What happens when you come back from summer vacation to find that not one, not two, but all three of your best friends are in relationships? You try to find a way to be the best third wheel! Lara has to learn how to navigate the stress of senior year while trying to maintain her friendships and .... also figure out how to deal with a lifelong family friend who annoys the crap out of her yet who she also begins to see in a new light. This book has all the cringe and awkwardness that comes along with being a teenager as well as the fun (or not so fun) that comes first loves, relationships, and just growing up. This book was enjoyable and funny! Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this story in exchange for an honest review!

DNF
Este livro não funcionou para mim.
O ritmo era lento e a escrita infelizmente não era das melhores. Achei os personagens cômicos em muitas situações e o enredo não é nada inovador.

This is a two and a half star book, but I've rounded up because some of the things I don't like about it may be because of my age (this is a ya book, and I prefer my YA to be fantasy) and the writing style (often a personal preference).

The main character, Lara -a typical dramatic know-it-all teenage girl- is actually pretty entertaining (only mildly annoying) and her fued with James is fun to read.

"Our fued was established when it was decided that we'd both exist on the same planet."

Lara's group of friends are all a strange mix of personalities, which makes their interactions interesting, especially after she immediately finds out that every single one of her friends started dating someone over summer break.

That being said, this book seems more middle-grade rather than just YA, despite the age of the characters. It starts off strong, but drags throughout. The writing is a bit mediocre, and the way the Tagalong conversations are presented (with an English translation in parentheses following) is annoying and takes away from the story. There are moments where the author has a tendency to tell instead of show parts of the story that could have been introduced differently. Easy to get through though, since this is a quick read.

Note: Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for access to this arc in exchange for my honest review!

REVIEW WILL BE POSTED ON ZBESTBOOKS.BLOGSPOT.COM ON 27th APRIL.
Review also on Goodreads.

***

This was a very cute and comforting book that felt so relatable and at the same time let me escape my life. It had a great balance of characters and friendships, despite the cliche story. Sometimes I am just in the mood for a sweet story with funny characters and a charming romance. This is what I class as a 'dimples and nickname romance', and as much as it is predictable and everything: I love it!

The friendship group was very heartwarming, although not always the most believeable. There were some great moments and the Grandma, in this case 'Lola Nora', Lola meaning grandma in Tagalog, was just a fantastic character and I liked her a lot.

I felt a bit detached from the story in places but in others I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know more. It's one of those books that with a few edits, could be a real hit but wasn't quite there yet in my opinion. I think this was probably due to the pacing, which was a bit off at times. I did laugh though and I appreciated how light-hearted it was.

I did get a bit confused about which boy Lara's friends were each with which sometimes made the story hard to follow. The rest was easy though and felt a real comfort.

This also very much reminded me of Elizabeth Acevedo's books as it had a very similar culture vibe, with foreign people in the US. I love this, it is always so interesting and it was very well done here too.

The parts in Tagalog, although sometimes annoying because I couldn't understand them and had to skim over it and read the translation in brackets, were well-done and made the book more unique and different to anything I've read before. It emphasized the impact that being an immigrant has on the characters and makes it so much more plausible because I often get confused when books say that a character only speaks a certain language and then proceeds to make that character speak in English for the benefit of the readers. It just looses a bit of reality.

The diversity felt like it may have just been put into it to tick the box to me as two of Lara's friends were also immigrants, however, I guess this could be part of the reason they are friends and connected. This could have been explored more but it was still refreshing to read about and well expressed, positive diversity is always a plus!

There was plenty of girly drama which felt very real, quite scarily so! It really felt like the author knew what being a teenager is like and the kinds of things that go on.

Overall, a book I'm glad I've read and had a good time with but doubt I will return to, unless I'm in the mood for a cheesy romance I guess! I do recommend it though, as an easy and funny read that will maybe make your day a little better.

