I was excited for this book since I liked the premise but I couldn't really connect to the main character or the side characters for that matter either. It did have some enjoyable moments though and all for all is a good book to get you out of a reading slump. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book reminded me a lot of my own life. It is an art form to be a good third wheel and Lara had it down. The emotions that she felt and expressed were all things that I have felt myself. The one thing that would have allowed me to rate this higher is if we had gotten more closure for Lara and James. It ended much to abruptly for me.

How to Be the Best Third Wheel follows Lara de la Cruz, who comes back from a summer vacation spent visiting family in the Philippines without internet connection to find that her three best friends (Carol, Jasmine, and Kiera) have all gotten boyfriends (the three of which also happen to be best friends and have a fourth friend, James, who was also gone all summer). James and Lara have been enemies for a few years, despite being childhood friends. As they start to deal with various third-wheel situations, and Lara is forced to start tutoring James, they find themselves growing closer.

I don't really know where to start with this book.

Lara is fine, I suppose. I don't recall her having much of a distinct personality. She's not really sure what she wants to do with her life (though everybody around her thinks she should go into medicine), which is a source of stress for her, particularly as she will be applying to university next year and needs to have some sort of idea. She also spends a lot of time worrying over whether she should apply for a big internship for the summer, or keep the plans with her friends that she's had for a long time, which is complicated by the fact that her friends are acting horrible to her.

James was also fine; there were moments where I really liked the two of them together, but the dynamic just didn't feel natural, and James definitely came across as creepy, particularly in the beginning (repeatedly calling Lara things like "sweetheart" when she repeatedly asks him not to). I just really could not get into the romance, which is the entire point of the book; it just didn't feel natural at all.

All of the friends just came across as horrible people. Seriously, they repeatedly lie to Lara so that they can spend time with their boyfriends, are never there for her, and are just the epitome of bad friends. It went far beyond the typical "forgetting your friends when you start dating someone" and just got extremely far into the unrealistic category. They didn't even show that many redeeming qualities independent of that, so I just really struggled to understand why Lara had been friends with them for so long, or why she wanted to continue after they started mistreating her.

The plot structure was also just very strange; it kind of resolves, and then everything gets messed up again as if the author just needed the tack some stuff on at the end in order to get the book to reach a page limit or something. The ending was horrible as well. The writing also felt quite immature, but that wasn't as much of a problem for me as the other factors were.

I will say that the book is very lighthearted and not a stressful read whatsoever; if you need a romcom to distract you for a bit, it will absolutely serve that purpose. Are there far better options in the genre? Yes. Will this still do in a pinch? Also yes.

Overall, I can't say much to recommend this book; I'm giving it 2.5 stars for at least being bearable and not painful to sit through, but there isn't anything to warrant rating it higher than that. Unless you have a lot of pent of annoyance about third-wheeling, you probably won't get much out of this book, but it couldn't hurt to try if you're looking for a lighthearted YA romance.

I just want to quickly say thank you to NetGalley for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I want to start off by saying that I love the nostalgia of reading this book. Wattpad was a huge thing for me while in highschool and this would have totally been a book that I would've stayed up late to read. It has everything I loved, from the humor to the love is lame trope. It was so fun to read. The other grown up part of me had my eye's rolling but in the end I loved it.
I give it a 3.5 because it was quite wholesome and I love the diversity! The only thing that didn't make it a four for me was because of the teenish issues but to be honest that's all on me mostly. I didn't really have the same type of highschool experience as the characters in this book but it was still nice to read about someone who did. So overall it was funny, cute and very nostalgic for me. I quick light read!

A nice unexpected surprise! Lately I had been in a bit of a reading slump, but this pulled me right out. Enjoyable red and loveable characters. A definite must purchase and will share with others. Will be adding this author to my lost of favorites.

Thank you to Wattpad Books and NetGalley for the eARC.

“How to Be the Best Third Wheel” is about Lara who comes back from summer break to find all three of her best friends in relationships and she is left to be a third wheel with her enemy (and childhood best friend) James.

I wanted to rate this book higher. I really did. I loved it up until about 88%. The dynamics between the characters, the growth, the conflict. But, I hit that 12% left mark and… it went downhill.

