So this was another fun contemporary romance with some family issues in the background, although not quite as much a part of the story as the last similar book I read. It’s kind of sad to say that I understood Leo’s problem of mistaking niceness for someone being interested. And usually thinking when someone was interested I just thought they were being nice, not to mention how I developed crushes that never worked out. Afraid to say that has happened even at my age still!

There were actually similarities in this book and the last one I read because once again the main character is trying to become the best partner he can. Only as his list is created from his exes telling him what they didn’t like about him, I can see the ways he puts into motion what they say taking so many bad turns. Not to mention how much it sucks to see him let the things they say cause him to change himself. But again, he’s a teen, so definitely makes sense. It also was so hard to read as he said and did things that were so wrong to the wonderful friends he had. Even knowing he was just trying to follow his plan. It took a few times, but he did realize what he was doing at the end and try to stop himself.

And it made me so mad how much he let his big crush that turned into his first boyfriend be such a dick to him. Yeah, I know people have problems with that, and it’s understandable with how his romantic life or lack of one had been so far at his age. Everyone else kind of noticed or knew who Leo was missing that would be his perfect boyfriend. Almost that person themselves didn’t quite maybe see it or understand at first from the way we get his story. Leo had such great friends though, especially in how they handled him through this without letting him completely run them over and ignore them. But not giving up on him either.

The family aspect of this story was sadder than with the other book I just read. I hated Leo’s dad so much. And honestly I’m still not sure how much I like his brother. In the end I like the way things worked out, how his mother realized she needed to work on some things too. And I loved his whole scrapbooking hobby/lifestyle. I remember making a scrapbook for my sorority memories when I was in college. We even got a little scrapbook type thing when I graduated from high school that we could order from Jostens. I still have both of those. I also made a scrapbook for my dinosaur dig trip after college. These days I enjoy making them on sites like Shutterfly, even though I can’t help but go in afterwards and add in things, like the ones I made for the Book Bonanza conventions.

A fun romance, another one I’ll be sure to have for my students to enjoy!