This book was too freaking cute! I loved lara as the main character I found her relatable and funny. Also, this book included one of my all-time favorite tropes childhood friends to enemies to lovers (kinda confusing but one of my favs). I also loved the diversity and honesty that this book contained. I loved how it showed some of the fun parts of senior year and what there is to look forward to but also some of the hard and confusing things. However, there were times when some of the side characters (friends and family) were annoying and I just wanted them to disappear. While I feel like this was part of the intent it was mildly troublesome. Overall I had such a fun time reading this and am so excited for others to be able to read this great story.
*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to #NetGalley, Loridee De Villa, and the publisher for the ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Lara came back from a wonderful family vacation to find out that her three best friends all have boyfriends. To make matters worse, her friends' boyfriends are friends with her big archrival, James. To make matters worse, James and Lara's moms are best friends and Lara is roped into tutoring James so he can get into university and take over his family's business.
Being a senior, trying to see her friends who are preoccupied, and tutoring James, will Lara be able to figure out where she belongs in everything?

This was a very cute YA read! It was diverse and filled with teen drama but in a funny and teen like way. I will certainly recommend this book to others! I loved Lara and how she learned to be true to herself!

How to Be the Best Third Wheel is about Lara who comes back from her summer vacation to find that her three best friends are in relationships. Ironically, all three boyfriends are the friends of her childhood friend turned enemy, James. Now she has to live with watching her friends' PDA and with James in her classes. To make matters worse, she is stuck tutoring the enemy.

Third wheeling was a very side plotline. Majority of the plot was Lara figuring out her own feelings and learning to deal with all friends being in relationships. It seemed very immature of Lara to be reacting the way she was when she was with her friends. I also feel like the whole 'her friends ditched her for their boyfriends" was very exaggerated as well.

Overall, it was very nice to see the dynamic between James and Lara. I loved the flirty enemies to lovers that they had going on. The 'everyone knows but them' was my absolute favorite. It seemed like everyone shipped the two.

✨𝐀𝐑𝐂 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖✨

Rating- 3.5⭐
Spice- 0🌶

This was a a really good read to get me out of my reading slump!

First of all this book was hilarious 😂 I loved Lara's inner monologues they were so relatable and funny. The diversity shown in the book was a great plus point and the family bonds were amazing! We all love a good family relationship 🤍

Also this book is a romantic comedy which is based on anti romance! I loved that!

Lara and James are so cute I loved them both sm! The fact that both of them are third wheels and then start spending time together which slowly leads to them falling in love is so adorable 😍 The third wheel scenes are ON POINT.

I liked and disliked the fact that they didn't end up together. It was not what I thought would be the end of the book but it was something which made sense. What I really didn't like was that it didn't have an epilogue, though the ending made sense and it was pretty good but that incomplete feeling of not having an epilogue was still there.

I remember reading this book on Wattpad the ending was different and I think I liked that better.

This book is definitely good but it does have flaws like any other book. I really didn't like Lara's friends. I think that was the point of the book to make us not like her friends as in the end they did apologize to her but I felt that she forgave them too quickly. Without making them properly understand what she actually felt, had it been shown that she prolonged her ignoring them or some rocky times in their friendships it would have felt a little more realistic. Also the kinda-cheating-but-not-exactly thing just... didn't sit right with me.

But all in all I really like this romantic, cheesy, funny, ya rom-com! Thank you for the ARC! <3

This is a cute YA novel looking at friendship and finding ones place. The story is about Lara, who spent the summer before her final year of high school in the Philippines. She returns to find her three best friends are now in relationships and suddenly she is left trying to find her place. She is being harassed by her childhood nemisis. I did like the diversity of the characters. Though it could have been touched on some more. I have no doubt that the teenage me would have loved this book.
I had my thirteen-year-old daughter start reading the book, but she just couldn't get into it. All in all, a cute novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ebook of this title, received in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a fun read. The writing is sometimes juvenile and there are a lot of instances where characters overreact. But at the end of the day, it is a book written by a teenager for teenagers. And teenagers are juvenile and dramatic and often blow things out of proportion. It involves a lot of misunderstandings, miscommunication, and insecurities. This book captures the inner thoughts of a teenage girl who feels left behind by her best friends. And she learns to cope. And sure she may be petty sometimes, but I was petty myself at 16 and 17. Heck, I'm even petty at 19 some days. And it's fine. No one should open this book expecting characters with a deep understanding of life. It's not meant to challenge any world views. It's a simple book meant for the reader to have a laugh. Not every book out there has to be groundbreaking and this one doesn't force itself to be.

