This book was so cute! When I first started it, I did not know what to expect. I love how the chemistry between Brad and Rose grew throughout the book. I am glad that Carissa did not get her happy ending and Rose did! This book was well written and very entertaining. Loved it!

This was a good YA high school romance. I always like to read this type of reads in between all the angst or emotional reads.


Doesn't meant this read did not have its own
Type of drama. Brad, Rose and Carissa (obviously lol) are the main characters of this read. Its a classic HS issues type of read. So keep that in mind.

I loved the message behind it, especially with Rose. Loving yourself is key! It really describes real life issues teens these days deal with.

Great job!

Note: Thank you to Netgalley & publishers for allowing me access to this arc in exchange for an honest review! 

The first thing that drew me to Thanks, Carissa, For Ruining My Life was the title, and the second was the cute cover. I knew right off the back that this would be a fun read, and for the most part, I was right! If you're looking for a YA (I'd say middle grade-high school is definitely the perfect audience), cute, quick read, this is your book!

The Good Things
1. Brad and Rose are fantastic main characters. Despite a large amount of miscommunication between characters (fitting, since they are teenagers), the two of them have chemistry.
2. The story, overall, was cute, making this a light read that would be enjoyable for teenagers.
3. The cover and title are both fitting for the book.

The Bad Things
1. The drama was a tad too much for my taste. However, this IS a YA book, so it fits the category and probably shouldn't be counted as a "bad" thing.
2. Some chapters were VERY dialogue-heavy, which in my opinion, takes away from the overall story.
1. 3. Discussion Questions. In theory, these are a good idea, but not my favorite addition to YA fiction. 


My Final Rating:
☆☆☆☆ (Goodreads)
☆☆☆☆ (Blog)

YA - 3.5*

This book has everything that you would want from a book in this genre - characters that experience growth and change as well as messages of positivity.

At the beginning of the novel, Carissa has ruined both her twin sister Rose and her now ex-boyfriend Brad's lives. She signed Rose up to be on a reality show like Biggest Loser and she broke up with Brad right before the start of their senior year. Brad makes a list of things he can do to get Carissa back and sets about changing his life. Rose goes to fat camp, but is doing so under protest. She is the people pleasing twin and she just wants to make everyone else happy.

Both Rose and Brad do make changes that impact their life in a positive way and Carissa isn't as perfect as they both thought originally.

The story is good, but not necessarily super original. Also, the writing felt very juvenile, even for a YA novel. This might be better classified as middle grade even though the characters are seniors in high school.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for my ARC of this book.

This book follows Rosie as she goes to a Weight Loss Camp that her twin sister, Carissa, enters her in. It also follows Brad, Carissa’s ex boyfriend, as he tries to better himself to win Carissa back. It was a super cute learning to love yourself book that I know our middle schoolers will love.

I could not get enough of this book. It's about loving yourself for who you are on the inside, which may sound cliche, but this book executed it so well. The dual pov made it even better because even though I kind of knew where the story was going to end up, the twists and turns kept me hooked. As the book went on, Carissa's role was different from what I thought it would be, and this book was very aptly titled.

Thanks Netgalley+publishers for the Digital Advanced Copy

Brad is starting senior year with the perfect girlfriend, Carissa, but she dumps him. Rose, Carissa's twin, is also starting senior year, but her perfect sister signs her up for a live show about loosing weight. Both are devastated and think Carissa has ruined their lives.

The book is told alternating Brad and Rose's point of views, and I liked both of them from the beginning. They both have a great sense of humor and I enjoyed reading both their parts. I also liked Holly, Rose's best friend, and Leo, Brad's best friend.

The book has a lot of missunderstandings from both parts, but it was a cute and enjoyable YA read.

** Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion. **

I have many thoughts! It's easier for me to break this up into parts so that's how I will be formatting this:

What I Liked
1. Toxic Body Positivity/ Diet Culture vs. Body Neutrality
Rose is a plus-sized protagonist that is ends up on a weight loss reality TV show (a la The Biggest Loser), and so her journey in terms of her relationship with her weight and food is the primary focus of her character arc. I think Woodburn did a great job of emphasizing why body neutrality is arguably the more healthy way to look at body image. While her growth feels a bit rushed, it does feel genuine, and her new relationship with exercise and food is one that I think more people should adopt.
2. Old Self vs. New Self
Both Brad and Rose have similar arcs but take completely different journeys. Brad is motivated to change because Carissa broke up with him and he wants to get her back. Rose is motivated to change because Carissa signs her up for the TV show. Carissa is the catalyst for both, hence the title (which I think is a brilliant title), and both Brad and Rose come to the same conclusion– the true journey of self growth is learning to accept yourself. The whole "stay true to yourself" type of messaging is standard in coming-of-age YA so even though it's been done before, I don't mind.
3. Pacing
I read this all in one sitting within a few hours. It's a quick and easy read which I think is really beneficial for younger audiences.

