This was a cute that a book that I read in one sitting. It’s not overly special or unique to me, but it was definitely sweet. It was a little dramatic at parts in an unrealistic way, but I may be a little older than the target audience for this novel. The characters were flawed and felt very young with the things they did and said. The pop culture references were fun, but the writing was a bit cringey and I found myself groaning out loud at some parts. I didn’t hate the book, but it wasn’t memorable enough to get more than 3.5 stars out of 5 for me. Thank you for the complimentary copy, NetGalley.

Well... that was not great. I think De Villa has the potential to be a really great young adult contemporary writer, but this was not it. This was published by Wattpad books, and it shows. I think Wattpad can produce high quality works, but this needed a lot more editing to get it there.

Let me start out with a list of things I did like:
-Lara had a really unique voice and I found her to be funny most of the time.
-When the friends weren't being the actual worst they were fun and funny.
-James had some sweet dialogue towards Lara (when he wasn't lowkey bullying her).

The author is 19 and I don't want to be too harsh, so I'm just going to list out some things that didn't work for me without getting into too much detail:
-This arc desperately needed another editorial pass. For grammar and there were a couple sections were details were missing and needed fleshing out (with parenthetical notes to do so).
-The plot was choppy; it felt like things happened just to be checked off an outline and not because there was a natural flow.
-I never really felt I got to know most of the characters besides Lara. Maybe that was intentional, but I don't think it was.
-The whole Eliza side-plot was completely unnecessary and added unneeded conflict.
-On that note, James bullied her and said borderline rude things to her for the majority of the book and is not my ideal choice for a love interest (but this is a personal preference).

Overall, I was expecting this to be cheesy and sweet, but it ended up being more cringe than cute.

Laura is starting her senior year of high school and looking forward to spending time with her best friends. When she gets back after being gone all summer she finds out all of them have secured boyfriends. Being the third wheel she is forced to spend time with her nemesis James, who she defiantly does not like. At all. Especially since they have known each other all their life.

I enjoyed the language diversity of including Tagalog with the translations behind it. The author could have easily included it in the beginning and then tapered off but I enjoyed seeing it. Made the relationships between the family members seem deeper.

The title, format and chapters were fun and creative spin on being a third wheel. It was a fun read — I loved Lara and her struggles (she felt like such a real and relatable character) and I loved the ending. It was bittersweet but realistic, and added another layer of charm to this book. The ending is what really sold this book for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

To be honest, I really did not enjoy this book. The writing was sub-par and the main male character was really annoying and his actions weren't very swoon-worthy or lovable at all.

Great teen novel! I accidentally downloaded this book. I read because I downloaded it. This would be a great novel for high school students who feel left out when everyone has a relationship. It wasn’t preachy.

I don’t know. I’m trying to be less critical on this one considering it is a Wattpad book (which I didn’t realize when I requested it on NetGalley), but the book just has so many grammatical errors, incorrect punctuation, and other random snafus. For example, the galley I got seemed unfinished. There were several instances where the author’s notes to herself were still included (such as [INSERT NUMBER HERE] on one occasion). I’ve never read a galley that was as unfinished as this one.

Now the subject matter. The main characters are in their final year of high school, but they all act so much younger. When I started the book I thought they were more like freshmen than seniors. The story was pretty predictable and felt pretty rushed at the end. There was no HEA and the college plot line remained unresolved without any explanation. I also felt that the characters lacked depth and awareness. Again, I just could not buy they were 17-18.

I enjoyed the incorporation of Tagalog but any other aspects of culture and diversity were just meh. For example, the friend group is quite diverse, but there’s not really any depth into it and the side characters remained undeveloped.

Overall, I just thought this story was unpolished and in need of some major editing. I think the author has some good basic skills that just need some refining. The title, concept (to an extent) and overarching format of the chapters were fun and creative. I think the book would still be appealing to younger audiences, but maybe not necessarily YA? Not sure how I’d categorize this one, but it just wasn’t really for me.

2.5/5

Super quick and easy read for me. I really enjoyed this YA adult romance book. The author's writing style is good. Was a little skeptical about this book but so happy a read. Thank you for the advanced reader copy!

3/5

This book was filled with classic teen romance cliches. It did make me laugh a few times. It was very cheesy and predictable, but I really liked the concept.

I loved the representations and the cultural threads throughout this book. Lara’s family was originally from the Philippines. There were many scenes that had conversations in Tagalog, which I loved. Also, Lara’s friend group is diverse, which I thought is great for YA readers.

