Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

SYNOPSIS

A fresh, irresistible rom-com from debut author Emma Lord about the chances we take, the paths life can lead us on, and how love can be found in the opposite place you expected.

Meet Pepper, swim team captain, chronic overachiever, and all-around perfectionist. Her family may be falling apart, but their massive fast-food chain is booming ― mainly thanks to Pepper, who is barely managing to juggle real life while secretly running Big League Burger’s massive Twitter account.

Enter Jack, class clown and constant thorn in Pepper’s side. When he isn’t trying to duck out of his obscenely popular twin’s shadow, he’s busy working in his family’s deli. 

His relationship with the business that holds his future might be love/hate, but when Big League Burger steals his grandma’s iconic grilled cheese recipe, he’ll do whatever it takes to take them down, one tweet at a time.

​All’s fair in love and cheese ― that is, until Pepper and Jack’s spat turns into a viral Twitter war. Little do they know, while they’re publicly duking it out with snarky memes and retweet battles, they’re also falling for each other in real life ― on an anonymous chat app Jack built.

As their relationship deepens and their online shenanigans escalate ― people on the internet are shipping them?? ― their battle gets more and more personal, until even these two rivals can’t ignore they were destined for the most unexpected, awkward, all-the-feels romance that neither of them expected.

Synopsis from Goodreads

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PERSONAL REVIEW

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books for sending me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a huge fan of YA Contemporary novels and this book sounded too cute to pass up. We’ve all heard of a great meet cute story, so I was definitely ready for a great tweet cute one (*wink*, see what I did there?). I fell quickly into this story as Pepper and Jack each try to support their family businesses while struggling to figure out their own passions and dreams.

The Characters are Real (and Witty!)
I love that Jack and Pepper are such realistic teenagers! There are so many YA novels that fall into tropes of the “overly-smart, ridiculous-named teens” or the “super simplistic, one dimensional teens”. Lord does a great job of making both of these characters smart, motivated and funny. Although I didn’t fully understand all of the references (there’s a lot of comments about “Nick Jr” that I’m not getting - is this a Nickelodeon joke??), I loved that these guys are so good at being funny on Twitter while dealing with family and school pressures. It’s hard to juggle it all, and Lord shows is that.

Excellent Pacing
I was worried that we’d spend the whole novel waiting for Jack and Pepper to realize that the other one with their “Twitter enemy”, but rest assured - they realize it early on and it becomes an excellent (and flirty) competition between them as they battle it out for Twitter dominance. While there are other secrets that don’t unravel until the end of the book, this was one that needed to be shared early and I’m so glad it was! It would’ve been easy for Jack to find out who Pepper was and use it against her, but that also would’ve been cliched and rather repetitive of 90s movies like “You’ve Got Mail”. Instead, he addresses it head on and we get a better story because of it.

Need More Secondary Character Development
While I love Pepper and Jack, I really wanted to know more about the other people in their lives. Jack’s twin brother Ethan and Pepper’s friend Pooja definitely needed more page time; they’re both important in the story and it would’ve been great to see those relationships develop further. Paul also felt like a throwaway; descriptions of him are rather confusing and vague, so I never had a clear idea of who he was. Maybe this is just me? Lastly, the parents. Wow, does Pepper’s mom need some more page time. This is a very intense and driven woman and I wish there had been more conversations between her and Pepper for them to fully understand what the other is going through.

Overall, this was such a great book! It was so much fun to read (I think I read it in a day) because I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next. Although predictable (it is a YA contemporary), the characters were fresh and the writing funny. I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys Morgan Matson or Rainbow Rowell, and to people looking for a light read during these cold months.

Tweet Cute comes out tomorrow! I can’t wait to hear what you think.

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FINAL RATING: 4.5