Special thanks to Thomas Dunne Books and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of the book for review, and for the opportunity to be a part of the blog tour!

I flew through In Real Life so fast, I read it in two hours. I stayed up late reading, and if you know me at all, you know that I don’t stay up late. Ever. Jessica Love, you should be very proud that your book made me stay up late, and become an emotional mess. Okay, well maybe the emotional mess part is because I was tired, but either way, it happened. I just couldn’t stop reading this adorable book. I had to know what would happen next! How would it all turn out for Hannah and Nick?

Let me get this out there early on: friends to lovers romances are my all-time favorite romances that could happen, especially for a book that takes place over a short amount of time. We already know that they have a solid, and most likely long, relationship. No insta-love to worry about, just the friend zone. But instead of In Real Life just being the typical friends to more romance, she adds in the idea that they’ve never met in person before. This is so relevant in today’s world, and it definitely added to the drama and tension!

Hannah was an awesome main character. She was so relatable to me in that she was a studious, focused, rule-following girl afraid to take risks. An added bonus was that she’s Korean — yay for diversity! Nick was funny and sweet. Their conversations made it easy to believe that they would be best friends. I also really liked the interactions between Hannah and her older sister, Grace, and her “real life” best friend Lo (another diverse character, Latina). While I will admit, they weren’t the best supporters of Hannah in her situation, they weren’t afraid to tell Hannah how it is, no sugarcoating.

Now of course I have to talk about the romance between Hannah and Nick. There’s lots of drama. Especially with the setting of Vegas, I was reminded at points of The Secret Diamond Sisters series by Michelle Madow, but with less of the cheesiness. We’re almost immediately introduced to a whole cast of characters that are a part of Nick’s life. When Hannah and Nick meet, it’s like two completely different worlds colliding. Lies are uncovered, and lots of craziness goes down. And through it all, Hannah is trying to confess her love to her best friend, who is trying to reign in his feelings for her because of the whole having a girlfriend situation. I really didn’t like his girlfriend, either. She seemed way too fake and ditsy.

Basically all the scenes between Hannah and Nick, you could feel the tension. It was pretty obvious that Nick was in love with Hannah too. But we have to wait until the very end to see how it all turns out. And I was very happy with the ending. I thought it was the most adorable ending. It was the perfect way to finally bring the two best friends together at last. It may seem cliche, but it was perfect happy ending for Hannah and Nick, no worries!

So all in all, In Real Life was a cute and fun new take on the “friends to more” trope in YA. It’s a super quick read, with some unique qualities that definitely make it stand out in a good way! If you’re looking for your next favorite light, contemporary romance, In Real Life just may be the one!

RATING: 4/5

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