This Time It's Real by Ann Liang
When seventeen-year-old Eliza Lin’s essay about meeting the love
of her life unexpectedly goes viral, her entire life changes
overnight. Now she has the approval of her classmates at her new
international school in Beijing, a career-launching internship
opportunity at her favorite magazine…and a massive secret to
keep.
Eliza made her essay up. She’s never been in a relationship
before, let alone in love. All good writing is lying, right?
Desperate to hide the truth, Eliza strikes a deal with the
famous actor in her class, the charming but aloof Caz Song.
She’ll help him write his college applications if he poses as
her boyfriend. Caz is a dream boyfriend -- he passes handwritten
notes to her in class, makes her little sister laugh, and takes
her out on motorcycle rides to the best snack stalls around the
city.
But when her relationship with Caz starts feeling a little too
convincing, all of Eliza’s carefully laid plans are threatened.
Can she still follow her dreams if it means breaking her own
heart?
Get ready to fall in love in this hilarious romcom about a
girl who begins a fake relationship with the famous actor in
her class, perfect for fans of Meg Cabot and Jenny Han.
Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes along with enemies to lovers
of course!❣️✨ So, it should be no surprise that I ended up loving my
last read - This Time It's Real by Ann Liang, which is a YA
contemporary with such a cute premise and fake dating 😆 But honestly
that wasn't the main reason I enjoyed reading this but because I found
the main character Eliza so relatable - where were YA books like this
when I was a teen, I swear I'd have felt less alone. Everytime we
moved and changed schools I felt just like her. As mentioned in the
dedication this is for the cynics who secretly still believe in love
and damn my heart went aww watching Eliza become brave enough to be
completely open with herself and others, while giving love a chance
too.
This book follows Eliza Lin who has recently moved back to Beijing and
when her personal essay for an assignment about a totally made up
relationship goes viral, she is greeted by many opportunities -
especially an internship offer from her favorite magazine that could
launch her writing career. But when everyone keeps asking her about
this boyfriend that doesn't exist and she's also asked to write a few
posts in the same category, she decides to strike a deal with her
classmate and famous cdrama actor - Caz Song(she puts forth the
proposal with a PPT lol 🤣) - She helps him out with the college
application essays that he's been struggling with and he poses as her
fake boyfriend for a limited time. Nothing could go wrong right?
Especially like developing feelings while you're in a fake
relationship 😆
This book had me giggling and laughing like a fool at random times😆
It was just like one of those campus romance cdramas but with
relatable characters that I ended up loving! Also, I loved the fact
that the focus wasn't on a celebrity romance, but more about Eliza
learning to make herself vulnerable. Her mom tells her that noone can
always guess what's going on in her mind until she takes a chance and
opens up and omg that's so true 😭
“You hold everything in here, Ai-Ai,” she says sternly , pointing to her own heart. “For better or worse. But not everyone is going to guess at what you’re thinking like I do . No one is going to know how you feel if you don’t tell them. And until you do— you can never really know what’s going to happen.”
I also loved the slow development
of the relationship between Caz and Eliza - it felt so effortless.
Both take a chance on each other for the first time and I was rooting
for them. Eliza doesn't want to put down her walls and be disappointed
by another friend leaving but she can't help but care for Caz. And
that scene where he falls sick and she takes care of him - I'm such a
sucker for a good hurt/comfort scene y'all 😍
“Sha erzi, what do you know ? When you care about someone, you want to be inconvenienced— you wouldn’t mind being inconvenienced by them every day for the rest of your life. That’s what love is. That’s all love really is.”
And the character development that Eliza goes through is amazing and I
also loved watching her interact with her mom, dad and her sister,
Emily. My only complaint - very minor - would be that the last chapter
was too short and I would have loved seeing Eliza's final article,
what happens after and a little bit more about her and Caz being
together later. But still, this was the most wholesome book that I've
read in a while and I'm definitely going to be reading Ann Liang's
other book too!
You can also find this review on my bookstagram here
*I was provided with an ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest
review*
Ann Liang is a recent graduate of the University of Melbourne. Born in
Beijing, she grew up travelling back and forth between China and
Australia, but somehow ended up with an American accent. When she isn’t
writing, she can be found making over-ambitious to-do lists,
binge-watching dramas, and having profound conversations with her pet
labradoodle about who’s a good dog.
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