Two late bloomers try fake dating to gain confidence and skills for the real thing.

Reluctant basketball superstar Bethany Greene might once have been so repelled by boys that she publicly burst into tears at the revelation that one of her besties had done the deed. That was before Oliver Gutierrez opened her eyes to “how truly hot boys can be.” But when both Oliver and her backup plan turn her down for homecoming, Bethany knows she has to find a way to get some experience and shed her “Crybaby Bethany” reputation. Enter Jacob Yeun, aspiring filmmaker and the reticent boyfriend (and then ex-boyfriend) of another of Bethany’s besties. In her first young adult novel, established adult romance author Weatherspoon gives readers what they want as Bethany and Jacob are thrown together, enter a secret dating pact, and eventually fall for each other. The Los Angeles teens are wholesome and appealing and just a touch more glamorous than real life: Both of Bethany’s moms played in the WNBA, and Jacob’s parents are tattoo artists. Bethany is a confidently fat Black girl, and Jacob is a lightly tattooed Korean American skater. Each is surrounded by their own racially mixed crews, which also include gay and nonbinary representation. The characterization of the sprawling cast of friends and family members is cursory, but the love and affirmation between them carries the day.

Light and sweet. (Romance. 13-18)

-Kirkus Review

Her Good Side by Rebekah Weatherspoon
YA contemporary romance. Fake relationship troupe. Diverse relationship. HFN.
16 year old Bethany Greene hasn’t dated yet but she wants to try. Her best friend thinks the best way to start is a double date as just friends. That doesn’t work out very well, so the next option is to talk her best friend into pretending they are now dating. Jacob Yeun is on board with fake dating since he’s been dumped twice already in the school year and figures so practice dating may be just what he needs. As the two friends start with holding hands, they find that maybe they want a little more, but how to approach that is more than a little terrifying.

Bethany is confident in herself and knows who she is. Since she’s on the basketball team, she feels that asking a cute boy to the dance that is also a basketball player is the way to go. Oh, the angst I felt in her asking and him saying he is asking someone else. The comfort she has with Jacob is a relief as they go out the first time as a “couple”. Of course, the we know where this goes. Additional drama is included with family, friends and school situations.

I liked the security and confidence each had in select situations and then the uncertainty in others. So true to life, showing you don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes even if you think you know someone.
Best audience mid teens. ( )

Recommended: sure
for an extremely cute fake-dating story, for characters I loved, for a heartwarming story with a little silliness thrown in

Thoughts:
I was so excited for this book, and I'm glad I wasn't disappointed. I felt like everything I had hoped it would be, it lived up to, plus then some that I didn't expect to get!

The way the "dating my friend's ex" element is handled was done well enough to make me buy into it without it being weird or seeming too contrived. I thought it could be extremely weird and unbelievable for someone to be like "hey borrow my boyfriend for a date" but in this case they actually got me to buy into it.

You get chapter perspectives from both Bethany and Jacob, and I always love when that happens, and especially when romance is involved, because it's fun to see how each person interprets an event or thinks about the same things in different ways. Also the chapter sub-headings made me smile every time and I love when chapters have titles, so that was a fun addition. There are text exchanges illustrated with speech bubbles and emojis in this too, which is a nice shortcut to communication and feels very relevant. A lot of books seem to forget that phones exist. xD Just a note though because I'm not sure how that might look in a digital copy for the formatting of the texts (maybe they just converted it for that so it's not images) but in the printed copy it worked very nicely.

This is a young adult novel, and there are definitely elements of that besides the romance and dances thing. They struggle with deciding their future paths after high school, and with school projects, and navigating friendships, and in communicating with their parents, and so much more. It was a really robust amount to be included in one story, honestly, but it didn't feel like too much and worked organically with all the other plot elements.

Where this mainly lost me was in the too-common issue of wondering why people don't just talk to each other and be honest. I get that honesty can be kind of scary, and it makes more sense for teenagers with little romantic experience, but it still made me sigh a bit when they both steadfastly clung to this expiration date that neither of them actually wanted! Oy. Kids.

Anyway, overall this was a sweet and fun read with an impressive amount of extras thrown in -- photography, body image, honesty, parental relationships, and so much more -- that made it feel like the characters were whole complete personalities and not just boy & girl who want to kiss.

Thanks to Bookishfirst and Razorbill for a free advanced copy. This is my honest review. ( )

I did like this book. It shared a positive message about body positivity and there was a nice representation of an LGBQIA+ character and other diverse characters. being Asian myself, it was nice to see an Asian character.

Back in school, I was like Jacob as the awkward, nerdy one that did not really know how to interact with others. I had a very small group of friends like Bethany and her friends. Bethany and Jacob may not have came up with the idea to be together but they did make a cute couple.

While I did like them, I just never really became emotionally connected with all of the rest of the characters in this book. yet, as someone who is not the target audience of this book, I still felt like because of the positive message that it will be enjoyed by readers of all ages. ( )

Love these characters!

My favorite part of this book is how well the characters are all fleshed out; they all had their quirks and distinctive traits and felt so real to me. The strong friendships and loving families and caring, supportive adults made me want to hug this book when I finished.

The fake relationship trope is one of my favorite and this book played it out differently than others I've read before. I enjoyed how the agreement between Bethany and Jacob led to a deep friendship. It broke my heart when, although they could be honest with each other about relationships, they held back their true feelings when it came to each other.

The writing and voice are fantastic--I never had trouble knowing which character's point of view I was reading (this book is told in dual point of view which is perfect for this relationship trope) and I had all the emotions while reading, including lots of smiles and laughter. I enjoyed the body positivity Bethany gifted herself and her character growth arc felt natural and I immediately connected to her. Bethany is a character that will remain with me for a long time. ( )