Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

Release Date - January 21, 2020
Publisher Website - Raincoast Books

Publisher Social Media - Twitter
Pages -  368 pages
My Rating - 4/5
**received from publisher in exchange for an honest review**

Here is the Goodreads 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.

If you have ever wanted a young adult contemporary novel based off of the rom-com You've Got Mail I have the perfect book for you. Tweet Cute sweetly pays homage to the rom-com classic and offers up a 'cheesy' love story all its own.

The first thing you should know about this book is that it is filled with amazing sounding food. You'll immediately want to devour a grilled cheese once you are done (along with so many other baked goods). Food is such a part of this novel that it seeps into various other aspects of the story. There are plenty of cheesy (and cheese related) jokes to be found. The main characters names are Pepper and Jack, which should immediately tell you about the level of cuteness you are dealing with. It's all really fun and leaves the reader with a feeling of contentment.

The family elements and dynamics are some of my favourite parts of this story. Pepper and Jack both have siblings that they struggle to connect with for various reasons. They both feel the weight of being compared to the sibling and this book delves into the strain those expectations could put on those relationships. The different relationships that they each had with their parents was also just as important to the story being told. The family story arcs provided something entirely outside of the romance for each character. It made it so that both were not just a love interest. It rounded out the characters in a way that added some depth to them.

This book is filled with snarky wit, excellent banter, and yet also has a real sweetness to it. The 'Twitter war' between the two company accounts is written perfectly. You could easily imagine something like that on Twitter. Emma Lord captured the required tone and balance perfectly.

The romance is one that blooms a little slower. It starts from a place of begrudgingly working together, to a friendship, to something more. This is, at least, what the characters are aware of. The extra layer of them falling for each other via online messages as they begin to get to know each other in real life was what made this romance as engaging as it was. They both think they are interested in other people so they can't even see that they are falling for the person right in front of them (who just happens to be the person they were already falling for anyway). It's exactly why I love You've Got Mail. You want them to just find out already so they can get together, but that torture is part of what makes the chemistry work so well. This is just as equally true in Tweet Cute.

Those in search of a well written, light and bubbly read, I highly recommend Tweet Cute. It has pretty much everything you could hope for from a young adult rom-com. Its got both humour and heart.  This may have been Emma Lord's debut novel, but I predict many will be eagerly awaiting whatever she serves up next.