtubers and I found the behind-the-scenes very interesting.

I liked both Lily and Tobin and I found I could relate to their struggles regardless how different they were. They were opposites in many ways but had more similarities than appeared on the surface. I really liked how they brought the best in each other.

For a light-hearted romance this story had unexpected depths - undiagnosed ADHD and how it affects every aspect of one's life, family expectations and pressure, demands on content creators to produce new, imaginative, fun/clever content all the time. As a long-time blogger I felt some of their struggles very close to me. It's just a hobby for me, they make their living via Youtube but the pressure they were under felt very real to me.

I liked their diverse group of friends (enemies), both MCs are half-Asian and there are a bunch of queer characters as well. It read very natural too me, nothing felt force or out of place.

The greatest strength of the story for me was the idea of finding a balance in your life and making a relationship work despite the odds. Both Lily and Tobin need to put in the work to overcome their personal issues. Being together was no miracle cure though it did put things in perspective for both of them.

I admit to liking him a tiny bit more than her, she came off more closed off. His whole storyline was richer, more developed than hers imo. I appreciate the way his creative block was presented and his struggles to admit it and finally deal with it. He prioritized his mental health over work/fame/success and that is a such a powerful message to me.

my only complaint is that the ending was too neat, all issues were resolved in more or less fairytale manner. There are also some stereotypical representations in the story that could have been avoided. Still, overall I enjoyed this book a lot and can highly recommend it.

CW: undiagnosed ADHD, burnout

I am sorry but I got so bored with this one that I just read maybe half of it and just gave up. I didn't like the characters either.

I can not recommend this.

Love Comment and Subscribe is that 21st century romance that has the sweetness (and hotness!) of that frenemies to lover story. Lily and Tobin’s relationship since childhood has always been as frenemies. Twenty years later it hasn’t changed much but now their adults managing their careers as an content creator/gamer and a beauty influencer. When both their online careers needs a boost, they decide to collaborate in a series of videos. Despite their vastly different content the videos goes viral much to Lily’s chagrin. But the more time they spend with each other, the more attracted they become. Now Lily and Tobin have to decide how they can make their relationship work. Love Comment Subscribe has that frenemies to lovers witty dialogue, funny romantic encounters and sexy close proximity situations down perfectly. Even how Tobin and Lily’s differences regarding work is resolved perfectly. But its the insight into the lives of influencers that really gives dimension to an already well executed story. It gives a glimpse into a world that looks so easy for those who might be watching but is so totally difficult for those who create them. Love Comment and Subscribe is definitely a fantastic romance.

Love, Comment, Subscribe is a very cute book. I feel like as a reader you get an inside glimpse of what it takes to be a Youtuber. Lily is very adamant at being successful on this platform and after she realizes she need to step up her game, she reaches out to her friend from high school Tobin.

Tobin is also a popular Youtuber but while Lily is a beauty vlogger, he’s more the fun kind of guy who also need to find his niche in the Youtube atmosphere.

I do loved that the author didn’t focus too much on how videos are made but there was actually a decent amount of pages focused on that and the rest on their relationship.

However, there were thing that I find quite unbelievable. For example, Lily has 6 million subscribers and yet she somehow has like 200 millions and more views on her videos??? I find this impossible. I searched on YT for Nikkie de Jager’s videos (beauty vlogger). With more than 13 millions subscribers she barely has a million views on each video, with the most popular videos having around 40 millions. As a reader I just couldn’t believe she would have hundreds of millions of views for a video on how to dress in autumn or something. Tobin had around 10 million subscribers and he also somehow has 300 millions of views per video. HOW?

It felt like there was no research done for being a vlogger/Youtuber and this really bothered me. Because with this many views per video, no matter how many subscribers she had, Lily would be probably be able to snag decent (and bigger) companies to collaborate and wouldn’t really need Tobin, to be honest (And vice versa).

Lily was also not likeable character at the moments. She posted three times a week which is a lot for a Youtuber. Especially considering how much time it goes into editing. How she manages to have any free time for anything is mind boggling. I really felt that she put too much of her attention into being a Youtuber and pleasing others. She was a bitch when Tobin said he felt like something was missing and that he thought of taking a break. She reacted to badly like honestly, I couldn’t see them together at that very moment even though there sexy scenes were hot.

All in all, liked Tobin, didn’t like Lily much. And a little YT research would make this book more believable.

3.5 stars.

A great rom-com to take you away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Will recommend to anyone who enjoys rom-coms.