Charlotte Charlie Donovan knows exactly what she wants for Christmas: Teo Ortiz. He s the school s star athlete, in the National Honor Society, invited to every party, contributes to the school paper (where Charlie is co-editor), and is about to be featured as One to Watch in a teen magazine basically, he’s exactly the type of guy Charlie s meant to be with. The only problem he barely knows she exists.
But Charlie is determined to be Teo’s date to the Christmas ball. And she has a plan: To rig the paper s Secret Santa so that she can win his heart with five perfect gifts. But to do that she needs help. Enter J.D. Ortiz Teo s cousin, and possibly the most annoying person on the planet. He s easy going, laid back, unorganized, spontaneous, and makes a joke out of everything the exact opposite of Charlie (and Teo). But he s willing to provide insight into what Teo wants, so she s stuck with him.
Yet, the more time Charlie spends with J.D., the more she starts to wonder: Does she really know what, or rather who, she wants for Christmas?
My New Crush Gave to Me, on GoodReads.
My New Crush Gave to Me (by Shani Petroff) is a cute Christmastime YA Contemporary. While there are a few bumps along the way, Charlie ends up having a Christmas that I don’t think she’ll forget. Charlie’s Christmas was certainly one for the books. *ba dum-tish*
What I liked about this story and what got me to read it was the cover. I loooove the cover for this book! It’s so nice and has that Christmastime vibe, but also the vibe that “hey, this could be a cute contemporary.” I found My New Crush Gave to Me to be a cute YA Contemporary.
I liked pretty much everything about this novel. Save for the fact that there could have been more diversity among the characters.
Charlies story was pretty cute, even if she herself annoyed me in the beginning. I mean, there were definitely some points in the novel where I was upset with her for being a butt. There are even some moments where Charlie didn’t have to do what she did, but if she didn’t do them, then she wouldn’t be Charlie.
Another thing that I like is that as I was writing this review, more things about the book came back to me. Like the way that the title plays on the storyline (that should be a given, but I didn’t really think about it).
Something that I didn’t like about this book was that Charlie was so focused on deciding to like one character that she completely missed the fact that there was someone right beside her all along. I’m a little bummed that there wasn’t very much relationship time between Charlie and her love interest — that seems to be a theme among Christmastime stories. Once the main character of a book is in a relationship with someone, the book ends. However! I liked the epilogue.
I ended up giving My New Crush Gave to Me, 4 of 5 stars on GoodReads.
Have you read My New Crush Gave to Me, or any other Christmastime/Holiday themed stories?
Happy Reading!
Adele
