bad at love features our mc, sasha, a music journalist intent on writing breaking news about daniel, a bad boy guitarist in a band who isn't actually that bad.

the good
loved the brazilian rep, the exploration of music journalism, which is a career path i haven't seen mentioned in any other romance novels - props for originality! daniel's character was fun to read about and he was a really fleshed out character and not just a flat love interest.

the bad
sasha on the other hand, didn't have much of a personality in my opinion. her characterization fell flat and i ended the novel knowing about as much about her as when i started the novel. as a result, moments in the buildup to the romance and the subsequent romance felt bland at best.

I really enjoyed this book! Daniel and Sasha are both great characters and I loved following them both around as they navigate the summer and their feelings. While they both started out dating for maybe not the best reasons, it worked! They both made mistakes but they are so good for each other and I am so happy with the ending. The writing was so good! The book also includes great and diverse representation. Both Daniel and Sasha are Brazilian and there’s many different sexualities included. Martins knows how to tell an engaging and captivating love story that makes you want to read more. There was even an appearance by William and Nati from Like A Love Song (Martins first book)! Overall, such a cute fun read.

Gabriela Martins has written this book so wonderfully! It was a total delight to read it <3 I also loved the exploration of demisexuality of the MC!

"Bad at Love" by Gabriela Martins is a captivating and emotionally charged romance that delves into the complexities of relationships, self-discovery, and the challenges of finding love. Martins' storytelling prowess shines as she crafts a tale of vulnerability, growth, and the power of connection. The book's relatable characters and heartfelt plot create an immersive reading experience that resonates with young adult readers. Martins skillfully navigates the emotions of love, insecurity, and the journey to self-acceptance, adding depth to the narrative. "Bad at Love" is a powerful reminder that love requires understanding and acceptance, both for others and oneself, leaving readers with a sense of empathy and the reassurance that they are not alone in their struggles and desires for meaningful connections.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

This is a cute romance book perfect for teens!! If you’re into romance this is for you!! Bad at Love was such a fun book from the beginning to the end.

Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me an ARC!
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Unfortunately I DNFed this, it just didn’t catch my attention and maybe I’ll get into it again when I’m in the perfect headspace to give this another try! But I would buy and recommend this to others definitely!

This book was so refreshing! I thought I knew what to expect based on the synopsis, but what I got was so much more.

Daniel moves from Brazil to join a band and is labeled as the Bad Boy. Sasha despises the concept of Bad Boys with every fiber of her being. They have a meet cute that Sasha thinks she can use to further her journalism career until, you guessed it, she starts to fall for the Not So Bad After All Boy.

Both of these characters are lovely. And to top it all off, they’re queer!

But the thing this book really has going for it? It’s a short and fast read. Less than 300 pages.

Like I said. Refreshing.

4 stars.

3.5! It was really cute and I loved Sasha and Daniel! They were cute, and both dealing with some heavy stuff and I couldn't get enough of them. I wasn't a huge fan of Sasha and what she was doing unfortunately so it kind of put a damper on things.

This was a cute, fun and fast read perfect for a day at the beach or by the pool. I loved it and loved the characters. I laughed, I cried. It was great!

I never like the insta love trope, but at the same time I wanted a quick and short read since I don't really have much free time now, so I for once didn't hate the insta love trope. SInce this was a 200pg book everything was fast-paced and maybe the characters didn't have the time and space to really feel like 3D characters with depth and evolution. I enjoyed the original plot, reminded me of a 90s romcom movie.

I am honestly really sad that I did not like this book. The only reason it doesn’t get 1 star is because of the on page demisexual rep which I thought was probably the best part of this book. I can overlook the nonsensical plot, but goodness this book could have benefited from another 100 pages. I did read an ARC so perhaps there was some changes, however, I am not sure they’d be enough to reconcile with my thoughts on it. It is too fast paced, with no realistic character development, and the insta love was just too much for me. ALSO who let’s their stage name be ROTTEN. asdfghjkl.