Overall, this was a light and easy read. A+ for the southeast Asian rep and a diverse friend group. I’d recommend this to younger audiences.

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

A light hearted, diverse and funny YA story about what life is like for the average teenager. I'd recommend for lovers of quick reads and YA rom com fanatics.

This was a cute YA book about a girl who is trying to figure out a new normal when she comes back from break to find that all her friends have boyfriends. I thought this was a sweet book that made me smile. I would have LOVED this when I was in high school. I enjoyed the family relationships that were represented. The banter between Lara and James was so fun and I enjoyed the ride to see where their relationship would go. A cute, sweet, quick read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advanced Reader Copy.

Overall I would not recommend this title. It fell flat for me. Very dramatic. Friends with boyfriends, only friend without. Explanations about relationships come way too late in the story. Ending was not what I escape to books for.

I loved How to Be the Best Third Wheel! It was a cute and quick read. This is a perfect novel for the rom-com fanatic!

This was a super sweet romance that gave me all the warm and fuzzy feelings. If you like friends-to-lovers, you would love this story as much as I did.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.

This book perfectly captures what life is like for a teenage girl in high school. You think you have things all figured out- friends, enemies, and what the future looks like. Then, all of a sudden life has a way of flipping everything upside down.

After returning from summer vacation, Lara discovers all of her friends are in relationships. This revelation lands Lara on the outskirts of her social circle and forces her to find solace in her would be enemy, James. Can her relationships be mended, or will it lead her down a path she never expected?

If you are a fan of YA and obsessed over To All The Boys I’ve Loved and The Kissing Booth- you will love this sweet take on what it means to be the third wheel.

I loved that the author wrote this book when she was 18 because her proximity to high school made this book so relatable. It brought this almost 33 year old back to the days of feeling insecure about myself, friendships, lack of a love life, and where my future was heading.

I was also super excited to see the amount of diversity represented in this book. Not only were the main characters from various ethnic backgrounds, but so were the supporting ones. More people need to see themselves represented in books and especially YA.

I hope there is a sequel coming because I want to hear more from Lara and James! Fingers crossed this becomes a trilogy and gets picked up by Netflix!

Special thanks to NetGalley.com and Wattpad Books for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

How to Be the Best Third Wheel by Loridee De Villa is a good teen rom-com. If you like a cheesy romance for the teens (younger reader) then this is for you. Sometimes it is refreshing to have a book like this with the romance but less steam as it makes your mind wonder off. I enjoyed this book and think the younger audience will too!

After coming back from a summer spent in the Philippines, Lara discovers her three best friends all have boyfriends leaving her to be the seventh wheel. Lara has to learn how to deal with the shift in her relationship with her friends being in their own relationship, being around her mortal enemy, James, and all the emotions that come with growing up and graduating high school.

What I liked: As a Filipino-American, I was happy to visualize a character who could have resembled my own features and could relate to my own family dynamics growing up. It was cool to see Tagalog throughout the book and be able to catch Filipino references. No spoilers, but I really liked the ending because it was not the typical rom-com ending I expected (especially since the book was already filled with so many tropes.)

Dislikes: There were so many tropes in this book that it became cringe and a bit cheesy. And for a senior in high school, Lara still felt so immature which made it difficult at times to get through the book because I would be frustrated with Lara's mindset and her childish reactions. The flow of the book felt choppy. In the beginning, the story moved pretty slow but towards the end, there was so much going on that the issues could not reach full development it was just all over the place.

First things first, I was given a copy of this book as an ARC. A big thank-you to NetGalley and Loridee de Villa for allowing me to be an early reader!

This book is centered around Lara. She is in her senior year of high school, doesn’t believe in relationships, and has a love for science.

The summer before Lara’s senior year, she and her family travel to the Philippines to visit their relatives. While she is there, Lara doesn’t have much access to the internet, so she is not in touch with her friend group.

When Lara comes back to school, she is shocked to find out that all of her three best friends are now in relationships. Not only is she a third wheel, but she’s the seventh wheel.

Coincidently, Lara’s childhood best friend turned to frenemy, James, is also the seventh wheel since all three of his close friends are dating Lara’s friends. Because of this, Lara and James spend more time with one another.

While Lara and James are in each other’s company, they forget all about why they ever stopped being close friends all those years ago. Their connection has always been there, but will they be able to act on it, knowing that high school is coming to an end and that they’ll be moving onwards to bigger things in life?

