This was a coming-of-age novel told in past and present after trying to forget the first love she met at summer camp who has now become a movie star. She's turned into a type A scheduled, valedictorian and everything comes crashing down when her best friend makes her hope that she can flush Carson from her soul to the boy she loves. I really wish she wouldn't made him beg more though he was more of a jerk to her and she should have just let him be and let him go. But Carson surprised me, towards the end with his grand gestures.

I appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book at the time prior to release. Unfortunately my taste in books have changed a good bit in the last couple of years, and I am not reading as many YA books. Also as a mood reader, it can be quite difficult at times to read book around the time of release. If I read and review the book in the future, I will add my review here. Thanks again for the opportunity.

I genuinely enjoyed the majority of this book. I thought the characters were adorable and the plot intriguing. There were times that I was screaming at the characters in my mind to just tell each other the truth and stop trying to put on some front. I really liked the build up of the story but didn't love the execution of the ending.

Chasing After Knight is a sweet YA friends to lovers, celebrity drama. This is such a quick read. I read it in an afternoon. I could not put it down. It was such a sweet and pure story, I highly recommend it if you’re in search of something light.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy in exchange for a review.

DNF at 35 percent

This book was very boring and I could not get through it. I found the character flat and unrelatable and the story was just not it for me.

Overall I would not recommend this book.

I honestly think this book would do really well with a more middle grade audience. There were many cringy moments, but I felt entertained, and was having some "Being Nikki" by Meg Cabot flashbacks. Wasn't a huge fan on my end, but I also recognize that my age may have hindered that. Won't be featuring o my page, because I don't want my review to carry weight given I am perhaps no longer the target audience and I do think this book could be liked by those who are more within the audience.

Although most people may not relate to having their first love become one of the most famous celebrities, this teen romance still captured my attention. This is the perfect blend of celeb crush meets first love.

Although this isn’t the most complex love story, it’s a fun read that captures an emotional teen romance. I have to admit I felt a little too old to read this​ (which is rare because I know I’ll be reading YA novels until I’m old and grey). Despite that, I still thought it was a great read to make my commute a little livelier!

I am not a fan of celebrity romance and I cringed in this book a lil bit too hard :(
I was hoping there would be less cringe moments but there was too much ....

I loved this book! Celebrity romances are always so much fun, and Chasing After Knight was such a cute story! Light hearted and face paced this is the perfect YA summer romcom

Second Chance
Friends to More
Celebrity trope

I enjoyed this quick read about Alexa and Carson/Cayden. There were some cringy scenes but it’s one of those stories where you just have to keep watching and hoping for redemption as the MC makes bad decision after bad decision. It was a fun and easy YA read that kept my attention enough that I read it in a day. I did a mix of audiobook and ebook. Thank you to Penguin Teen for the digital ARC and PRH Audio for the free audiobook.

Chasing After Knight had promise with its plot, but it was not the book for me. Even though it's a YA novel, it felt very immature, and at times, the plot was disjointed. I didn't particularly connect with any of the characters and wasn't the biggest fan of Alexa having a boyfriend, yet pining after her middle school, now-celebrity crush due to a creative writing assignment. The book was a quick read, and potentially a YA audience might enjoy this one. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

Chasing After Knight was absolutely adorable and such a fun read! This was definitely such a fun and nostalgic one sitting read I could not put it down. It had absolutely everything I was looking for, friendship, redemption, romance - it really ticked off all the boxes! This was a fun, cute, lighthearted read!

<b>Quick Stats</b>
Age Rating: 12/13+
Over All: 2.5 stars
Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2.5/5
Setting: 3/5
Writing: 3/5

<i>Special thanks to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.</i>

Was this book bad? No. Was it good? Also no. Did I read the whole thing because I was inexplicably invested in it? Yes.
Honestly, that sums up my feelings on this book pretty succinctly, but I’ll do my best to elaborate.

This book is childhood friends/crushes who had a falling out and became estranged until they meet again years later and maybe become something more? I absolutely love this trope, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of the way it played out in this book.
Alexa is way too hung up on a middle school friendship/relationship that lasted a whole four months. Like, this flirtationship has affected her so fully that she doesn’t watch TV, go on social media, read magazines, exist in pop culture. It was really hard to suspend my disbelief. It was way too dramatic.
Meanwhile, we don’t even see the love interest, Carson Knight-turned-Cayden McKnight (the name change was unnecessary and just made things confusing, honestly), until 30% into the book. And then, there’s just some broody eye contact and 0 words spoken. After that, Carson/Cayden isn’t seen for another 50+ pages. Nothing really happens in these 50 pages.
Then Alexa starts stalking Carson/Cayden again. They have some weird, angsty conversations. They fall in love. Everyone lives happily ever after—just kidding! Of course there’s the eternally dreaded third act miscommunication trope & breakup!
The thing about Cayden McKnight is that he is the Broody Bad Boy everyone loves to hate (or hates to love? Both?). He thinks that this persona is the only reason he’s famous, and if he lets even a crack show, he will suddenly never work again and will go back to the relative poverty* he grew up in. And dating someone—especially a non-celebrity? Well, that would simply be the end of his career.
*Carson/Cayden’s one big personality trait and sob story past is that he grew up poor. Except it was this whole big thing, when in reality he seemed relatively low income but nowhere near impoverished.
Honestly, the whole “if I date her my career is ruined because my bad boy persona will be shattered completely!” was the most annoying thing ever. Because 1. He was a douche about it and 2. It just doesn’t make sense. When has a male celebrity <i>ever</i> gotten heat for dating literally anyone? We are also constantly told that people thinking he’s a decent human being is going to ruin his reputation, career, and lose him all his fans, but every instance we see of this occurring, has positive affects on how his fans view him, except we’re told it’s ruining his career while people fangirl and gawk over him. The things we’re told by Cayden, and by Alexa, and by talk show hosts, are in direct opposition to the events we actually see play out.
That whole aspect of the book really just made me want to hit this boy upside the head.