What I Didn't Like
1. Characterization
This is where I had to take off the most stars, unfortunately. I'm definitely a characters-over-plot person so if I can't bring myself to be really invested in the characters, it's hard for me to really enjoy the book. I'm only slightly older than all of the characters in this book and I can without a doubt say that 99% of 17-18 year olds don't talk or think the way that these characters do. Usually, I can let juvenile characterization slide in YA, but these are high school seniors and they read like they were in eighth grade. I think I would have been less bothered by this if the characters were younger, this very well could have been set in 8th-9th grade and it would barely (if at all) have changed the plot. Just because a book takes place in high school, doesn't mean it needs to be senior year! Switch it up! Suspending disbelief in fiction is important but I have only ever seen people talk like this in early 2000s-2010s Disney Channel Original Movies.
2. Insta-love
This is totally personal preference but I need angst and yearning, which this book doesn't really have. While it might seem like it does, given the friends-to-lovers plotline description, I wouldn't say it has much yearning, if any. Which brings me to my third point...
3. Miscommunication
Look, I get it. Telling someone you like them is scary, but the assumptions and the back and forth between Brad and Rose got on my nerves! They were all very easily solvable if they just took like 3 seconds to think critically. If tension is a book is contingent on jumping to (wrong) conclusions, I get frustrated very easily. If there would have been a few less of these "xyz so he MUST feel this way" with no real evidence, I think it would bother me less but this type of conflict was arising quite literally every chapter.
4. The Weird Homeless People Bashing?
This was just really strange. There are other ways to emphasize that a person isn't as great as you thought they were without them being mean to homeless people and calling them smelly...
5. Outdated Pop Culture References
Normally this wouldn't bother me, but when there is a reference to YouTube and referring to when Leonardo DiCaprio "hit it big" as if that is a modern day phenomenon in the same chapter, it's distracting and also slightly disorienting.

In Summary: This book wasn't for me, I think that the target audience for this book is definitely more middle grade than YA. I think any older than that and the issues become more glaringly obvious. However, I will definitely be recommending it for younger audiences; it's a clean, straightforward (middle grade) coming-of-age romance. Not for me, but I'm also not really the target demographic. I think 12 year old Daniella would have definitely liked it though.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Immortal Works because I was able to read this as an ARC and get to write a review! All opinions are mine and mine alone.

I didn’t think this book was anything extraordinary but I did enjoy it. I liked the main characters and so enjoyed reading from their perspectives and it gets points for being dual POV as I always enjoy that more.


I don’t know if it was just my kindle but I had some problems with the formatting - some parts seemed to be mixed up so it just suddenly stopped making sense as I was reading and also words with f’s in all seemed to have them missing so I found myself having to work out words as I was reading.

✨ Book Review ✨

This is the first time I am reviewing a NetGalley advanced readers copy 😊 I hope it does not contain spoilers, please let me know if you feel like I gave away too much info.

Thanks, Carissa, For Ruining My Life
by Dallas Woodburn
Published: February 8, 2022

CN: Fatphobia, Body Shaming, Toxic Relationships, Cancer, Classism

🏃‍♀️🏃
This story is told from the perspective of two high-school students in LA: Rose is Carissa's twin sister and we follow her experience as contestant on a reality-TV show for weight loss. Her "perfect" sister nominated her and Rose participates despite doubts. At the contestants camp, Rose makes new connections and romantic experiences, but is also confronted with strict coaches and reality TV craziness. And she cannot get Brad, her brother's boyfriend out of her mind.
At the same time, Brad plans to improve himself after Carissa breaks up with him in an effort to win her back. As he pursues his goals, he questions more and more that it is Carissa he loves.

My thoughts:
This was a sweet romantic story about self acceptance, dealing with societal expectations, and growth. I liked that Brad was allowed vulnerability and self-reflection, it was nice to see him become more self-reflective. I also enjoyed Rose's transformation.
There were a few moments in the story where my expectations were subverted and I found myself reading this book pretty fast to find out more.
From a feminist perspective, I enjoyed that typical scripts of masculinity were challenged through Brad's story line (emphasizing care, connection, and integrity). Rose's story challenged diet culture and fat shaming. The only thing is that the story sort of implies that being fat is tied to emotional hurt, which may be true for some people but certainly not all. It would have been nice to read more about other contestant s' Backstories. But the message of the book is that what counts is not numbers on a scale but how you feel in your body, which I find very important.

