What's Not to Love by Emily Wibberley, Austin Siegemund-Broka
An academic enemies-to-lovers YA.
Since high school began, Alison Sanger and Ethan Molloy have competed on almost everything. AP classes, the school paper, community service, it never ends. If Alison could avoid Ethan until graduation, she would. Except, naturally, for two over-achieving seniors with their sights on valedictorian and Harvard, they share all the same classes and extracurriculars. So when their school’s principal assigns them the task of co-planning a previous class’s ten-year reunion, with the promise of a recommendation for Harvard if they do, Ethan and Alison are willing to endure one more activity together if it means beating the other out of the lead.
But with all this extra time spent in each other’s company, their rivalry begins to feel closer to friendship. And as tension between them builds, Alison fights the growing realization that the only thing she wants more than winning…is Ethan.
I'd had What's Not To Love on my tbr for months and I finally
finished reading it a few days back! I love this author duo's YA
books and more so because they have a way of making me like some
unlikable characters. And what surprised me about this one was the
fact that Alison and Ethan were genuine rivals in this one! No
secret pining from one side or anything like that - which has become
a common theme in some e2l stories. They enjoyed competing with each
other and getting on each other's nerves without crossing certain
lines. And then that slowly flips as they become attracted to each
other.
Alison and Ethan have always been rivals as they compete with each
other for everything from grades to extracurriculars. With high
school coming to an end, Alison just needs two more wins to wrap up
the competition - get the valedictorian spot and be admitted into
Harvard - and hopefully never see Ethan again(unless he gets into
Harvard too). She's happy to work on other things while crossing
things off her checklist and doesn't feel like she's missing out on
much. But, her idea of a 'fun' time ends when she's made to organize
the high school reunion of a previous class, along with Ethan😂
While I loved the dynamic and the banter between Alison and Ethan, I
think I'd have liked some more character development individually
too. Both of them are overachievers and we could see Alison's
reasons from her pov, but not much about Ethan's motivations to keep
the rivalry going. Alison was very goal-oriented and a bit too
judgemental at times but that made her feel real. She does learn a
lot of lessons and while she may have everything figured out, many
others might be at different stages at different points in their
lives. Personally, I think her sister Jamie deserved a bigger
apology from her, so perhaps that's what kept me from loving this
one fully🤔 But in the end this was such a cute YA read that had me
looking at high school life a bit differently!
You can also find this review on my bookstagram here
Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka met and fell in love in high school. Austin went on to graduate from Harvard, while Emily graduated from Princeton. Together, they are the authors of The Roughest Draft and Do I Know You?, as well as several novels about romance for teens. Now married, they live in Los Angeles, where they continue to take daily inspiration from their own love story.
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