ARC Review: How To Quit Your Crush

Title: How to Quit Your Crush
Author: Amy Fellner Dominy
Release Date: May 4, 2020
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance
Rating: ★★★★

Thank you to Entangled Teen for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Synopsis

Mai Senn knows Anthony Adams is no good for her – no matter how hard she might crush on him. She’s valedictorian; he’s a surf bum. She’s got plans, he’s got his art. Complete opposites in every way. Vinegar and baking soda, they once joked. A chemical reaction that bubbled.

Yeah, they bubbled. Maybe still do.

Good thing Anthony’s got the perfect plan: two weeks to prove just how not good they are together. Whoever can come up with the worst date—something the other will seriously hate, proving how incompatible they truly are—wins.

Like taking a snake-phobe to the Reptile House at the zoo (his idea).

Or a cooking class where they don’t even get to eat the food (her idea).

It’s all about the competition, and it’s meant to help them finally crush their crushes. But it wasn’t supposed to be so hot. Or so fun. And when Mai’s future becomes at stake, will she be able to do the right thing and quit Anthony forever?

Review

It was more like How *Not* to Quit Your Crush. Mai and Anthony are two drastically different people. Mai is an extremely driven national merit scholar who is attending an Ivy League college in the Fall with a hardcore double major while Anthony is a star baseball player with average grades and no real plan after graduation besides bumming it around California. Opposites attract though and we saw some of those sparks fly in Announcing Trouble but they’ve apparently burned out, or maybe not. Before Mai leaves to California for the summer the two decide to have a fling and plan awful dates they know the other will hate to try to lose feelings for each other. Only that doesn’t happen and now things are going further than either expected, but Mai is still leaving and Anthony is still unsure of his future.

I loved Anthony and I need and Anthony. I found myself looking forward to his chapters more than Mai but that might be because I related to him better. He was handsome, charming and downright sweet. His life was turned upside down after his dad died though and suddenly he doesn’t know what he wants for his future which was understandable. I mean who had everything planned out that far ahead anyways? I mean besides Mai. 

Mai was a lot. At first I didn’t like her. She came across as judgmental and a tad snooty because she was just so dang perfect and had this perfect future planned. Then there is this not so perfect boy who she thought she knew as the slacker baseball player who had no ambition and was all wrong for her. I soon realized I actually liked Mai though and the person she was around Anthony. I saw what he saw in her and realized even she didn’t like who she was some times. It took me a bit to warm up to her but I really enjoyed how passionate she was about her future and the environment along with how willing she was to try new things. 

Anthony and Mai were so opposites and I loved these “awful” dates they planned for each other. I mean if you’re trying to lose feelings for someone I would think that would be the way to go. So many bad dates, but them together made them not bad. They we’re both just open to new experiences and trying things out. I wanted all of their bad dates for myself. Just goes to show it can never be a truly horrible date if you like who you’re with.

It was also interesting to explore Mai’s relationship with her family. She’s adopted and has a ton of expectations thrust upon her. She also doesn’t want to disappoint her parents or make them wish they hadn’t adopted her; it was a lot to unpack. My only complaint for this book is that we never see how that relationship ends up, there’s no final confrontation after everything. The confrontation we get before the ending though was just wow. It made it really hate her parents and how they had treated Mai after her traumatic trail incident as a kid. I would have like another confrontation and a solid ending where we knew how everything now stood.

How To Quit Your Crush was a fast and fun light summer read and the perfect companion novel to Announcing Trouble. It was nice to see some more of Josie and how her happily ever after was going while also getting to explore her awesome best friend that we’d met during her story. If you’re looking for some summer romance this is definitely one to add to your ever growing TBR!