ARC Review: Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee

“…it was wonderful to read a YA book about trans joy.”
~ Under the Covers

Noah Ramirez is the author of the popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary- a collection of trans “meet cutes” and happily ever after stories. Noah started the blog as a place to share fake stories to inspire trans readers. When an internet troll starts trying to prove that the story is fake, Noah tries to figure out a way to save the Diary. He meets Drew, a cute bookshop clerk and fan of the diary, and the two decide to fake-date and post relationship updates as a way to save the Diary. As their relationship grows beyond the Diary, Noah learns that real-life dating isn’t like the happily ever after stories he writes.

The characters were really what drove this novel. Noah is a really relatable character with a good heart and good intentions. The book is told from first person perspective which gives the reader insight into his character. I love how Lee wrote a teen character who is so real, I feel like I could have gone to high school with him. He was written as realistically flawed, which I really liked. There were times where I found Noah on the edge of unlikeable though because he is self-absorbed and didn’t always treat his family with kindness. But, to me, these characterizations made Noah feel even more real. Most teenagers just want to spend time with their friends and do tend to feel like the world revolves around them. While these character traits made him unlikeable at times, I was still rooting for him throughout the book.

There is so much representation in this book that I loved seeing. There were characters who are nonbinary, asexual, lesbian, bisexual, and an androphile (which means describing attraction exclusively to men without taking your own gender identity into account (I had never heard of this before!)).

One character uses neo-pronouns, specifically e/em/eir. This character (who shall remain nameless since e’s not in the book summary) has several conversations with Noah about eir pronouns and I found those conversations to be really meaningful and informative, especially if a reader hadn’t heard of neo-pronouns before. Noah never questions eir’s use of different pronouns while e is figuring it out. I really loved reading about their friendship because it felt like a friendship that would exist in the real world.

This book deals with a lot of really important topics like LGBT+ youth, pronouns, identity, and anxiety/panic attacks in a respectful and informative way. In addition, the core of this book is about trans joy. Noah is accepted by his friends and family when he comes out as trans and it was wonderful to read a YA book about trans joy. There are a few mentions of transphobia, but overall, the book exists as a trans teenager finding love and joy (much like The Diary itself).

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes reading YA romances with LGBT characters. It was very fluffy and I can’t wait to see what else Emery Lee writes.

What did you think of our review?
Let us know your thoughts in the comment box below!