🌴 The story is set in LA and Texas. For this review I browsed through photos of my trips to California in 2015 (honeymoon) and 2018 ☺️. All of the pictures are from the LA area.

#NetGalley #ThanksCarissaForRuiningMyLife

https://www.instagram.com/isalovestheforest/p/CYj0legICwY/?utm_medium=copy_link

This book was based on a few near misses- miscommunications, carefully worded mistruths and a lot of misconceptions. Youthful immaturity and the innate inability to discern true feelings and emotional depth led to most of the angst encountered as Brad and Rose navigate their way to each other. The title is true to form in that if Clarissa was truly non-existent , the winding path to happiness for the main characters would have been as straight as the crow flies. I enjoyed reading this book while being exasperated with the endless wrong turns - a mark of a good author who is able to wrangle conflicting feelings in the reader. With some good editing this book can become remarkable.

This was a very fast read for me. It wasn't spectacular, but it was enjoyable.

This story follows high school seniors, Rose and Brad, whose lives have both been "ruined" by Rose's twin sister Carissa. It was enjoyable to watch both Rose and Brad realize important things about themselves and things they feel about each other. Their relationship was very wholesome.

I do have to say I wish there was more conflict throughout and at times Brad was a little annoying at times. I also think that time passed unrealistically quick throughout the story.

Overall, I did find this book to be an enjoyable read. I think this would be a perfect book for middle grade readers.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for letting me receive this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars
This book was a bit of a wild ride and definitely not what I was expecting, so I'm breaking this review up into parts.

The Good
Staring off with some of the things I liked.
-I always enjoy when a book has plus size rep and when the fat protagonist isn't constantly talking about how much she hates her body. I cannot stand to read 200/300+ pages of self-hatred and thankfully we didn't get that here
-Some of the banter was fun
-Daniel was a real trooper throughout lol and my MVP
-I was drawn in to this book mainly by that long and quirky title (if only the book had lived up to all that promise)


The Bad
Now for the stuff that didn't quite work.
-The pacing was really strange in this book, to the point that the passing of time felt much, much too quick. We go from September through December and it barely feels like a week has passed.
-The POVs read very similarly in the beginning and I had a hard time differentiating between the two because they read the same. I know they have some differences, but the brain of a teenage boy is very different from the brain of a teenage girl
-On that note, Brad is a wet blanket who maybe didn't deserve Carissa, but definitely doesn't deserve Rose. She is way too good for him and he needs to stop beating around the bush so much
-Actually, they both do. Miscommunication trope in the last third of a romance novel is one thing, but Woodburn took that to a whole new level and gave us an entire book of miscommunication that was so frustrating to read (should that be marked as a spoiler lol)
-Also, the book mostly skimmed over two characters being blatantly rude to the homeless and they receive no sort of backlash from that except some weak protest from Brad

The Bizarre
On to the bizarre, and I truly mean bizarre. These kids do not speak like modern teenagers even though we are told time and time again that they are not only modern day teenagers who use Instagram, but some of them are even "popular" teenagers. And yet. AND YET NEARLY ALL OF THEM TALK LIKE CHARACTERS FROM 90S OR EARLY 2000S FILMS.

Truly the most frustrating and weird choice of the entire book. I'm 23, no longer a teen, have not been one for a while, but I would still consider myself up to date-ish on teen slang/talk (thanks, tiktok and two teenage younger brothers) and I cannot for the life of me ever remember any teen talking about Leo DiCaprio entering his prime like they remembered it happening (teens now were born in the 2000s, we're that old) or listening to Iggy Pop in middle school like he was the trendy pop artist back then (Google tells me his biggest hit was in 1986. All that to say that this might not really be a book for actual teenagers, but millennials (of which I am not and will maybe fight you on that argument depending on the day) who would like to read books about teenagers, because that is who quotes like the one below is for:

"'Bye Titanic boy," I say, using the nickname I gave him after Leonardo Di Caprio hit it big."

Baby, DiCaprio hit it big before the both of us were born :/ (Also the spelling I pulled from the book seems to be wrong; when I googled his big break, which was 1992-ish btw, which is indeed before I was born, his last name is one word)

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me receive this ARC in exchange for a review. All opinions are mine and mine alone.