⚠️SPOILER ALERT⚠️

The relationship between Lara and her friends is great, and I loved how Lara eventually decides that her best friends’ boyfriends aren’t that bad. Plus, the relationship she builds with James made me so happy. They were cute and happy and it was heartwarming. Their chemistry and banter was amazing- until it went downhill.

I don’t like reading books without “Happily Ever After”s. I actually despise it. I don’t read books for reality, I read books to escape. This book had moments when I really related to the situations Lara was going through- but it had enough moments that were happy that it pushed back the sad emotions I felt when Lara was going through things I had gone through. But… this book doesn’t end in a HEA, at least by my standards. And- and I am not okay with that. If I had known in advance that this would not happily- I would have never read it.

Close to the end, Lara’s cousin Eliza moves in with her temporarily after Eliza’s family decides to move back to where Lara lived. The problem is, Lara is in a new relationship with James and Eliza was James’ middle school girlfriend. Eliza immediately gets to work trying to steal James and eventually- after Lara has an outburst cause she was trying to stand up for herself, which only results in James mad at her because Eliza pretends that Lara hurt her- Eliza is caught on camera at a hockey game, kissing James. Lara stews in heartbreak and decides to break up with him- despite his attempts to apologize and their “I love you” confessions. The book ends with Lara deciding that they can be friends but she doesn’t want to date. It’s pretty much laid out as right person, wrong time- which is a trope I despise.

I genuinely don’t know what else to say about it. I wanted to love it, I wanted a happy ending. But the ending completely ruined it for me. All this growth and love that went into the first 88% was destroyed in ONE chapter. Lara didn’t let James explain anything, she didn’t give him a chance. It makes me so angry and I can’t look past that to keep loving the rest of it.

⚠️SPOILERS OVER⚠️

I would recommend this book if you are fine with no HEA. It’s a good and easy read. It has a nice story for the most part. But, it doesn’t end happily.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would, I liked the mentions of Eurocentric beauty standards and the whole pressure of not knowing what you wanna do in life. The Asian rep in this book was also really refreshing to see!! Especially with Southeast Asian rep not being very common. The writing was also cute, albeit a little cringy at times. But I felt as though the book could’ve been like 100 pages shorter, much of the middle felt dragged out and slow, like the book ended but kept going somehow??. I was a little disappointed with the ending and the lack of communication between the two main characters as well. I liked Lara as a character but she was a tad annoying at times, like she expected everyone to just stay young and not move on after highschool, I always related to her in a lot of ways though, the stress of not knowing what you want, and worrying about how others perceive you, it hits close to home. Overall this book was a cute, yet slightly cringe worthy, time.

*Thank you to NetGalley for approving my request to read this.*

How to be the Best Third Wheel is about a girl named Lara who just got back from her vacation in the Philippines and found out that her friends are in relationships. She starts to navigate around her coping with changes, and her relationship with her old nemesis and friends.

Well, I find this book a bit predictable. I love that sweet, cheesy romance, but the anti-romantic scenes are a bit overboard. I find it a bit overboard and cringy for Lara (the main character). I must say that the whole story is the same as to other YA contemporary novels that I have read (way back when I was a teenager).

I rate this 3 out of five stars. I felt that this was more likely a fanfiction story (the likes of Wattpad) because of the writing style (I cannot exactly describe or elaborate, but that's how I can physically describe it). The story is good, even if it is flawed. There are a lot of representations and diversity which I think may interest others to read. I would recommend this to young teens who want a quick summer read.

I liked this book but was not loving it.

Great book about friendship and how it changes through time. But also a nice little romance with an unexpected person.

Definitely a cute, fluffy, YA RomCom.

Thank you NetGalley and Wattpad for a copy of this book. This is my honest voluntary review.

This book was funny and cute. I really enjoyed watching the MC grow over the course of the book. thank you for the arc

“There are times when I feel okay about myself but then there are times like this, when I don’t fit in anywhere. Its like, you love so many people but you’re just in a completely different room, peering through a glass window and observing. Sometimes I’m merely a spectator of the show and I wish I could be okay with that.”

