Book Rewind · Review : A Totally Awkward Love Story by Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivison

A Totally Awkward Love Story by Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivison released in 2016, and in honor of their newest release Freshman, I thought I would share the love of the book that made me a fan of this writing team! Be sure to come back tomorrow for our blog tour post for Freshman! BTW, now is a wonderful to pick up this fun summer read, while the ebook is on sale (at the time of this posting) for for only $1.99!

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Book Rewind is a meme where we review a backlist title to distinguish reviewed books that are not a new release. We noticed we tend to review almost all new or newly released books and wanted to have a feature to spotlight some older books that we either just read or are just reviewing because we never got around to it, or possibly didn’t blog back then! This meme will be posted on Thursdays as a ‘Throwback Thursday’ kind of deal.

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A Totally Awkward Love Story by Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivison

Category: Young Adult, Contemporary Romance, Humor
Publication: May 3rd, 2016; Delacorte Press
Purchase: Amazon

For fans of The DUFF, this hilarious and true-to-teen romance is Broad City meets Judy Blume.

The summer before college, Hannah swears she’s finally going to find The One. And for five perfect minutes, Hannah does find him. He’s cute and makes her laugh like crazy. She just wishes she’d caught his name, because Toilet Boy Cinderella really lacks sex appeal.

For Sam, the summer is off to a bad start for a million reasons. But for five minutes his luck changes: in a fancy restroom painted purple like it belongs in a Bond villain hideaway, Sam falls head over heels for some strange and hilarious girl. Of course, he doesn’t know her name. With his luck, he’ll never see her again, and he’ll remain a girlfriendless, moony-eyed virgin. Forever.

But another chance meeting brings them together, only to have a chance misunderstanding drive them apart . . . and then the cycle starts all over again. Madcap mishaps, raunchy hilarity, and deep romance follow these two wherever they go. For two people so clearly destined for each other, they sure have a hell of a lot of trouble even getting together.

 

Review:

5/5 stars

OH MY GOSH you guys! This book was a total sleeper and you do not want to miss it! Such a cute summer kickoff story. I buddy-read this with two other girlfriends who were also feeling burnt out and in need of a reset book. Two of us read primarily horror/paranormal and one reads primarily contemporary but all three of us agree that this book is a LOBSTER for everyone (hehe – inside book joke).

That transition to adulthood is equally exciting and scary, right? Everyone is doing it at their own pace but it certainly doesn’t feel that way so it’s easy to understand why Hannah and Sam are at a race to grow up and find their lobsters – their mate for life. This book is exactly what I need right now. I loved Hannah and Sam’s conversation about greetings because I’m totally that person that fumbles the handshake that turns into a hug.

This book will continuously make you giggle. Some of the moments that really stood out to me:

• Stella really is the worst but then again, don’t we all have that friend? I think I maybe even am that friend to some.
• Robin’s dating advice is both hilarious and awful. Which means it’s double hilarious.
• Sam’s “encounter.” I’m pretty sure most girls have had that type of experience with a guy. I wish it was more normalized and that girls knew how not to react.
• Everyone needs a Casper. Someone where there’s no ego, no competition and you can just let it all out. His speech to her about boys? Love.
• The best part of the book may have been Nan, the grandma who is the grandma we all wish we could be. So dang cute. I’m totally going to be Nan when I grow up.

The hardest part about reading this book was the actual buddy read I did. None of us wanted to put it down!