He is honest, has an adorable affinity for quizzes, weather, and old movies, loves and supports his family, and has amazing communication skills. J enn Bennett is an artist and RITA-nominated author of the Arcadia Bell urban fantasy series ( Kindling the Moon) and the Roaring Twenties romance series, including Bitter Spirits, which was chosen as one of Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2014 and winner of RT Book Reviews Paranormal Romance Book of the Year, and Grave Phantoms—which was awarded RT’s May Seal of Excellence for 2015.

Alex, Approximately picks up after their friendship has already begun, and Bailey is going through a major change in her life: she's leaving behind her mother and pretentious stepfather behind in DC and moving to California to live with her father.I'm not sure that I'm comfortable with the way the ""trust"" conversations enfolded because somehow their trust looks very much like "you must tell me everything at all time" and what happened to keeping some kind of secret garden? The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. When classic movie fan Bailey moves across the country to a small California surfing town to live with her dad (and, as it happens, her online crush and fellow film geek Alex), there’s a part of her that’s hoping for a Hollywood ending – boy meets girl, boy and girl instantly connect, boy and girl ride off into the Pacific Coast sunset. In this delightfully charming teen spin on You’ve Got Mail, the one guy Bailey Rydell can’t stand is actually the boy of her dreams—she just doesn’t know it yet.

Nevertheless, these quotes and references at the very least add to the characters’ personalities if not the plot itself. Once again Bennett has written a romantic story that I cannot wait to pick up again, so I can re-experience all the laughs, swoons, and sexy sarcasm that overpowers this book. I hate books that are cringey, and I hate books that are pretentious, but it’s so rare for me to get the opportunity to hate one that is BOTH! There were some seriously swoony moments in the book, but the scenes I loved the best were the ones of the two of them talking and emotionally connecting with each other.When Bailey moves to sunny California to live with her dad, who happens to live in the same town as Alex, she decides to track him down. All while Bailey's thinking things like, oh, he'll need pain medication, that's just lovely, given his addiction and ARGGGG give me a fucking BREAK. Now, I’m not a film-buff like Bailey was, but there were aspects of her characterization that I think a lot of teen girls will recognize. Alex, Approximately was one of those books that you read quickly-but not like your typical YA contemp-you don't just read it and cut through it and, once finished, never look back. For example, when Bailey meets the forty-year-old cop girlfriend of her father, guess what said cop says?

I'm not gonna lie- there were many times where I just wanted to reach into the book and give him a hug.You plow ahead, and you make a lot of progress that other people wouldn’t make, but you can’t see what’s happening on either side of the road. I was fully engrossed in this story and i think most of that is to do with how well the characters were written, i often find the main characters in YA contemporary books to be pretty one dimensional but i really liked Bailey and Porter. Two subplots and a few too many tropes of the romance genre threaten to send the story off the rails, but the focus mostly stays on Bailey and Porter, who carry the day like true stars--the heroes and heroines of their beloved movies would be proud.

I don’t have much experience with a die-hard love of films, but I kind of imagine it’s like my die-hard love of books. We are The Little Contemporary Corner, made up of Sarah and Sophie, best friend book bloggers from Manchester. I thought it was absolutely perfect, and I loved how it had a bit of a hate-to-love feel to it in the beginning. 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.Alex, Approximately provides a perfect mixture of romance, comedy, and realistic drama that doesn’t revolve around the main relationship, simultaneously tackling important subjects that everyone can learn from. While there are a few aspects of this book that could have been handled with a bit less bias towards its leads – Porter’s childhood friend Davy exists purely as antagonist, when actually his story and situation could have been explored with a bit more nuance – in all, Alex, Approximately builds off the idea introduced in a classic and well-loved rom-com and turns it into an engaging YA novel.