Although I'm not in the habit of reading YA romance (unfortunately I'm no longer part of the target audience *crying internally*), I saw this book on NetGalley and decided to give it a try. I wasn't disappointed at all!
A light, well-written book, with well-built characters who perfectly represent their age group, without being too adult or too childish. I loved following the main character, Lara, and remembering a bit what it is to be a teenager, all the challenges and confusion. It's amazing how I can relate to most of the things that happen to her, which left me with such a nice feeling of nostalgia! The relationships that exist, both friendship and love, are also very well crafted, especially the unfolding of Lara and James' relationship. These two go from being friends (much on the strength of their mothers' friendship), to "enemies," to friends again when they find themselves in the role of third wheels in their closest friends' relationships, to finally settling down as a couple, something I felt was inevitable given the chemistry between them. The banter between these two is just on point, and the awkward moments that come from this age give a sense of third-party embarrassment that is so relatable ahahahah Aren't these reasons enough to read this book?
The only thing to keep in mind is that this book doesn't have a WOW plot, it ends up focusing more on character development. This is not necessarily a bad thing, I have quite a few favorites with this same basis, namely the Aristotle and Dante duology, but I feel that this aspect could have been explored differently. It has some repetitive moments that get a bit boring at times.
Basically, it's like watching a Netflix teen movie (one of my guilty pleasures, the person becomes an adult, but the child stubbornly won't go away ahahahah)! A light read with an atypical ending that may not please everyone but that I found refreshing, I recommend!

“Sometimes, growing up can mean growing apart. And sometimes growing apart means growing closer to yourself.”

Plot | ⭐⭐⭐
Characters | ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ease of Read | ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Quality of Writing | ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall | ⭐⭐⭐,75

Review to be soon published on my bookstagram account @direadsomebooks!

This was a really nice book- sweet and cheesy, but a very light, fun read! I was literally smiling the entire time, despite all the cliches!

Plot:
The plot of the entire seventh wheel thing is something I enjoyed reading about! I loved how friendship and romance balanced each other, at least as far as Lara was concerned.

Characters:
They were fun to read about, although I'd have liked to have seen a more fleshed out version of Lara's friends. Like, we're just told their rep, and an attached stereotype of the rep and then told their qualities. I wished there was more showing less telling, though at the end there was more showing less telling, so I guess the writing kinda sorta evolved.

Writing Style:
Like throughout the book there was this sweet, fun writing style but at the end it just felt like a little rushed. Like it seemed as though the author just wanted to finish the story off in a not so cliched way. So, idk, that's a minus.

Final rating: 3.5 stars!

Thank you NetGalley and Wattpad books for providing me with an eARC of this book.

It's entertaining. It's painfully predictable and it's one of those books that I finished and went "ha, nice", but it was just not super special so three stars seems fit.

When I finished reading 'How to Be the Best Third Wheel' I immediately wished that I never picked it up. After sitting with my thoughts, I realized that these characters actually represented teenagers well.

When Lara returns home from spending the summer in the Philippines, she’s shocked when she finds out that her three best friends are now all in relationships. She had been so excited to spend her final year of high school with them so her heart sinks. To add more drama to the situation, they’re all now dating the best friends of her old childhood friend turned enemy, James. Lara has to deal with her best friends having new dating lives and now spending more unwanted time with James.

The beginning of the story started off strong. There is a lot of humor and the diversity of the characters alone made everything interesting. I was glued to the pages up until about the middle of the book when things started to feel too dramatic, even for a young adult novel.

I started to become disappointed in Lara’s best friends. One of my favorite aspects of reading YA contemporaries is the friendships between the characters. Sadly, I felt like Lara’s friendships in 'How to Be the Best Third Wheel' were toxic. They continued to hurt Lara and Lara would forgive them so easily. There wasn’t much growth on this either which I didn’t enjoy because I found Lara to be a great character. She was relatable, especially for young readers who are struggling with figuring out what’s next after high school.

A plus for Lara’s best friends constantly ditching her is the fact that it makes her spend more time with James. For the most part, I found their romance sweet. James was the perfect balance for Lara and the fact that they were old childhood friends was the icing on the cake!

Everything was going great for the couple and I couldn’t wait to read their happy ending until the plot took a turn. As I said, things became more dramatic at the midpoint of the book. It could be my own personal preference when I say this, but even for teenagers there were some parts of the story that just didn’t work for me.

Despite all of this I found Loridee De Villa’s writing great. I love how diverse the characters were. There is Tagalog mixed into the story and I enjoyed how well it was placed and added more depth to both Lara and James as characters.

