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chronicallybookish 's review for:
I'll Be the One
by Lyla Lee
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 13+
Overall: 3.5 stars
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 3/5
Writing: 2.5/5
Representation: 5/5
I wanted to love this book so much. It has such high reviews and SUCH AMAZING REP for so many different people. The concept is cute and fun, and I liked Skye’s character. But it just… fell flat.
I really liked all the characters. Skye was a great narrator and protagonist, and she was easy to love. Lana was sweet and spunky and I loved every scene she was in—she’s definitely my favorite character. I wasn’t a fan of Clarissa, and I didn’t see enough of Rebecca, Tiffany, or Imani to be able to say I enjoyed their characters. Henry was fine, I guess. As a character I liked him, but I just never fell for him as a love interest, and I felt like he and Skye had zero chemistry. I knew they would get together in the end because, well, it’s a romance, but I genuinely wouldn’t have cared if they didn’t. There were no sparks. They almost kissed a few times, but there was no tension or build up, and I wouldn’t have even known it was an almost-kiss if it weren’t for the fact that Skye said “we almost kissed.” The romance just wasn’t very well done.
The plot was fine. It was predictable and pretty average interest-wise, but there was nothing wrong with it. I wasn’t a fan of the writing. I don’t know if the style just wasn’t for me, or if it was objectively bad, but it just felt like their were words/phrases/sentences that were weak or awkward. The dialogue, especially, at times felt stilted, and the author relied a bit too heavily explaining things via internal monologue and then saying “and I told him as much” or “I explained my thinking to him”. It happened a handful of times throughout the novel, and I just think it may have been stronger and built more of a tangible relationship between Skye and Henry if those page long monologues were more conversational—or part monologue, part conversation. They just got tedious.
Would I still recommend this book? I guess, because it has such amazing rep for Korean people, plus sized people, and LGBTQ+ people, and that’s so important and lacking in books.
All in all, it was still a bit of a let down, and my rating is only as high as it is because of the representation.
Age Rating: 13+
Overall: 3.5 stars
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 3/5
Writing: 2.5/5
Representation: 5/5
I wanted to love this book so much. It has such high reviews and SUCH AMAZING REP for so many different people. The concept is cute and fun, and I liked Skye’s character. But it just… fell flat.
I really liked all the characters. Skye was a great narrator and protagonist, and she was easy to love. Lana was sweet and spunky and I loved every scene she was in—she’s definitely my favorite character. I wasn’t a fan of Clarissa, and I didn’t see enough of Rebecca, Tiffany, or Imani to be able to say I enjoyed their characters. Henry was fine, I guess. As a character I liked him, but I just never fell for him as a love interest, and I felt like he and Skye had zero chemistry. I knew they would get together in the end because, well, it’s a romance, but I genuinely wouldn’t have cared if they didn’t. There were no sparks. They almost kissed a few times, but there was no tension or build up, and I wouldn’t have even known it was an almost-kiss if it weren’t for the fact that Skye said “we almost kissed.” The romance just wasn’t very well done.
The plot was fine. It was predictable and pretty average interest-wise, but there was nothing wrong with it. I wasn’t a fan of the writing. I don’t know if the style just wasn’t for me, or if it was objectively bad, but it just felt like their were words/phrases/sentences that were weak or awkward. The dialogue, especially, at times felt stilted, and the author relied a bit too heavily explaining things via internal monologue and then saying “and I told him as much” or “I explained my thinking to him”. It happened a handful of times throughout the novel, and I just think it may have been stronger and built more of a tangible relationship between Skye and Henry if those page long monologues were more conversational—or part monologue, part conversation. They just got tedious.
Would I still recommend this book? I guess, because it has such amazing rep for Korean people, plus sized people, and LGBTQ+ people, and that’s so important and lacking in books.
All in all, it was still a bit of a let down, and my rating is only as high as it is because of the representation.