I loved it...

It was the best light-hearted at times, funny, honest, butterfly-giving rom-com thus far.

I enjoyed how not only did this novel contain various cultures, a childhood friends to enemies to lovers trope, but I also discussed topics of isolation from friend groups and family, the importance of self-assessment as well as coming to terms with the fact that not everyone knows what their life's future goals are and that's okay...All things that I can relate to.

This novel made me laugh, cry, feel all giddy, and most of all how the author narrates the main character, I felt seen, heard, and understood.

This novel is written in a way that seamlessly connects a tips/advice novel with beautiful storytelling. I loved this book so much and I feel that the author spent time developing each character. I only wish the main love interest would have developed slightly more in his journey to figuring out his passion.

All right fine, what is this novel about?

Lara the main character or should I say the third wheeler is faced with shocking news/reality when she returns to her friend group after 2 months of no communication whatsoever.

She is then forced to fight for her friendship, recognizing the fact that she is more deserving of love, communication, and a sense of honesty from her friends. Nonetheless, she finds herself in the pits of exclusion from her friends, and the only arms that she can find comfort in, are the arms of James, childhood best friend and all-time enemy.

What happens when they spend more time together? What happens when people get hurt/used? What happens when you find your passion?

So many questions that this novel answers. I relate so much to this novel. I appreciate the author and netgalley.

Thank you Netgalley and Author for allowing me to read this wonderful novel.

How to Be the Best Third wheel is a clean teen romance comedy. It is a very quick read, something one could read in an afternoon. I think this book would appeal much more younger readers who are either in high school or early college. I am in my mid-twenties and I don’t believe I am the target audience and because of that I didn’t enjoy it very. At times it felt very immature and toxic, even for high schoolers. The main character seemed to immediately forgive her “friends” everytime this happened. This aspect gave the story an unrealistic quality.
I really appreciated the diversity of the characters in this story. I always love when books include pop-culture references, and this book had a lot of them! There were also a few great zingers that had me laughing.

Overall it was a average read that I would recommend for younger audiences.

Thank you to Netgalley and Wattpad books for the Advanced Reader´s Copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is a cute read. The teen angst especially during the high school years when the whole world is just the handful of people is well silicates by the author.

I started out really enjoying this quirky novel that, unfortunately, took a nosedive.

Like I mentioned, I enjoyed the humor and quirkiness this book brought. We get most of it through the main character, Lara. She's against romance and love and has recently become the worst third wheel of all, the seventh wheel in her friend group. Lara was very unpredictable in most of what she did which was part of what made her character so interesting. Sometimes, she was a bit much for me, but that's part of what made her different and refreshing as a YA main character.

Lara's friends really sucked. That being said, I very much enjoyed the journey we were able to take with the friend group. Her friends were at the worst at the beginning of the book so Lara has to put her foot down and point it out. We see some great development as Lara realizes what she needs from friends and her friends realize how they need to be treating each other, etc. Some great growth is seen in this friendship and I commend De Villa for that.

James was never very dreamy for me. He felt immature and a bit too teenager-y. I mean, I know he is a teenager, but nobody wants the love interest to act like a real 16/17 year old guy would. I wasn't impressed by his character which probably led to my lack of interest in the romance of this book.

