This was such a fun cute read! I am a fan of YA, this book was not like any other book I have read before.

I think this book was cute. It’s honestly not for me though the writing was good. I would recommend it. It just wasn’t my type of read, but that’s OK.

enjoyed this YA romance told through an epistolary narrative (emails, text messages, tweets, blog posts).
Highlights: College Setting ✨Freshman Year Struggles ✨ Coming of Age✨ Digital Age ✨ Finding your crew

This just wasn't the book for me. I DNF'd at 28%. I like the idea of the story but it almost seemed like I was reading someone's journal.

This was my second Ravynn K. Stringfield novel and this book really solidified her as an auto-read author for me.
Told through blog posts, tweets, and text messages from the main character, Love In 280 Characters Or Less is a coming-of-age story about a college freshman learning to find her voice. But don’t let the cute title fool you; this book covers some important, serious topics from racial profiling, to the question of what defines activism and how much of Black artists’ work has to revolve around this activism.

I really enjoyed the format of this book. I thought getting the story through posts and messages was pretty original and it was surprisingly easy to follow along. The story moved at a steady pace and I felt invested in all of the characters. I also really enjoyed the commentary on art as activism and the various viewpoints of how people react following a racial profiling situation. These are such important things to talk about, especially at a high school / college level and I think Stringfield tackles these issues beautifully,

I can’t think of much that I didn’t like in this book. I think there were times the main character frustrated me, but I think this was by design. She’s trying her best to navigate her life and the things happening around her in a way that feels genuine to her with a ton of outside input. Sometimes all we can do is our best.

I really enjoyed this book and I would gladly recommend it. I’m very excited to read more of this authors work. And if you haven’t yet, check out her other book, Love Requires Chocolate!


*Thank you to Ravynn K. Stringfield, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, and NetGalley for providing me with and advanced e-book of this novel in exchange for honest review*

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.


Told in a non-traditional format, Love in 280 Characters or Less is a coming-of-age story that explores big themes—racial injustice, self-discovery, and navigating friendship and freshman year—through blog posts, tweets, and text message transcripts.


While the story delivers on its premise, the title led me to expect something different: a more romance-forward, contemporary novel aimed at a new adult audience. Though we follow Sydney Cierra as she experiences her first love, the heart of the story is really about finding herself. Because of this, the book reads more like a younger YA novel, and I think it will resonate best with readers in late middle school to early high school.

This book was incredible! It’s exactly what it says it is - a YA coming of age story set in college.

The story itself is so realistic and relatable. It’s the perfect read for someone now starting college / uni.

This book had depth, an engaging storyline and was beautifully written.

The format of the book was a bit confusing at first, but by the end of chapter 1 you’ll get the hang of it.

Thank you NetGalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Feiwel & Friends and Ravynn K. Stringfield for this ARC.

This story was charming and fluffy, which was exactly what I needed. This is my first time reading a book in a format such as this, but it added to the appeal of the book. This brought me back to my time as a college student, and I loved how relatable it was, especially as a black girl in a college space. Short read but important in this time!

This book was super cute and warm. It gave a great collegiate feel and I loved how Ravynn K. Stringfield writes through blogs and tweets. This book also speaks to insights that college students go through and how navigating the change can be difficult yet rewarding. As a book reviewer I did find myself paying too much attention to the dates and times of the blogs/tweets to see the time frames and it did slow me down a bit but I do feel that they were necessary to keep the book authentic.

A coming of age story for a new college student told through texts and blog posts? Sign me up! I loved this and the journey we went on with the FMC as she navigated her first year of college. I wish we could have had some more development towards the end, it felt like some storylines just ended quickly. I'd love a book two to continue to follow Sydney on her journey of becoming who she's meant to be!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

First of all, thank you to Netgalley for the e-arc!

Love in 280 Characters or less is a book told through social media and blog posts about our main character's first year of college exploring romance and identity.

One of the main things I enjoyed from this was seeing the main character's personal thoughts told through her blogs. However, the texting style felt very unrealistic to actual texts due to the frequent use of ellipses which oftentimes pulled me out of the book. It also could be that I read this digitally, but it just wasn't enjoyable looking at the texts or the twitter accounts.

The romance was one of the things I was not a fan of. It was fairly predictable, and I felt like it had way too much of a focus in the story without adding anything meaningful.

Overall, it was a quick read, but unmemorable without many things that made the book worth it.

I enjoyed the format of this book! Online blog posts, Twitter interactions, emails, and text messaging conversations helped establish relationships as well as each character’s personality. Enjoyed jumping into Syd’s world - as a first year college student - as she figured out what she wants out of life. Great read! 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Beautiful book! I will always be a sucker for a YA coming of age love story. This was a fun, quick read that will pair freshly on a beach or vacation read.

I love the way the author used the format of this book. The narrative is made up of her public and private blog posts. It includes both posts shared publicly and ones that are more like diary entries. There are also text messages and direct messages on Twitter. Lastly, there are public social media posts and other accounts interacting with them.

At first, I thought it might be confusing to show both direct messages via social media and text messages, and there were a couple of times I got things mixed up. On the whole, though, it was pretty easy to keep things straight. It was interesting to consider the things she chose to share publicly versus those she kept private.

