Review Detail

BUILD A GIRLFRIEND is a Young Adult novel that follows Amelia Hernandez. She’s been recently dumped and one of her exes, the ex, has recently moved back into town. Plagued by her family’s curse to never have a long-lasting romantic relationship, Amelia is determined to break it. She joins forces with her family to become un-break-up-able. While at the same time trying to save up money and hide her big secret from her family, she wants to leave them for a year.

What I Loved:
Amelia is a great starring character. The book is told in first-person POV and readers are thrust into Amelia’s head. Now the writing style can take some getting used to, but I found that once I did it was easy to blow through the book. Amelia has a good mix of self-deprecation, humor, and seriousness to make the book work.

Amelia’s family plays a big role in this book and the author did well to develop that. From their relationships with each other to their histories, they don’t feel like cardboard cutouts. You understand where everyone is coming from, even when they make the worst decisions possible. And getting to read the constant love and bickering between them is heartwarming. The love flows through the page.

The snippets of the Hernandez Romance Boot Camp were great fun. They are snippets of advice as given from the Hernandez family. And it’s good, fun advice. The author even manages to capture the different family members’ attitudes in the brief snippets.

The romance in this book was a lot, in a good way. There is so much history between the two characters and we’re only given bits and pieces at a time. Readers are left dealing with Amelia’s complicated feelings and the chemistry between the two characters while also trying to puzzle out why they broke up in the first place. I hadn’t expected the emotional impact that this relationship would have on me, but the author pleasantly surprised me.

The representation in this book was also handled very simply. I cannot attest to the Hispanic representation, I'm speaking only to the LGBT rep. I enjoyed that it was just there. There was no big commotion about Amelia being bisexual or other members of the family being queer. They just were. Simple representation means a lot. While coming out stories are helpful to some readers, others just want books where characters are free to just be.

What Left Me Wanting More:
The problems and tension in this book were set up very well, for the most part. With one exception, they were each given time to flourish and become a truly emotional deep dive into Amelia. They gave her room to grow. However, one felt like it was thrown in at the last moment and did not have a satisfying payoff. It had some backing behind it, no doubt, but it didn’t feel like enough. Different readers may have different opinions though. Maybe someone else will pick up on something that I didn’t.

Final Verdict:
A charming Young Adult book, BUILD A GIRLFRIEND is ostensibly a romance with some comedy but in actuality is about Amelia discovering herself and finding the strength to stand up to her family’s wishes for her.