This is an adorable youth romance. Ramona has a crush and she's done a thing. she is really into cosplay, anime and such. She doesn't feel like her family supports her; unfortunately, her best friend recently moved away.

so meanwhile she has revealed herself to her crush but anonymously. Will she be brave enough to let her crush know who she is?

Nerd Crush takes us through what it felt like to crush on someone. The uncertainly of that crush will reciprocate your feelings, and friendships and the uncertainty of the future

I loved that Ramona lived her true self regardless of those around her judging her choices.

A great coming-of-age book for those "nerds" out there who need to remember to live their truth

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

I requested this for consideration for Book Riot's All the Books podcast for its release date. After sampling several books out this week, I decided to go with a different book for my review.

i love a good anonymous online friend trope, and this book gave it a nice twist with it only being anonymous from one side, which was interesting. i thought ramona and caleb were a cute duo, and it was adorable seeing them bond over their nerdy interests, as well as getting to know each other in real life when they worked at the restaurant together. i also really loved ramona's growth and how confident she became in who she was through the book.

This was really cute!! I love a good story about nerds falling in love and this one really hit the spot!

I love the quirky characters and their quirky romance. Adorably cute and shows how to appreciate your own uniqueness.

I was so excited to read this one as I do feel a soft spot for a story about nerds. It wasn't the quick read I had anticipated. There totally should've been more content to fill in the story more and make this as amazing as I envisioned it in my head.


Thank you so much for the opportunity to review this book.

I received a free copy of NerdCrush from Netgalley and Running Press in exchange for an honest review.

NerdCrush is an adorable story about – you guessed it – two nerds falling in love in the cutest way. The importance of cosplay and other nerdy pastimes reminded me so much of my friend group in high school. I was the DM for our school’s D&D group, many of the guys I knew played Magic the Gathering, and pretty much everyone was into cosplay. It was a form of self-expression and a way to show your love for a certain show or character. Ramona, our main character in NerdCrush, feels the same way. She cosplays as her OC (original character) and loves the confidence that her alter-ego brings her.

Judgement, unfortunately, if never far away from these spaces and Ramona faces a great many struggles while meeting and falling for Caleb. It was encouraging to watch, and it gave me hope that people like me and my friends aren’t going to be bullied or socially ostracized as much. It felt like reading a new chapter in what nerds will look like in literature: strong, dedicated, passionate people who add value to themselves and their society with their unabashed love. I recommend picking up NerdCrush if you were or are a nerd and want to read a super cute romance.

Even as painfully shy, awkward, and unsure as Ramona is, I still wanted to root for her and her happy ending. And even if it is the year of 2023 and Black people are able to showcase more of what makes us what we are and that we aren’t a monolith, there’s still push back from within the community about being “ nerdy” and “perusing white people activities” which this book touches on.

While a bit monotonous in spots, this story shines in the realistic moments Ramona has with her family, especially with her mother, and it portrayal of a young Black girl who’s super passionate about what makes her happy, even as she tries to find confidence in the other aspects of her life.

(And the end did feel very much teen movie rom-com which I’ve missed very much, especially centering a Black girl’s happiness.)

I loved a good Nerd story! and this was no expection.

I really enjoyed reading the story about Ramona, her anxiety and awkwardness trying to overcome everything and enjoying her nerdiness by using cosplay to bring herself out and find more likeminded people like herself.

First of all, I always remind myself that when I am reading a young adult fiction I should be able to see things from a young adult perspective. Just this open secret mantra and I did end up enjoying this book more!

This is the story of Ramona who is a shy sixteen year old who’s quite interested in cosplaying. She’s been quite close to her best friend who moves away and knowing that no one understands her love for cosplay, she ends up being a character she chooses to cosplay while letting her real self behind the cosplay self. That’s a lot of cosplay!

She decides to do this as she wants to know about her crush more being the other persona while her other self chooses to stay behind the scenes. Meanwhile she and Caleb (ooh! That’s the crush, y’all!) has been exchanging emails back and forth getting closer everyday virtually through her cosplay persona.

Well… she ultimately has to choose either to show her real self or remain as her cosplay persona virtually.

This story is cute and so worth reading. Perfect for beginners and teens!

I understand I’m not the target audience for this book, but I did appreciate the YA approach to high school crushes, being brave, and combatting peer pressure to follow your passions. Some of the interactions seemed overly dramatic, but when you’re being brave and sharing your feelings with a crush in high school, it does potentially feel like the end of the world.

Sincere thanks to NetGalley and Running Kid Press for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

The geek in me is absolutely squealing! NerdCrush has all the ingredients to be the absolute best book in the universe! Sometimes, I felt like some ideas and scenes could have been developed more. I did overall enjoy it very much, though!

Nerd Crush is the perfect story for anyone who loves comic conventions, fandoms, and other wonderful nerdy things. If you are looking for a awesome YA romance then this book will have all that and more. So go out and get it for yourself or a friend today!

A really sweet and well-written contemporary romance. Engaging for geeky readers and readers that enjoy You've Got Mail-esque stories alike.

This was a fun, sweet coming-of-age love story! I loved all the nerdy references and quirks of the characters. Definitely recommend for cosplayers!

Sometimes as a writer we really want to write the book that we wanted as a teen, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, IF we take that into account when writing.

It's great that our protagonist is a "nerd" but this perspective of her being friendless because of her "nerdy" interest is just weird. Today's teens don't really operate that way. This isn't to say there aren't cliques and teens are no longer teased, but this character trope is giving 1980's-1990's and yet the story is taking place in the present. I also want to add that even pre-2000's, that trope was tired. To make matters worse, Ramona leaves so much of her "nerdiness" behind fairly early on in the book and we find ourselves reading a story just like so many other hetero YA love stories, making sure this one is not memorable.

Wasn't my style, plot wasn't interesting. I like the happy ending, though. Definetely a fan of the ending.

This debut novel was so much fun I loved ramona and all of her cosplay and other fandom-related things. I loved how passionate she was and how supportive Caleb was of her especially since her family wasn't always the most understanding. In the beginning, I enjoyed reading some of the emails between ramona and Caleb however they did become a bit repetitive as the went on.
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overall this was very enjoyable and a great debut novel which makes me excited for more books by Alisha Emrich

A very cute, blerdy read!

I loved all the references to manga and anime, loved seeing the cons through the eyes of a teen. I loved how this book was like a mini celebration of black-geekdom.

I’m not too familiar with cosplay so getting a behind the scenes look at it was really intriguing!

But the romance for me, wasn’t to my taste, I really didn’t understand what drew her to Caleb in the first place, and though the characterization of her just having friends online and being isolated at school might reflect the reality of many kids these days, it really saddened me and made the story veer too close to : an isolated MC making the LI the center of her world, which is always a big nope for me.

That being said, I think teens might actually be able to see themself in these characters and would relate to themes of social awkwardness, anxiety about the future, drifting apart from close friendships and parental pressure.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.