Bad at Love reminds me of a 90s romcom movie in the best way. There were some cringey parts but at the same time, it was quick and easy read. Daniel and Sasha weren't my favorites but that didn't take away from the story.

3.5 stars rounded off!

I actually enjoyed this novel with all the representation and everything, but maybe it's just me, but I didn't feel the chemistry. But it was still very cute. Like there was less depth to it and everything felt very superficial. It's a light, quick read though so you can definitely give it a go!

If you love romcoms from the late 90s-Early 2000s then I think you would enjoy this book.
[check out the full review on my blog}

Bad at Love is a book that I think would be perfect for a younger YA or older MG audience. The premise includes a lot of well-used and well-loved tropes including: celebrity romance, miscommunication/secret-keeping, and bet-turned-love. The main plot follows a Brazilian music celebrity (Daniel) and a Brazilian American (Sasha) high school teenager slowly falling for each other. The issue is, both of them initiated the romance under false pretenses. Sasha only started dating Daniel as a means to gaining a college scholarship from her boss at a local gossip magazine. Her task is to record and document all of her dates with him in the hopes of uncovering a major scoop. Daniel on the other hand, is trying to win a bet with his bandmates that he can date Sasha for the entire summer in exchange for one of his songs being included on their debut album. As you can imagine, it’s a whirlwind of a romance.

Because this novel is very short (approximately 240 pages), the story goes by very quickly. As a result, we never really get to have any kind of in-depth look into the developing romance between the two main characters and sometimes the chapters/plot can seem a bit disjointed or choppy. We do, however, get to know each character individually pretty well. Each chapter teaches us a bit more about who these characters are and who they are are trying to be.

Something I think Bad at Love did a great job at was exploring the issue of identity. Sasha is a brown and pansexual Brazilian American. She not only has to deal with the problems that come with being a person of color in the United States, but also the issues that come with being diaspora. Daniel is from Brazil, demisexual, and lighter-skinned. Although he thinks of himself as receiving white privilege, he also has an accent from learning English as a second language. There’s this interesting exchange between the two of them about what their Brazilian heritage means to them individually and how this may not directly translate with how others view them, particularly in Brazil and in America. There are even side characters who are Brazilian/Brazilian American that allow the author to touch on issues of microaggressions or feeling like you’re not [insert identity here] enough. Though these conversations might come off as a big heavy handed at times, I appreciated the self-exploration that this introduced. Teenagers, in particular, are often still learning who they are, and this can open a productive avenue of questioning for them.

For a fake dating trope that seemingly starts as enemies (or misguided strangers), Sasha and Daniel fall into an easy line of friendship that feels authentic. Martins plays off their attraction to one another to be obvious, yet, at the same time, she doesn't revolve around their relationship solely as a romantic notion. She genuinely portrays them to be willing to get to know each other as a new friend outside their general group, sharing a similar position as someone who fits in this one box but still feels like some parts of them belong somewhere else.

However, while Martins checks off everything that her sophomore novel needs to appeal to the gen Z readers, I find that the aftertaste of this novel feels hollow that even my reaction was completely 'that's it?' after I finished it. There is nothing wrong with the book and writing since it's such a cute novel, but there's just one element that seems to be lacking to give me a lasting impression instead of being a forgettable piece at the end of the day.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Bad At Love

Author: Gabriela Martins

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 3.5/5

Diversity: Brazilian and Brazilian American MCs and characters, Pansexual MC, Demisexual MC

Recommended For...: young adult readers, contemporary, romance, music, boy band, LGBT

Publication Date: August 2, 2022

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Age Relevance: 14+ (sexual content, romance, microaggressions, death, illness, underage alcohol consumption)

Explanation of Above: There is some romance in this book and a very vague sexual remark ala 50 Shades of Grey. There is one incident of microaggressions being said. There is a death mentioned. There is some illness mentioned. There is one scene of underage alcohol consumption.