I think young readers or anyone looking for a cute weekend read will enjoy this book! There were missed opportunities throughout the story but overall I liked 'How to Be the Best Third Wheel'. The ending hurts, but it’s very fitting for the story. This book definitely showcases the ups and downs of teenage years.

overall review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
this book overall was a really enjoyable read! if I’m gonna be honest I haven’t fully read a book in like 3 months and this book helped me get out of that slump. as y’all probably know, I am a sucker for aapi rep and the fact that this book had Asian rep just made it so much better!

writing style: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
I really like the author’s comedic writing style and find it hilarious!

plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
the plot kept me sucked in and I couldn’t put the book down!

characters: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
the characters definitely all served their purpose. I hated the characters I was supposed to hate, related to the ones I was supposed to relate to, and loved the ones I was supposed to love.

read if you:
like anti-romance
love aapi rep
want a rom com with relatable characters in book form
childhood best friends to rivals to reluctant friends to lovers

Thank you NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Get ready for a google docs rant review kids, this is going to be a bumpy ride.

Never thought my rating of a book could change so much throughout reading it until I read this one, How To Be The Best Third-Wheel. AKA another reason why you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover (because sometimes books with pretty covers turn out to be boring and a waste of your time!). I picked up HTBTBTW, thinking that I would read a fun rom-com about third wheeling and it delivered that, and it delivered even MORE of that and not in a good way. This book was so unnecessarily long, that I just couldn’t stand it anymore and started skimming the last 100 pages. Though, I must say, it did have a great dedication:

“To my love life- thank you for being so nonexistent that I had to write this.”

This book is about Lara Dela Cruz (what even is that name-) going on a vacation to the Philippines and returning back to school only to find out that all of the members of her girl gang have boyfriends now. Instead of being a normal person and a good friend, she treats them like shit for having boyfriends (????) and then plays the victim. I had an unpleasant experience with those kinds of people, so it was quite fun to read about (ironically I requested the book because I was third wheeling at school after my friend had a new boyfriend)!!!!! I just wanted to hit her with the back of the thickest book I own in my bookshelf. I know that it sounds malicious and weird but I really, really hated her. She was just this selfish, whiny and ungrateful 16 year-old who was not even close to being mature (or even pretending to be mature, for heaven’s sake). I’m not a psychologist but from what I saw in tv shows, homegirl has serious abandonment issues. She is too dependent on her friends and she probably thinks that she puts them first or something.

“I never told you anything other than the reasons that I don’t like you, let alone how to build me the perfect desert.”

Then there was the love interest, James who was just there. That’s all I have to say about him or else I would have to stop writing this review and start meditating to remain calm :)))))))))))))

“Selflessness and sacrifice don’t have to be weaknesses. Sometimes they’re our greatest strengths.”

The sense of humour (sorry the LACK OF sense of humour) in this book got on my nerves. Imagine reading a 300 something paged book about a girl with horrible gen z humor. You’d think they would stop making gen z references and “jokes” for at least a little while and be serious for once, but guess what? They don’t. Nope.

“Words threaded in a pretty sentence can be as easily broken as a bracelet held by a single string.”

Also her being: “nobody asks me out" GIRL WHERE IS YOUR #SELFLOVE??? AND PLEASE STOP DEFINING YOUR SELF WORTH WITH THE LOVE OF OTHERS. Then she’s all, “I hate him”, “He is awful”, “He is my mortal enemy”. Stop it. He is not your enemy and this is not an enemies-to-lovers book. Just stop it. I got too much second hand embarrassment from this book. I wanted to dig a whole and just hide in there until this cringe-fest was over.

“Even if we got stuck in the middle of nowhere, it would still be the perfect date because I’d be with you and being with you puts the brightness of the sun to shame.”

The fact that Lara/the author kept changing the topic, was unbearable. I have an annotation saying “how tf did we even get here?” because the mc kept rambling and ranting about every. little. detail.

“At least if you freeze, you’ll die cute. You’ll thank us later when your ghost looks pretty.”

To be honest, Illa and Lola Nora prevented me from giving the book 1 star, because they were the only wholesome characters who minded their own business. And the mc still managed to be jealous of their relationship while being the one who put distance between them herself. She can’t even be happy for her sister Illa and is, I quote, “bored” when she listens to her problems and her desperate plea for relationship advice because, oh, didn’t you know? The whole freaking world revolves around Lara. This review is getting too personal thanks to my awful former friends, fuck you guys <3

“I realize that it’s up to the third wheels to fix the problem and restore balance to the universe.”