I love Syd’s voice in her blog posts, and how they showcase her growth as a writer and her increasing self-confidence. The romance arc is really nicely done as well. The relationships feel authentic and believable, and I was ultimately happy with Syd’s choices and her reasons for those decisions.

Aspiring writers will love cheering for Syd through the story, and romance fans looking for a sweet story will love this one.

First off, I absolutely loved the layout of this book. The mix of blog entries, text messages, tweets, and emails kept me engaged from start to finish. It felt like scrolling through Facebook or texting with friends—completely relatable.

Syd’s journey of discovering herself in a new world felt incredibly real. Thinking back to my own college experience, I remember how scary it was. You’re suddenly a small fish in a big pond again, and social media becomes your lifeline. Like Syd, I also made college friends through Twitter.

Throughout one semester, Syd had to juggle her social life, academic goals, career dreams, and tough conversations with friends and family—that’s a lot for anyone. While she did get a bit dramatic at times, I appreciated her self-awareness. She owned her mistakes, offered genuine apologies, and communicated effectively. That’s impressive, especially at her age—many adults are still learning how to do that.

That said, I felt the story got a bit bogged down in the activism plotline and Malcolm’s involvement in it. While I understood how it tied into Syd’s passion for writing, it dragged a little for me. The topic is important, no doubt, but I wasn’t sure it needed quite so much focus in this story. However, I did enjoy making connections to another book I’d read that touched on the same historic writers Syd explored.

The ending truly surprised me—especially the developments with Malcolm and Xavier. The title Love in 280 Characters or Less perfectly captures the theme of how our online personas can begin to define us. In the end, the real journey is learning to love ourselves and stay grounded in the real world.

———

I may be a little late to the party, but I’m so grateful to NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group | Feiwel & Friends for the ARC of this book!

3.75

Thank you to MacMillan and NetGalley for an e-book ARC and Libro.Fm for an ALC.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. We see our female main character in her first year of college and she is taking a different path than people had planned for her and she’s discovering a lot about herself in the process. I love to see her growth and self discovery, both in person and in her digital life that’s a really big part of the story. I personally love emails, text, DM’s, letters, etc., so the digital part of this book I really enjoyed. I think that this would be enjoyable both on audio and in print.

There were a couple of points that the pacing felt a little off, and there were a couple of times where the seriousness of the book changed. I don’t necessarily think that these were bad things they felt genuine for someone’s first year first semester of college. I did find it a little annoying that I felt like a lot of what was going on was centered around the three guys that she had in her life. That was a big part of the story, but I would’ve loved to see more of her individual identity. I love to see the growth she had, I was surprised by some of the things that happened in the story, and I was so happy to see her stand up for herself and seek out a future that she really wants.

A really sweet and cute gen z story that takes into account themes of online presence to tell a cozy story! I enjoyed it.

Not gonna lie, this was a little weird lol I’m being so for real when I say there’s some of everything. But I can say it was a little slow for my liking. It took entirely too long for it to set up. And as someone who’s not a fan of slow burns….

Ok so the plot of this was good, but it was a little non-existent in the beginning. I think it was the weight of the epistolary kind of writing style. It seemed to be just a stream of consciouness about her life at college. And then there’s another scene that seems to come out of nowhere. But I wasn’t exactly mad at that because that’s how it happens in real life. We think things might be changing and then another Black man/woman is murdered. I can’t lie, when it got to that part, my heart skipped a beat. It might have been slow, but at least it was realistic.

I also didn’t love the love triangle in here when this book is so short. Especially when one person is actually online lol And let me just say, I am not a fan of the person who she ended up with. I gotta say, if she had chose them, that was my fave trope and I was all excited thinking it was going to happen. And then when it didn’t, it hurt. Not only because of the trope thing, but because of the way she was a little cringe. She got mad at them for not being themselves, but with them being as close as they were, I just felt a way about her being with someone she didn’t even know. It was just weird lol Idk how to explain it.

The writing style of this was cool tho. As a blogger girlie and someone who has been on almost every platform with her blog, I related to this in so many different ways. And right now while so many things are under fire, I really related to her finding herself in her words. I also loved the work that she was doing and the questions that she brought up. And she definitely gave me some reading material. I haven’t read everyrthing that was listed in there, so I placed some holds on some of them for work.

This was ok, but I do wish we had more of the whimsical, romantic feel of her first book in this one. I can’t wait to see what else Stringfield has in mind for her future projects. Definitely a cool love letter to being chronically online. One that I felt deeply.

As a black girl who is chronically online, was in high school when Twitter popped off and who went to a college where I knew absolutely no-one, this made my 2010-2017 me scream. OH AND IM ALSO FROM VA/MD area 😩

This is so nostalgic, beautifully written and it almost brought me to tears multiple times.

Syd was so relatable, so smart and soooooooo perfect. She is the epitome of how most Black girls have to be at such a young age and I remember grappling with some things she did… even as an adult 🤣

She’s a creative, she’s a writer, she’s a dreamer and she’s an achiever. She deserves everything she got in this book plus more!

I finished this in one day and I could NOTTTT put it down.
I loved it.

💜💜💜💜

Love in 280 Characters or Less. The book was so sweet and I found the main character to be very likable. I liked the way it was structured. The book follows Sydney navigating through her first semester in college.
I loved everything about this book!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.