✨REVIEW✨

Pablo is working at a bodega in New York, dodging bill collectors and his parents after dropping out of NYU. In the middle of the night, a gorgeous woman walks into his store. Halfway through their flirty transaction, Pablo realizes she's mega pop star Leanna Smart. Suddenly, Pablo's life is a series of improbabilities - private jets, room service...he can't get enough of Leanna, but no one else can know, or his life will be turned inside out. 📚

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PERMANENT RECORD seems to be a really polarizing book. No, I don't think the central relationship makes any sense at all - it pretty much exists just so this book will exist. Pablo is an intensely frustrating character, making one bad money decision after another. Leanna is a cipher who we never really see fully. 📚

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I don't care. I loved this book. I wanted to give everyone a hug. I loved Pablo and his friends and family. I loved how deeply rooted in New York City this book is. I appreciated the close look at how nobody tells you how to handle your money as an adult and if you don't figure it out immediately it can ruin your entire life, snowballing before you even know what's happening. 📚

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Mary H.K. Choi is the master of creating characters who are complicated in an everyday way. I'll buy everything she ever writes. 📚

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Content warnings: stalking, chronic poverty. 📚

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