The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: This Time it’s Real

Series: Standalone

Author: Ann Liang

Genre: Young Adult. Romance, Contemporary. Fake Dating

Rating: 4.5 stars

Review:

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? – summary from Goodreads

This is now the third time I’ve read this book, and it just keeps getting better and better! I could read this book every year for the rest of my life and love it! It is well written, with a lovely storyline, and amazing characters!

I really liked this book. It has a strong family aspect to it, which I enjoyed. The focus wasn’t on the family, but they were in it more than the other books.

I am also a sucker for fake dating. I really love that trope! The way this was done was really nice. While it was fake dating between a celebrity and a normal person- for lack of a better word- it featured how he was a celebrity, but the romance wasn’t focused on it. Caz and Eliza are so cute together! I loved them so much. They had wonderful banter, but were also so sweet and caring towards each other, even when they were pretending they didn’t care.

I really loved the main character. I am constantly saying that Ann Liang’s characters are amazing, and I shall keep repeating it. Eliza, though, may be my favorite. She is so dramatic, and I love it. I am also super dramatic, and the way that Eliza is dramatic is the same way I am dramatic, so it was just super entertaining to read. Eliza also moved around a lot, which made it so she had some anxiety about getting close to people. This affected her friendships, but also her relationship with Caz. Her character arc of working through this was sweet and moving.

I also loved Caz Song. He was fun and sweet, while also being a little awkward at times. I really loved him and Eliza together. In the last two books I read by Ann Liang, I loved the love interests, and they had issues, especially in I Hope This Doesn’t Find You, but it was kind of put on the back burner. However, this book Caz’s faults were apparent and discussed, which I really enjoyed.

I will say that I liked the familial aspects and the romance aspects, but I wanted more friendships. There were some parts that dealt with friends and friendship issues, but I feel like these storylines often take a back seat to the romantic plot. I will say I love how accepting and friendly Caz’s friends were to Eliza.

This book had me laughing out loud and rooting for the main characters! I really enjoyed the storyline, romance, and the wonderful characters. I highly recommend reading This Time it’s Real!

Quotes

“We do need people. People who’ll laugh with us and cry with us and make the bad days bearable and the good days better; people who’ll remember what we forget and listen even when they don’t completely understand; people who’ll need us back. It has nothing to with strength at all, and everything to do with being human.”

“‘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.’”