Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett Pages: 391
Published by Simon Pulse on April 4, 2017
Genres: Young Adult, contemporary, Romance
Source: Paperback ARC from Publisher
The one guy Bailey Rydell can’t stand is actually the boy of her dreams—she just doesn’t know it yet.
Classic movie fan Bailey “Mink” Rydell has spent months crushing on a witty film geek she only knows online as 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 archnemesis. 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.
Alex, Approximately is a young adult standalone romance by author Jenn Bennett. This book was so stinkin’ cute and amazing, I can’t stand it! In the best way of course. I expected to enjoy Alex, Approximately, but I didn’t expect to fall so completely head over heels in love with it like I did. This is one of my favorite reads of the year! I mean business when I say Alex, Approximately deserves every bit of these five stars.
Alex, Approximately is the story of Bailey and Alex. Bailey, or Mink, and Alex, met online where they instantly bonded over their love of classic movies. Bailey knows that Alex lives in the same town in California as her dad, but she gets gun shy when it comes to telling Alex that she has moved in with her dad. She is nervous about taking her online friendship offline. Bailey is trying to search Alex out with the bits of information she knows about him. At the same time she starts working with this guy, Porter. I Absolutely loved seeing Bailey’s internal struggle over her online friendship with Alex and her real life hate fest with Porter. Watching Bailey with Porter was hilarious, and awesome and OH-SO-SWOONY! I seriously loved them. Porter for sure takes the top spot of Book Boyfriend of the year. I love him so much.
But I also loved so many other things about Alex, Approximately. I loved Bailey and all of her quirkiness. I loved her new friendship with Grace. I loved how the whole online and offline relationships were handled, I loved all the movie references and I really loved the freakin’ awesome mansion turned museum that Bailey, Grace and Porter work in. I want to visit!! In fact, there was not a single thing about this book that I didn’t like. Jenn Bennett cast a magic spell of love over me. I fell in love with everything about Alex, Approximately. This is a book that you need to read. You need to read it now and you need to read it over and over again. This is one of my favorite books of 2017. It gave me all the feels. (and honestly, writing this review is making me want to re-read this beauty right now!) Do yourself a favor and read Alex, Approximately.
Alex, Approximately by @Jenn_Benn @SimonTeen @RivetedLit is a @BookBriefs #TopPick Click To Tweet
About Jenn Bennett
Jenn Bennett is an award-winning author of young adult contemporary romance books, including: Alex, Approximately; The Anatomical Shape of a Heart (aka Night Owls in the U.K.); and Starry Eyes. She also writes romance and urban fantasy for adults (the Roaring Twenties and Arcadia Bell series). Her books have earned multiple starred reviews, won the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA® Award, garnered two Reviewers’ Choice awards and a Seal of Excellence from RT Book Reviews, and been included on Publishers Weekly Best Books annual list. She lives near Atlanta with one husband and two dogs. Visit her at www.jennbennett.net.
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Jenea's Book Obsession
This sounds so good. All the characters seem to be great in their own ways. I need to pick this one up for sure. 🙂 Wonderful review.
Sam@WLABB
Right! How awesome was this book. It is one of my top 2017 books as well. You pretty much hit all the reasons I loved it too – the quotes Bennett selected were perfect, it was quirky, fun, swoony, emotional (in a good way), and there were hijinks! Great review.
sherry fundin
Cover makes me think this would be a good one and I do like a good YA story. From the comments it looks like I am not alone.
sherry @ fundinmental
Sue @ Crushingcinders
This book has been on my TBR for ages. I first added it for the stunning cover, but then got so excited with the positive reviews. I really have no excuse as to why I haven’t read it yet! Thanks for the reminder.