Book Review: Shuffle, Repeat

Author: Jen Klein

Publisher: Random House for Young Readers

Genres: YA contemporary & YA romance

Pages: 327

Rating: 4.5/5

Synopsis:

“June wants high school to end and real life to begin. Oliver is soaking up senior year’s glory days. They could have coasted through high school, knowing about—but not really knowing—each other.

Except that their moms have arranged for Oliver to drive June to school. Every. Single. Day.

Suddenly these two opposites are fighting about music, life . . . pretty much everything. But love is unpredictable. When promises—and hearts—get broken, Oliver and June must figure out what really matters. And then fight for it. ”

Be still my heart. This book was so swoony, so sweet and packed full of banter… which is my favorite type of book. Reading this book made me remember how terribly painful it is to be reading through a well written slow burn romance.

June is one of the most interesting female protagonists I’ve read about in a book from this genre. She completely destroys the cookie cutter contemporary female and is, all honesty, quiet negative and condescending. At least she is in the beginning of the book; over time she develops a lot and becomes a lot less, for lack of a better term, high and mighty.  She’s super funny and really drove the banter bus in this story, which I’m always here for because humor makes books 201% better (yes, I did the math). Then there’s Oliver who is the perfect dreamy typical (but secretly not typical) arrogant jock. He’s stolen my heart a little bit. I don’t think I’ve loved two vastly different characters together in such a long time.

These two opposites start as something close to “bitter enemies” . They bicker in the car ride to school everyday and always have something to argue about. But as their senior year goes on it’s so cute to watch their hate turn to a very well functioning friendship all the way to a romance. This is the best hate-to-love book I’ve ever read. Their relationship is so well developed in every way and I was always swooning when they had those cute flirtyish moments during the time they were at the friendship stage. Everything about these two makes the story entertaining and humorous. I can’t even tell you how many times I laughed to myself way too late at night while reading the banter.

Aside from the laughter, there were tons of tears from where this book hit harder than I expected. Sure, most of this book is all fluffy and messed with my feels but there was a deeper element I wasn’t expecting. This book covers family drama and what it’s like to find out your parents aren’t who you thought they were. It broke my heart a little bit, but was super well written and something that I haven’t seen a ton of in YA books.

Moving back to happier topics… the natural feel of this book was unreal. The school dynamic felt real (and avoided many stereotypes thankfully) with how people interacted. I loved the friend groups surrounding June & Oliver, especially June’s best friend Sean. His interactions with June showed her soft, or what can be considered soft, side and always left me with a happy feeling. Especially their Valentine’s Day tradition. I love them!!

This book was beyond cute, my heart still jumps thinking about it. The only thing I didn’t completely understand was why June didn’t drive, I don’t think it’s really even fully fleshed out in the story and some of decisions confused me a bit. BUT all in all this book is just too adorable for this world and remains one of the best contemporaries I have ever had the honor of reading (yes, HONOR. It’s that good).