Like I said, this book was not good. But I also became weirdly invested in it. I felt physical pain at reading it, and yet I finished the whole thing quickly and never felt like I was forcing myself to read it. I actually wanted to keep reading, and I almost hated myself for that fact. I don’t pretend to have sophisticated taste in books, but the fact that I was somehow enjoying a book whilst actively disliking almost every aspect of it was confusing, to say the least.
Would I recommend this book to someone? No. Would I dissuade someone from reading this book if they were interested? Also no.
Make of this what you will.

🎞️ Book Review 🎬
Chasing After Knight
Heather Buchta
Punlisher: Penguin Teen
Published: May 10, 2022
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

#qotd: Did you have a crush on any actors or musicians growing up?
I had a huge things for the Jonas Brothers...

Special thanks to @penguinteen for my copy of the book and for allowing me to do this review! All opinions are my own.

Synopsis from Amazon: "High school senior Alexa Brooks had it all figured out. Study hard, nail the extracurriculars, stay focused, and life would follow the carefully crafted plan. The problem is this plan was designed for one thing: making her forget all about her once-best-friend, former-potential-boyfriend, Carson Knight. Four years ago, he was the boy who always made her laugh, the boy she loved, and the boy she mistakenly and very publicly betrayed. Oh, and he was also the boy who grew up to become a heartthrob A-list actor, named Cayden McKnight.
An innocent-enough school assignment suddenly brings Cayden to the forefront of Alexa's mind, and her celebrity-crazed best friend Lindsey discovers the old connection. Convinced that his Hollywood bad boy image is the direct result of Alexa and Carson's fallout, Lindsey convinces Alexa to find Carson and reconcile, but reaching an A-list movie star is not as easy as it used to be when he was the kid Alexa called every night before bed. Unable to apologize in person but determined to somehow right her wrongs, Alexa goes on a quest to remake Cayden's image, doing good deeds in his name. But nothing is as it seems in Hollywood, and even when she's able to finally face Cayden McKnight in person, Alexa can't break through to the Carson she once knew. Is it really too late to make amends?"

This story was really cute. I liked Alex's dedication to making amends and her journey to realizing what's truly important in life, like family and friends and love.
Imagine you had a boy bff in middle school and years later, when you are nearly grown up, he's a famous actor and you're in love with him..kind of. Thus you have this book! Reading it reminded me of all those Disney Channel specials I watched in high school.
Check out this book on Amazon!

I constantly look for a character to relate to and i found it in this book. Heather Buchta's "Chasing after Knight" follows a teenage girl who made a mistake that causes a barrier in a relationship she loves. To fix it many years later, her friend is on team #carsonandalexa. While alexa did make some questionable yet also annoyingly wrong decisions, i still enjoyed reading about her because i could relate to her. I loved the mention of real things connecting to our version of the world like AP. As for the romance, i think it was sweet! It left me wanting to know more while also concluding in a good place. Speaking of setting, i loved that it was in VEGAS!! That's insanely fun to me. This read was fun, well paced, and enjoyable!

A Hollywood romance, second chance, and friends-to-enemies-to-lovers all in one? Absolutely a shot I was interested in picking up. While I did not love one of our main characters or their motivations in this, it did feel uniquely like something a teen <i> could </i> still do.

This was so cute that I had to read it in one sitting!!

Friends to enemies to lovers AND second chance romance AND celebrity romance?! 🥺

This book was a whirlwind of friendship, redemption, and romance.

It was told through two timelines which I almost always enjoy. I just thought this book was just cute and fun and cheesy in the best way.

A little nostalgic and a whole lot of fun, this YA second chance, enemies to lovers was super cute. Fast paced and descriptive, the story itself was adorable and I grew really attached to Alexa. While there were definitely some not so realistic moments, I thought they added to the charm of the story in a way. Highly enjoyed this! *I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

While this book was definitely not bad by any means, I never found myself getting super into the story or the characters. I love YA but this felt very immature to me.

This book wasn't for me. The characters were not very likable and it was hard for me to want them to even end up together. I was bummed because I love a good celeb romance!