Publisher: Underline/Delacorte

Pages: 240

Synopsis: Ever since Daniel moved to L.A. from Brazil to join the band Mischief & Mayhem, he’s become the tabloids’ bad boy. Paparazzi follow him and girls swoon over him . . . except for Sasha, who hates bad boys. When a chance encounter brings them together, Sasha sees an opportunity to get close to Daniel and write a story that will make a name for herself at the celebrity gossip magazine where she interns. But Daniel is surprisingly sweet and extremely cute—could she be falling for him?

The truth is: Daniel is hiding something. When Sasha discovers his secret, will she follow her heart or deliver the hottest story of the summer?

Review: I thought this book was okay overall. This is another band book, which I am not getting tired of in the YA world. I loved the discussion on immigration and Diaspora and how race and ethnicity are perceived in different parts of the world. The book reads really young, which is perfect for beginning YA readers. The book also did okay with the character development and world building.

However, I did think that the book was a bit too fast pace. It felt like a Wattpad fanfic about Harry Styles, which isn’t a bad thing but I wished it either fully leaned into it or was a bit less like it. The book also didn’t do well to convince me that this is a serious reporter who is close to getting this tough-to-get scholarship cause the piece she was writing on was kinda weird. I also thought the makeup scene was way too quick and honestly I’d never have forgiven someone who did that to me.

Verdict: It was good, just not my cup of tea.

Bad at Love by Gabriela Martins is a sweet story about being one’s true self. I loved the complex choices the main characters are presented with, and the representation throughout the book is fantastic. This one has been pitched as YA How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, so if you love this type of rom com, this is definitely one to check out!

After moving to LA to join a boy band, Daniel finds himself swarmed by the paparazzi. When he’s photographed with Sasha, a journalist, while trying to hide from the cameras, Sasha is given a complicated opportunity: get close to Daniel and write about him, and in exchange, she’ll receive a major scholarship to fund her college education. At the same time, Daniel’s bandmates make a deal that if he can keep dating Sasha for the entire summer, they’ll put the song he helped write back on the album. However, as Sasha gets to know the real Daniel, she realizes that his bad boy image is not true to life and must make some difficult decisions about what she truly wants, all while confronting the secrets they keep from each other.

❀ LOVABLE MAIN CHARACTERS

This book has such lovable main characters, and I enjoyed both Daniel’s and Sasha’s internal conflict. In the band, Daniel has a reputation as the bad boy, but while both the media and his own bandmates are convinced that he’s a player, he’s the opposite of his image: a sweet, demisexual guy who loves rom coms and crochet. I especially felt for Daniel as the dynamic within his band is explored. He is a last-minute addition, and he doesn’t always feel like part of the group. In Sasha’s case, she faces some difficult decisions as she is presented with an opportunity she can’t easily pass up. As the chance to afford going to college–and the chance to follow her dreams–means going behind Daniel’s back, the story becomes tense as Sasha tries to figure out what it means to follow her heart. Through both of these characters, there are rich conversations about identity, and I loved the casual representation throughout the book as a whole.

❀ A HEARTFELT STORY

Bad at Love by Gabriele Martins is a heartfelt story about identity and chasing your dreams. I loved the concept of a journalist and a musician, and the main characters are well-developed. This is a short and sweet read that is perfect for those looking for something a little more lighthearted.

Thank you @netgalley and @tbrbeyondtours for the digital copy and chance to review!

This was the cutest YA romance novel! My only complaint: it wasn’t long enough!

The story of a Bad Boy in a band who is secretly a softie meeting and falling for a music critic is one that stole my heart! Daniel aka Rotten and Sasha are queer couple goals! This is an inclusive romance of two Brazilian teens both in the music industry who both find themselves in a relationship together for selfish reasons only to come out on the other side madly in love.

I loved the Brazilian representation! I also loved the queer representation, Sasha being Pansexual and Rotten being Demisexual.

It is a quick read that is perfect for YA readers or anyone who loves a feel good story! Best of all, the 90’s movie reference/scene is the best part, in my opinion!