One of the biggest things for me that really caused me to lower my rating of this book was the ending. It felt unfinished and abrupt. I mean, I might have been able to understand if there had been an epilogue telling me what the characters were up to months/years later, but that wasn't included. Instead, I was left feeling like I was just told a joke with no punch line.

For the humor and diversity, I recommend it. For everything else, I don't recommend it.

2 Stars |

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Disclaimer: I am in no way a harsh reviewer. If I liked a book, it's going to be getting at least four stars. However, I just had so many problems with How to Be the Best Third Wheel that I just could not get over.

Let's begin with the overall premise of the book. After spending the summer before her senior year in the Philippines, Lara comes back to school only to discover that her three best friends have boyfriends, making her the third wheel. Introducing James, Lara's once best friend, whom she has known for her entire life because their moms are best friends. Turns out that Lara's three best friends- Jasmine, Kiera, and Carol- are each dating one of James' best friends- Mark, Daniel, and Logan. In this strange turn of events, Lara and James both end up being the third wheel.

I'm not going to lie, there were so many times that I found things that Lara said to be funny, and I loved the inclusion of the Tagalog language, with translations. Other than that, I could not get myself to like these characters. Throughout the entire book, there were just so many plot holes, grammatical as well as spelling errors. Not to mention the overall lack of character development and toxic relationships. I mean, when a person- or a group of people, in this case- keep apologizing for their actions, but make absolutely no effort to change their behavior, they were never actually sorry!

3.5/5⭐️

This book was an emotional roller coaster. When I first went into this book I was expecting a funny relatable rom com but OUCH. I did not expect PAIN to exist in this book. Break my heart ig 🥲. Also I loved the diversity.

At first I thought Lara was a bit to bitter about her friends relationships but later on I understood and to be honest I would’ve probably reacted the same way. She was way too relatable that I might’ve shed a few tears.

JAMES. JAMESON FIRGGIN BRYER. Marry me 💍. Although he isn’t perfect I still love him so much. His gift to Lara ☹️ *screams in single*

Anyway go read this book if you like:

➵ Highschool romance
➵ childhood best friends to enemies to frenemies to friends to lovers
➵ forced proximity
➵ funny banter
➵ big friend group
➵ a character that is so relatable to the point you will cry

First off, a warning – this book does not have a happily ever after. Also it’s definitely more for teen readers.

Lara is dealing with a lot of things, and most Seniors in high school do. Her best friends came back from summer break all with boyfriends, she’s tutoring her childhood crush but now enemy James, and she’s trying to decide what she wants to do after high school.

I love the diversity and how Lara is a second generation filipino immigrant that lives in Canada. She is fluent in Tagalog which is nice and we get the Tagalog translations in English as well. I’m Filipino American, but my family speaks Ilocano, not Tagalog so I needed those translations. I totally related to some of the Filipino family dynamics, and the mentions of food was fantastic. I love how she has that family bond and also the family enemy (her cousin, Eliza). Who doesn’t have family drama?

I thought Lara and James’ relationship was funny because honestly, Lara is so dramatic. But I felt that was perfect for her character, because I remember being a teenager, and how everything was a big deal in that moment of my life. As an adult reading this book, of course I had moments I was rolling my eyes and cringing but I had to remind myself how it was in high school. I feel like lots of teens will be able to relate to Lara’s worries about her path in life after high school.

Lara’s best friends in this book was always leaving her out to dry and that sucked. I get that dating also is such a big deal in high school as well but I felt bad for Lara. It did give her more time with James though but still, I felt bad when they kept flaking on her or lying. As for the ending – I am not someone into sad endings. Is it realistic? Sure, it is, but I want my romance stories to have happy endings even if it’s not realistic, so that didn’t work for me.


