Title: Alex, Approximately
Author: Jenn Bennett
Publication: April 3, 2018
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books
Genre: YA Fiction, Teen
Pages: 416
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
Classic movie buff Bailey “Mink” Rydell has spent months crushing on a witty film geek she only knows online by “Alex.” Two coasts separate the teens until Bailey moves in with her dad, who lives in the same California surfing town as her online crush.
Faced with doubts (what if he’s a creep in real life—or worse?), Bailey doesn’t tell Alex she’s moved to his hometown. Or that she’s landed a job at the local tourist-trap museum. Or that she’s being heckled daily by the irritatingly hot museum security guard, Porter Roth—a.k.a. her new arch-nemesis. But life is whole lot messier than the movies, especially when Bailey discovers that tricky fine line between hate, love, and whatever-it-is she’s starting to feel for Porter.
And as the summer months go by, Bailey must choose whether to cling to a dreamy online fantasy in Alex or take a risk on an imperfect reality with Porter. The choice is both simpler and more complicated than she realizes, because Porter Roth is hiding a secret of his own: Porter is Alex…Approximately.
REVIEW:
A few years ago my BFF, editor, and partner in crime with all things book related told me about this book and how good it was. I immediately added it to my wish list and then there is sat till I decided to order it this summer and then it sat on my bookcase till we decided to read it for the month of December for our book club. I was so excited to read it.
Bailey (Mink) moves from DC to California to live with her father after a divorce and a decision that she needs to live away from her mother. She moves in with her Dad. She has ulterior motives as well. She has been talking to a boy named Alex on a vintage movie forum. She hasn’t told him she is coming and isn’t sure how to. She gets a summer job at a local tourist trap. There she meets a boy named Porter, they hit it off sort of. Will Alex ever surface and will Mink ever tell him she is there? Honestly, I loved this book. It was the most wholesome romantic YA that I have read in a long time. It was the perfect amount of romance and the perfect amount of will they won’t they? I didn’t want the book to end at all!
I fell in love with all the characters although I am pretty sure that Porter was my favorite. He was loyal to his family to a fault and was the perfect nerdy surfer dude but smart. Maybe it is just me but when I think surfer dudes they are kind of ditzy but in the most loveable way. I loved the banter that he maintained with Bailey throughout the entire book. I was left waiting for the next witty banter to come and when it did, it certainly didn’t disappoint. I loved Bailey for her vintage style of clothes and it would seem hairstyles as well based on the things stuck to her mirror. I was a bit annoyed by her friend Grace it felt like she didn’t have a place there, although the more I think about it she was there to help Bailey to overcome the avoidance issue that she had. Bailey had never had an honest to god friend before but I think Grace changed that. I just loved the whole book from beginning to end. I actually have one more book written by this author on my TBR shelf and I think I will move it to the top of my pile soon.