Apparently you can blame someone you like that doesn’t know that you like them for breaking your heart. Well, that’s new. The guy doesn’t even know you exist and you’re like “ugh he is awful for not accidentally bumping into me/looking my way/sitting behind me”. I’m not exaggerating, here is an example of said situation: “I’m mad because he didn’t remember that I don’t skate.” and it's not just an "I'm mad at you, you idiot :D" type of situation, she went full-on crazy just because the poor guy didn't remember that "sHe DoEsN't sKAtE". Plus, I don’t know why but they talk to their teachers disrespectfully and playfully and the teacher’s respond like gen z teens. Is that what intimate teachers sound like or are they literally just written by a toddler?

“His smirk transfers via audio waves now; what an impressive technological revolution”

This book basically had the same old Netflix rom-com movie plot where the cool guy falls for the nerdy girl who was already obsessed with him. It was so predictable that I had a note saying that “blah blah blah would probably happen anytime now” and ten pages later, it happens! I’m not trying to be harsh or anything, just stating the facts and sometimes truth hurts.

“I hate him more than Katniss Everdeen hates President Snow”

Everyone was so problematic like they actually locked two of the couples who had just broken up and forced them to “kiss and make up” just for the sake of “saving their relationship” which was literally none of their business. No one should meddle in someone else's relationship. And Lara? STOP SAYING “SHIZBALLS” AND “FISHBALLS” PLEASE THANKYOUVERYMUCH.

“I’m the third wheel in my own relationship” (can you tell that I couldn't even find nice quotes from the book to add to my review that I'm using random sentences instead to fill the void lol)

On the other hand, for some weird reason, I kind of liked (not enjoyed, that’s a whole other thing.) reading this book when I tried to ignore the irritating main character altogether. I guess I liked the story of her friends more than her own story. To conclude, I did not hate this book because it had potential and because this was obviously the author’s first book and it was brave enough of them to share it with the world. Still, I would not recommend this book to anyone and would like the 7 days that I've just lost back while reading this book please.

This was such a cute YA realistic fiction book. I really liked that it was clean enough for students but still fun for an adult to read. Some of the tough topics brought up in the book were done so in a very nice way, making it normal instead of a stigma. I really enjoyed this one and would recommend it to former students (older readers).

I think my mature readers will enjoy this novel! Lara was a delight and seeing her navigate her relationships was very entertaining. Will be recommending to my students!

I related so much to the main character, Lara. She's smart, she's driven, she's got a great family, but aside from all of that, she's got real fears. Fears about her friendships, fears about her future, fears about her relationships.

I thought the relationship between the MC and the love interest was great because it doesn't always start of great and it doesn't always start of with love at first sight, even if you grow up together. I like the amount of communication that they had between the two of them.

Then, the end. This was a perfect YA ending where it doesn't get all figured out because who does at age 17?

The side characters were okay, eh. It felt like they had no context and at times I forgot they existed. They were described ok but I couldn't keep track of who was who.

All in all, a fun story to read.

How to Be the Best Third Wheel
by Loridee De Villa
4 stars
Lara comes back from vacation and everything has changed in her last year of high school, all her friends now have boyfriends and she doesn't know what to think of it or handle that they all decided over the summer to get boyfriends, or boy fries as she likes to call them. Then to make matters only worse her enemy James starts picking on her and following her to classes, then between her mother and tita Gia, they get her to start tutoring James in math. So no friends and now she is stuck with the most annoying boy she can think of.

This book is cute, it starts right out making me laugh. Lara is funny and has a sassy attitude. The relationship that starts between James and Lara is rocky but it gets better as it goes on. It just kept reminding me how when I was young, When you don't know how to flirt, you don't know how to handle liking someone and getting a massive crush on someone. We all have those guy friends that you use to play fight with and thought nothing of it till one day someone tells you to stop flirting. That is how this book makes me feel. The ending felt rushed way too rushed for my liking. The high school little love and figuring out what you want to do with your life are relatable. It was great to read how teenagers struggle to figure out what they want in their life and for their futures. This book shows the different languages the family uses and translates them which you don't see in many books anymore. I liked how the chapters were named as tips. I need to buy a physical copy now.
Thank you, Net Galley and Wattpad Books for this ARC for my honest review.