Why you should read it:
*friends to enemies to lovers story
*diversity, Filipino-Canadian rep

Why you might not want to read it:
*cringe inducing, eye rolling moments
*feels like it’s written for younger teens

My Thoughts:

I did enjoy the filipino representations and that’s why I requested this book. I feel like the story definitely fulfilled that part of my expectations with the Tagalog translations and familiar family dynamics I saw in Lara’s interactions. Those parts were great. I wasn’t really into her friends ghosting her all the time. The romance was funny and cute but there was no happily ever after, which left me sad – I want a romance to leave me happy. This one would appeal more to teens and younger who can relate to Lara’s coming of age challenges.

How to be The Best Third Wheel was exactly the sweet, quirky, relatable, and unexpectedly bittersweet coming of age rom com that I didn't know I needed. It was super cute, and a very smooth and easy read. I definitely could have breezed through it were I not burdened by the mortal need for sleep, and the inevitable annoyance that is academics. Which is the perfect segue to talk about just how accurate the depiction of our generation, the struggle of balancing school with romance and friendships, as well as the stress of post secondary truly was. I felt that Lara's sense of humour and her manner of handling her loneliness really resonated with me. I had many notes that were no more than semi coherent gushing about how similar the two of us are, and that was really fun to see in a book where I didn't expect to find any similarities to myself and the MC.
The cast of characters was a pleasantly diverse one which is so disappointingly rare, so it was unfortunate that we saw so little of the side characters and didn't have the
chance to see much depth behind Lara or James' friends. In some cases, they felt like almost cartoonish attempts at comic relief, and while they were funny in some instances, I was hoping for more especially since so much of what drove Lara was the seeming loss of their friendship. For a story that did such a good job at making the emotions and motivations behind the two leads so raw, I'd have liked to see more of those characters and be invested in their scenes as well. That being said, I loved the inclusion of a male friend that was never once competition for the love interest. I enjoy the jealousy trope in most cases, but it’s refreshing to see a healthy friendship between a girl and a guy built on shared experiences, trust, and unwavering support. Xander was definitely a favourite of mine.
And as for the romance, I found that there was an impressively good balance between Lara's personal life and her tumultuous romance with her childhood friend turned “nemesis" James. I thought they had great chemistry and I throughly enjoyed their banter; my only complaints were that there was little explanation for why they hated each other, especially when they were once so close, and there were many jokes made about Lara's small chest, which I didn't appreciate as a small chested woman who’s been on the receiving end of such comments before. It doesn’t feel good, and it isn’t cute.
But, I couldn’t deny that the two were sweet together and I loved seeing how their relationship progressed and matured throughout the course of the story. The aforementioned bittersweet ending added a sense of realism while still remaining hopeful for the future, no matter where it may take them.

cute story about high school drama and relationships
we have a friends-to-enemies-to friends/lover kinda story
I love how the story started and you get to see how the characters were in the past throughout the story that reveals so much about them and their relationship
this story gives you all the feels
and the ending is just wow
a must-read
I was lucky enough to get this book as an ARC from Net Galley to read for an honest review.

This is the kind of book you can’t put down; you don’t want to put down not even for a second because it’s just that entertaining. I loved it from the very beginning to the very end. The characters were amusing, interesting and relatable. I felt everything for Lara and James, everything they went through, everything they were experiencing I felt like I was right there with them. This could absolutely be turned into a rom com, and I would be first in line to buy a ticket.

First this book takes place in Canada, something that doesn’t happen often enough from the books I’ve read. Not only that, but its main characters are Pacific Islanders (yes, I didn’t say Asians because they are Filipinos). That just gave it that much more of an extra boost in my eyes.

There are so many tropes throughout this book, but my favorite is enemy to lover’s trope. I love their hate hate, hate love, love love, love hate relationship that went on throughout the book between Lara and James. Their energy was contagious, when they were smiling, I felt myself smile. When they were crying, I felt myself crying. I get really attached to characters and great books and this was an amazing read. I can’t wait to tell people about it because it’s worth the read.

It’s quick, fun, emotional, and just relatable if you’ve ever been the third wheel or even the less beautiful family member. I’m sure some parts were predictable, but it was the getting there that made it that much more worthwhile. I love this book. High praise from me.