[ARC] YA Book Review: How To Be The Best Third Wheel by Loridee De Villa

Hi Everyone!

Thank you to Netgalley and Wattpad for granting me access to this book, in exchange of an honest review.

Release Date: 3rd May 2022

Official Synopsis:

A clean teen romance comedy about figuring out where you belong when all the constants in your life begin to change.

It’s the last year of highschool, and everything has changed . . .

After spending summer vacation in the Philippines with family, Lara returns to school eager to catch up with her close knit group of girlfriends. But within minutes of reuniting with her friends, she learns that not one, not two, but all three of them are now in relationships that blossomed over the summer. And to make matters worse, Lara’s long time frenemy, James, won’t stop bugging her in class and eventually forces her into tutoring him everyday after school.

Surviving high school was never easy to begin with, but with occupied friends, a hectic Filipino family, and her annoying childhood enemy pestering her more than ever, Lara tries to juggle everything, while trying to figure out her own place in the chaos.

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.

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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. 

Rating: 

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.

Do you like the sound of this? Do you read cheesy romances sometimes (or indeed a lot of the time!)? What are you currently reading?

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p.s. Casual magic of the day:

(If you are new here and have no idea what I'm on about, click here to find out more)

I was in my garden and the way that the sun came through the pine trees was beautiful. It was just a really special moment and casual magic is all about the little things <3