Book Review: The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo

Goodreads Synopsis: From the author of I Believe in a Thing Called Love, a laugh-out-loud story of love, new friendships, and one unique food truck.

Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined. But maybe Rose isn't so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) crushing on her is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad’s business. What if taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind?

With Maurene Goo's signature warmth and humor, The Way You Make Me Feel is a relatable story of falling in love and finding yourself in the places you’d never thought to look.

My Review: This reminds me so much of The Unexpected Everything (which, coincidentally, I haven't reviewed yet, so this might be a sort of dual-review). Both books involve:

• girls living with their fathers + managing their relationships with their parent
• friendship trouble
• getting a summer job
• changing perceptions through summer experiences

And both of them are very similar in style, too! I'd actually call these book twins (and I will be making a post about these!).

But going back to TWYMMF, I first and foremost enjoyed the diversity of the story. I drooled reading about KoBra and the Korean-Brazilian food (and definitely need to try both cuisines!); the main characters had different cultures and stories (a lost Korean-Brazilian girl, an African American girl struggling to be the best, and a Chinese boy trying to fit in); the story discussed microaggressions; and mental health was briefly touched upon. Clara was also a likable MC, her pranks were entertaining, and her relationship with her father was sweet. From reading about Clara's changing friendships, pool fun, and summer job, I enjoyed a peek into summer break.

At its core, though, the story was really a standard contemporary; though fun to explore and read, there wasn't really anything new I'd taken away, and the story was largely predictable. Clara was also very impulsive and didn't really change, even at the end. Additionally, Clara's parents are divorced, and there was a vibe of a good parent/bad parent; I'd like to see more stories where both parents just have different lives to lead and are equally loving to their kid(s). But I suppose in this case Clara's mother's character was important to Clara's character development, and I might have to let that point go :). 

Overall, The Way You Make Me Feel was a solid, diverse read, and I give it 3.5 stars. Have you read this story, or any other books my Maurene Goo? Let me know below!