Sana Khan is a cheerleader and a straight A student. She's the classic (somewhat obnoxious) overachiever determined to win.
Rachel Recht is a wannabe director who's obsessed with movies and ready to make her own masterpiece. As she's casting her senior film project, she knows she's found the perfect lead - Sana.
There's only one problem. Rachel hates Sana. Rachel was the first girl Sana ever asked out, but Rachel thought it was a cruel prank and has detested Sana ever since.
Told in alternative viewpoints and inspired by classic romantic comedies, this engaging and edgy YA novel follows two strongwilled young women falling for each other despite themselves.
* * *
I picked this book up because I was in the mood for a enemies to lovers romance and the fact that it was also a gay f/f romance had me all on board. I had been thinking of this one for a while, mostly because I absolutely love the book cover. I am so incredibly happy that I picked this book up.
"The nice thing about life, and not the movies, is that there's no curtains, no The End. You can always write your own story. You can always start over and begin again. It doesn't have to make sense or go in a straight line. It happens. You make it happen."
The characters in this book and the way their romance develops is probably one of my favorite ones I've read. Rachel is an aspiring film maker and takes it so seriously that the reader can really tell how much it means to her. To her classmates and film crew shes bossy, angry, harsh, but because the reader is in her mindset, we get to really see the determination and drive she has to make something meaningful that says something of significance. Over the progress of the story the reader sees her learn to be more open minded to ideas and suggestions for her film and it helps her not only make a better film but it helps her see people more complexly. Because of her past and the things that she had to endure, it's made her perception of the world and people in it to be cynical and cold. Rachel is my favorite in this story, I think because parts of me could really relate to her.
Sana, our other main character, is everything her parents and grandparents could ever hope her to be. She's a good student, cheerleader, and on the path to becoming a Princeton college student and surgeon. She's been working on this goal since a young child with too much pressure put on her shoulders by her family. Seeing her be brave and figure out what she wants to do after high school was something really enjoyable to read about. The trope of a character being pressured to follow a career path they aren't interested in or didn't get to choose is one used often, but I think because I loved Sana so much it didn't feel like an overused trope. Predictability didn't matter in the end because both of their character growth and development was enough to make the reader love their story.
"It's better to screw up on your own terms than to screw up on somebody else's. It's better to have something you know is yours rather than what everyone tells you that you should want."
Safi does an amazing job with the enemies to lovers trope. Often when picking up a book that has this trope it is disappointing because the "enemies" part is a bit weak. Obviously, it's understandable why this is the case, it's hard to write a love story when two characters genuinely hate each other. However, I think it's well done in Tell Me How You Really Feel, where the reader genuinely feels Rachel's hatred for Sana. When they were both freshman, Sana asked Rachel out for coffee and Rachel immediately assumes that Sana is doing it as a joke to use as ammunition to make fun of her. Rachel judges Sana because of her popularity and social status and her first instinct is that Sana is trying to hurt her. After that, Rachel's distaste for Sana grew and it became potent. Despite this, Sana still has feelings for Rachel and continues to crush on her from a distance and although she gets frustrated with Rachel's sarcasm, she never seems to hold it against Rachel.
I can see why both the publisher and the author marketed this as Gilmore Girls fanfic of Rory/Paris because I can see some parallels in the stories. However, I don't think I would get there on my own if I hadn't read those similarities mentioned before picking up the book. At first, it worried me because I am a bit lukewarm and wouldn't call myself a big fan of Gilmore Girls or really any of the characters. The comparison is a fun one, I bet especially for readers who like Gilmore Girls, but I think the characters in Tell Me How You Really Feel are way better.
"Rachel was grinning. A real, honest-to-goodness grin. It nearly caused Sana to swerve, it was so potent. Iit was like the rain after a drought. Two days of torrential downpour that threatened to destroy as much as it provided life-giving water."
One of my only real complaints is that I would have liked more romance moments between Rachel & Sana. We got some really good intimate moments, but because of the book's length (it's fairly short) I feel like we didn't get enough. I think with the way they both used the word "love" it felt too soon because we didn't get as much romance because it's such a slow burn. I think the slow burn is well done but I would have liked to see more of the romance. Maybe this is just because I really loved them together and I'm being greedy.
Overall, I highly recommend this book! It is a new favorite f/f romance and enemies to lovers story I can easily see myself recommending to other readers. If you're in the romance mood because Valentine's is coming up, I think this would be a fantastic book to pick up!
Thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment