This Time It's Real by Ann Liang
Product Details
Web ID: 16223757This rom-drom has a special place in my heart!
The novel centers on Eliza Lim, an aspiring writer, and Caz Song, a famous actor. Their worlds collide when Eliza’s essay about her relationship with her boyfriend goes viral…only she doesn’t really have one. Caz agrees to play the part in exchange for receiving Eliza’s help with his college applications. From the outside looking in, the two could not be more different, but Liang shows that there is more than meets the eye. Both characters struggle to grasp their identities and feel a sense of belonging. Though Eliza was born in China, she does not feel at home there when her family returns because she is not fluent in the language and familiar with their customs. Liang creates tension in having Eliza up and move every few years due to her mother’s line of work. As a result of her inability to take root and hold on to the friends she meets in each city, she believes she is unlovable. Eliza’s pain surrounding the memory of her past lives in Los Angeles, New Zealand, London, and Singapore feels real because of the way in which Liang captures her complex emotions on the page. The reader is able to empathize with Caz’s fear of vulnerability. Because of his public image, Caz puts on a mask to cope with the pressure he experiences. Before Eliza became his fake girlfriend, he never felt like he could ask for help when he needed it or let his true self shine through. I loved watching their fake relationship turn into something real because they helped each other grow and confront their insecurities. I experienced a full range of emotions while reading this book! I cried during the 3rd act breakup, swooned over Caz and Eliza’s experimental dates around Beijing, and laughed when their differing personalities clashed. This novel truly mimics a c-drama and I could not recommend it enough!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Fantastic characters!
I really enjoyed this romance! I liked Eliza from the start and I felt for her when her paper went viral. I remember making up a few things in some of my personal essays when I was in school as Eliza did. Thank goodness none of my papers ever got the attention that Eliza’s did. Eliza comes up with the perfect plan which involves the most famous boy at her school, Caz. Eliza and Caz were both great characters and I loved how they were with each other. Caz is a well-known actor and Eliza is the awkward new girl at school but they still seem to connect with each other really well. Eliza’s family moves all the time so she is tired of trying to fit in and make new friends. Caz is so well known and is always needing to keep up an appearance so he rarely lets his guard down to show his true shelf. I love the fact that the story deals with more than just romance. Eliza is worried about maintaining her friendship with her best friend whom she has not seen in years. Both Eliza and Caz are very talented and work very hard and I liked seeing them excel. I really appreciated the fact that the book was set in Beijing and wanted to try all of the different foods mentioned in the story. I would not hesitate to recommend this book to others. I thought that this was a very well-done story filled with great characters, romance, and just the right amount of humor. I will be hoping to read more of this author’s work very soon. I received an advanced review copy of this book from Scholastic Press.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Loved this one!
This one started out so cute from the very beginning. It was totally a rom-com, although I wouldn’t call it hilarious. It has a lot of funny and cute moments. And I did love the banter between the two, and their awkwardness as well. While there were a lot of the things that I might often remark make me crazy about communication between the characters making things more dramatic than necessary, because these are teen characters, I’m more okay with it. It was also done in a way that actually fit teens in my opinion. Both characters had their own backgrounds that made for the perfect reasons for them to pair up in this fake relationship. But I loved what we got to know about Caz. He really was such a neat guy, that even with his ego, deserved and appropriate for what he did and who he was, he was lovable! And Eliza’s hang ups made sense with how her life had been, how she had traveled and had to leave behind friends. I wonder these days if kids who travel like that with parents still have the same issues when there is social media? I mean there was social media in this book. But I wonder if it is much different than before those days. It also makes me realize the YA I wrote needs a major update because I wasn’t thinking about social media for the daughter of a military family and her keeping in contact with people in all the places she’d lived. I also liked how the author didn’t let what they thought would solve an issue towards the end actually be a complete easy save. I love that both characters had to struggle, and that even when one had to kind of be the one begging for another chance, the way the other one reacted and accepted them back in the end was sweet and perfect. In the end I definitely recommend this as a sweet romance read for the YA readers.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com