This book is set in Toronto, Canada — as a Canadian, I loved the representation, as very few authors base their books in Canada. Lara and James both come from Filipino families, so there is also a huge amount of representation there! A lot of scenes have Tagalog dialogue (with English translations) which I thought was so interesting! Also, Lara’s friend group is also diverse, which is so great to see in books, especially young adult ones!

This book kept me hooked, but I will say that there is a cheating trope at one point, which did frustrate me. Also, at times there were many pop culture references. I am usually okay with a few here and there, but it did get to be to the point where it was a bit cringe-worthy.

All in all, this was an enjoyable read that kept me hooked all throughout. If you are looking for a young adult romance specifically, with a great amount of southeast asian rep, then this one is for you!

This book was still a work in progress when I got it. There were little notes here and there of things the needed changes or critiquing. But even without those, you can tell that it is still in the editing phase, because of some of the choppiness of scenes and the occasional awkward conversation pieces, and that’s okay. It has great potential…but currently reads a bit like a fanfiction to a teen tv drama no one is quite familiar with (internally cringing…sorry!), so I can't say I really love it. It took two weeks to read as a result.

Let me just say, if you don’t like an excessive amount of classic teen romance cliches, you most likely won’t like this book. It’s cheesy. It’s very trope-y. Ssssoooo trope riddled, you don’t even know unless you have read it already. It’s over the top in places and will make you cringe in others. Also, I found it ridiculously predictable. But all that said, if I was a young teen I probably would have been okay with most of it. It would be one of those read it and forget it type books. Which isn't bad! Just not great. You know? Side note: I still don’t understand enemies to lovers…Anyhow, I don’t think the YA label is quite right. I would peg this as a genuine Teen Fiction. A VERY trope-y Teen Romance Fiction.

I love the representation in this book. Lara’s family is originally from the Philippines and are second generation immigrants, if you want to call it that. Her first language is generally English but she also knows Tagalog. There is Tagalog smattered throughout this book and I am here for it. The author inserted translations for those of us who have no idea what is being said. My school has a large Filipino population and I think a lot of them might be able to relate, considering half of them are second generation. So that was interesting and exciting.

Jasmine is second generation, originally her family was from Beijing. Carol is first generation from India. The only critique I would have is that that author could have gone further with her very general references to their different upbringings. I think that would have done a better job with the diversity goal the author obviously had.

This book is pretty realistic with the friend bailing, at least it is in my real-life experience. Lara’s friends get into relationships and basically ditch her. They never really make up for this. I kind of wanted to tell Lara to get better friends, because it will totally happen again when they get into another relationship.

However, the CHEATING going on…this is a foreign teen experience for me. I know no one who had such an issue in high school. Break up drama, oh yeah! Cheating drama, non-existent. Did I just go to school with 2000 other decent human beings? Or was it because the majority of the people I knew had a “cheat and you DIE” mentality?

It also leaves a few questions unsolved. Some would argue that this is a bad thing. There is no hopeful message about her the future of her relationship. Nothing happened to the cousin. She didn’t make decisions about after high school. You know what? This reads as a teen slice of life. Sometimes none of these things have an answer at a certain point in life. And sometimes you have to overlook your cousin’s shady behaviour because you are stuck with them for life. It’s fine. Let it go.

Lara says/thinks some pretty funny things. A few examples I wrote down and just have to share are:
"-his style evolved from Sheldon Cooper to Leonardo DiCaprio from the 90's."
"Unfortunately, that class is physical education, and the only 'education' I'm getting from this is that sports like basketball have complicated rules that I don't care about and my fitness declines exponentially with each year."
"The sight of couples sharing saliva and trying to swallow each other's tongues makes me want to vomit all over the floor." (I work in a high school and I feel this on an adult level. An adult who has to yell at teenagers to disentangle from each other or leave the school and find a room cause no one wants to see that. I understand the tonsil hockey reference thanks to one teenaged couple. Ugh.)
"I don't know, maybe it's because I don't like you and people tend to avoid things they don't like."

Conclusion?
It was okay. With some editing and small corrections it can even be good. For others who love aaaallll the tropes, it may even be great. But for me, it was just alright. A nice little fluff read I took entirely too long to finish because tropes are a mood thing for me.

I have so much to say about this book! It was the perfect snow day read. I loved the banter between everyone and could not read fast enough! I highly recommend this book!! You will not be disappointed.