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New Release Review! LOVE, COMMENT, SUBSCRIBE by Cathy Yardley (Ponto Beach Reunion #1)

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Love, Comment, Subscribe by Cathy Yardley is out! Check out the gorgeous new romcom and grab your copy today! 

Title: Love, Comment, Subscribe
Author:
Cathay Yardley Genre: Romantic Comedy

Back in high school, Lily Wang wanted to be popular, but she considered herself lucky to be part of a tight group of oddballs and honors students called the Nerd Herd. Now, at twenty-eight, she feels like she’s finally on the cusp of succeeding as a beauty influencer—if she can hit five million subscribers, brands will take notice and she could get her own makeup line.

Fellow Nerd Herd alum Tobin Bui has had a lot of success as a YouTube gamer. But the road to online stardom has been rocky. First, he disappointed his parents by dropping out of college, and now, after years of pranks, skits, and playthroughs, he’s struggling to come up with new content to satisfy his ever-growing fan base. His agents say he needs cross-audience appeal, a new twist.

When Nerd Herd frenemy Lily approaches Tobin about teaming up to do a video to bolster her brand and reinvigorate his, he agrees. But when their first collab video goes viral, their relationship heats up too. With the whole internet watching, will these two former misfits finally realize they’re perfect together?

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Review:

Love, Comment, Subscribe is a frienemies-to-lovers, there’s only one bed (twice!) story, and I was here for it! Lily and Tobin have known each other for 20+ years, and have been fairly antagonistic for a good chunk of that. Lily, who was always interested in fashion and beauty (and, unfortunately, also in what everyone else–especially the “popular” kids–thought of her), left their small town as soon as she could for LA to start a career as a beauty influencer while Tobin stayed in their small town–though interestingly enough, he also made a living making YouTube videos. When a collab between their channels is first proposed–Lily’s hoping to take her brand to the next level, and Tobin’s looking for new inspiration–neither of them thinks it could possibly work…or could it?

I loved seeing what ideas for videos they each came up with–never have I ever wanted an instant book-to-screen conversion more, because OMG they all sounded fabulous, and I was almost afraid my imagination couldn’t do them justice! (No shade on Cathy Yardley‘s writing abilities–she did a great job, but honestly it might have been too good, because I had a burning need to see Tobin in that suit in the flesh…;)) Their channels’ current stats and most recent comments at the beginning of many of the channels was a fun touch too; I especially liked seeing followers from her channel join his and vice versa, and how commenters on both channels stuck up for both Lily and Tobin when things got dicey.

Seeing Lily and Tobin on the page together, it wasn’t at all shocking to find out that their friends had thought for years that their relationship had the potential to turn into something more, despite their antagonism–their chemistry is fantastic! For a lot of the book, though, it does seem as if an actual relationship might be beyond their reach. Her life’s in LA and involves going to all kinds of influencer parties and launches, and his is 2+ hours away before taking LA traffic into consideration and involves a whole lot of playing video games and pranks. Their approach to their businesses are seemingly incompatible too, a factor that will play a major role in their relationship’s dreaded black moment.

I loved these two together. Their chemistry! The videos! The cuteness! I loved that Tobin wasn’t afraid to admit he enjoyed things that aren’t usually considered masculine, like cuddling, and that he was completely OK with letting Lily use him as her canvas for millions of their viewers to see. And the fact that he is self aware enough to know what he needed to take care of his own mental health and didn’t shy away from letting everyone else know about it? 100% here for it. I also loved the way they resolved their differences in the end, with both of them admitting the roles they played in it but the person who was really more in the wrong making a truly touching gesture that showed just how much they had grown.

I cannot wait for more of this series! We get some teasers here about who might also be paired up thanks to the Ponto Beach Reunion, and it’s gonna be great!

Rating: 4 stars / A

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

But she always looked good, makeup or not. He shushed his errant thought. NOT TODAY, SATAN,

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About Cathy Yardley:

 Cathy Yardley is an award-winning author of romance, chick lit, and urban fantasy, who has sold over 1.2 million copies of books for publishers like St. Martin’s, Avon, and Harlequin. She writes fun, geeky, and diverse characters who believe that underdogs can make good and sometimes being a little wrong is just right. She likes writing about quirky, crazy adventures, because she’s had plenty of her own: she had her own army in the Society of Creative Anachronism; she’s spent a New Year’s on a 3-day solitary vision quest in the Mojave Desert; she had VIP access to the Viper Room in Los Angeles. Now, she spends her time writing in the wilds of East Seattle, trying to prevent her son from learning the truth of any of said adventures, and riding herd on her two dogs (and one husband.)

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