A story about first love and foolish, but relatable, mistakes
Thank you so much to Hear Our Voices and Pintip Dunn for allowing me to be part of this book tour and for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review! If you’d like to follow along with the tour, you can find the tour schedule here.
Book CWs: For a list of content/trigger warnings for this book, check out its page on BookTriggerWarnings.com!
Book Links
Premise
The Tech sisters don’t date in high school. Not because they’re not asked. Not because they’re not interested. Not even because no one can pronounce their long, Thai last name—hence the shortened, awkward moniker. But simply because they’re not allowed.
Until now.
In a move that other Asian American girls know all too well, six months after the older Tech twins got to college, their parents asked, “Why aren’t you engaged yet?” The sisters retaliated by vowing that they won’t marry for ten (maybe even twenty!) years, not until they’ve had lots of dating practice.
In a shocking war on the status quo, her parents now insist that their youngest daughter, Orrawin (aka “Winnie”), must date in high school. Under their watchful eyes, of course — and on dates they organize based on their favorite rom-coms. The first candidate? The son of their longtime friends, Mat Songsomboon—arrogant, dreamy, and infuriating.
Winnie’s known him since they were toddlers throwing sticky rice balls at each other. Her parents love him, so naturally he’s the perfect person for her to pretend date.
If only he weren’t her sworn enemy.
About the Author
I’m a New York Times bestselling author of young adult fiction. I graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with an A.B., and received my J.D. at Yale Law School.
My novel FORGET TOMORROW won the 2016 RWA RITA® for Best First Book, and SEIZE TODAY won the 2018 RITA for Best Young Adult Romance.
In addition, my books have been translated into four languages, and they have been nominated for the following awards: the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire; the Japanese Sakura Medal; the MASL Truman Award; the Tome Society It list; the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award; and a Kirkus Reviews Best Indie Book of the Year. My other novels include REMEMBER YESTERDAY, THE DARKEST LIE, GIRL ON THE VERGE, STAR-CROSSED, and MALICE.
Review (No Spoilers)
When I first read the blurb for Practice Makes Perfect, I couldn’t sign up for this tour fast enough! Hate-to-Love and Fake Dating are my absolute favorite tropes of all time. Put them together and I am SOLD.
While the hate-to-love aspect of the story was on point for me–I love me some angsty attraction mixed with angry flirting–I did feel like the fake dating plot could have been more fleshed out. I still don’t quite understand the logic behind going from you’re not allowed to date during high school to we are forcing you to date but it’s going to be fake. Given that Winnie wasn’t allowed to touch her dates nor develop any real feelings for them, I kept wondering what exactly was she supposed to be practicing?
As far as the characters go, I was never able to grasp what was going on with Mat and Taran in terms of their decisions and personalities. I had so many mixed feelings about those two that I still don’t know how I feel about them now that I’ve finished the book. Winnie, on the other hand, was possibly the most relatable character of all time for me. I cried a LOT towards the end of the book because I remembered what I was like in high school and Winnie’s struggles were so on-point with my experiences that it physically hurt. The relationship that Winnie had with her sisters was by far the best part of the book. The three of them were so supporting and loving toward each other that I couldn’t help but love them as well.
Dating Makes Perfect is an easy and enjoyable read filled with fun dialogue and lovable moments. On the surface this is a story of first love, but at its core it’s really a story about a young woman learning what it means to love herself. I wish I could go back in time and give this book to my 13-17 year old self. It has a message that she so often needed to hear.
Jenjenreviews