This book starts off as a slow read at first but around 8% through I started to get invested I found myself excited & looking forward to Brad's POV. This book highlights many issues. You find yourself relating to one of the characters. Like Brad who has been broken up with & thinks he needs to improve himself but slowly figures out he doesn't need to improve himself. Or you might relate to Rose who struggles with her weight & self-image, at the start, she struggles to see her beauty past her weight but as the book continues she learns to love herself as she is. This book in my opinion is a book about self-love & acceptance, these two characters have made me want to become the person I want to be & love myself. So thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this book. It truly was an inspiration.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, Immortal Words and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.


Adorable, light, cute, relatable read.

The book is written out of two perspectives, Brad’s and Rose’s. Both have had their life ruined by the book’s title character Carissa. At first, this single thread is all that links the characters, as they are in two different places living out two different stories. Brad, Carissa’s ex-boyfriend, is trying desperately to win her back. Rose is Carissa’s twin sister who signed her up for a reality TV show to force her to lose weight. Dallas did a great job of making the characters feel like actual teens, and capturing all the angst and aches of high school. Brad’s arc and growth is amazing. Brad is basically every teenager who had their heart broken by their first love. As Brad tries to become a ‘better person’ to win back his ex, you can feel the conflict he has as he grows and his feelings grow and change, and the struggle he has with it.

I felt a lot of sympathy towards Rose. Not only was she basically forced to go to this fat camp reality TV show against her will, but the coaches and overall environment is toxic. There is no body positivity for Rose in either direction. I felt real anger at most of the people at the camp, who even when Rose was making good choices, if it didn’t show on the scale, she was shamed. Because of this, Roses personal growth felt a bit unnatural. You still can’t help but cheer for her as she learns to stand up for herself a bit, but given the environments she was in (both at home and at camp) it feels forced.

Overall the book was a great YA contemporary. Once I got to the 20% mark, I stayed up all night to get to the end. My only gripe is that there was a story line that was left unfinished and a lot of buildup to all the storylines that were finished in the last ten pages. I felt like the story could have been longer to wrap things up neater and feel less rushed.

This book is so damn adorable and poigant! The characters are relatable, the plot is riveting and the writing style is enticing and engaging. Good job writing this!

Rosa and Carissa are twin sisters but could not be more different. Carissa is the “perfect teenage dream” while Rose feels overshadowed by her sister who just nominated her to be part of the reality TV show Help Me Lose Weight and Live Again where she will go to Texas for three months while trying to lose weight. Meanwhile, Brad, Carissa’s ex who Rose has always had a crush on, is left reeling after Carissa breaks up with him and tries to get his life back on the right track. Will the person who ruined both of their lives bring them together or tear them apart.

Full disclosure, I got this book as an Advanced Reader Copy from Netgalley. I have not read a young adult novel in forever and this was so sweet and refreshing. This was in every way possible what I would call a “baby romance.” This took me back to high school. A big thing for me is I like to read teenagers as teenagers and this was definitely that. It perfectly captured that weird in-between of growing up where you are not a child but not an adult and the pressures that come with it.

I thought the dialogue was hilarious. The individual character development of Brad and Rose was really well done and I feel like they really grew before they come together at the end and although I would have liked to read more scenes with them together, I understand what the author was trying to do by having them individually come full circle before she did that. It was an alternating POV between the two main characters and there is a huge miscommunication trope in this book so it was so satisfying when they came together and finally cleared the air at the end.

Now I do not like mean girls, so I was not a fan of Carissa. She was so evil it hurt me when she was mean to Rose BUT the author does a great job of wrapping up her story as well and showing how she was just a teenage girl with insecurities in the end so I can move past this terrible mean girl this time.

This book gets a 4/5 ⭐ from me. I swear I had no idea what I was going to rate this book until the very end. I am a sucker for a HEA and this ending gave me total heart eyes. This is a read that I would feel comfortable sharing with everyone, it is a versatile and light read.

This was a fun read although YA romcom tropes are not the norm for me. I did enjoy Brad and Rose’s story. It was a bit tough for me as I have twin daughters and perhaps this wasn’t the trope for me. Carissa seemed so cruel and Rose so sweet. I found it a bit hard to believe that Brad would fall for both of them for the right reasons (while thinking Rose was his soulmate all along). Putting that aside, I did enjoy the reality show side of things and overall enjoyed Rose.

Yeah, it seemed a tad bit dated and the ‘fat camp’ thing was hard to read (over and over again) but I was there for the speech at the end!
Overall if you enjoy Rom Coms -YA high school style and miscommunication tropes this one will be for you!

Thanks NetGalley and the author for my gifted early copy. I would check this author out again for sure. I did enjoy the writing.

A light, easy read. Like other reviewers have noted, it would have been useful to see more interaction between the two main characters as their relationship seems to develop mainly off page.