The Most Unlikeable MC EVER? | Book Review: Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee

Synopsis:

Noah Ramirez thinks he’s an expert on romance. He has to be for his popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary, a collection of trans happily ever afters. There’s just one problem—all the stories are fake. What started as the fantasies of a trans boy afraid to step out of the closet has grown into a beacon of hope for trans readers across the globe.

When a troll exposes the blog as fiction, Noah’s world unravels. The only way to save the Diary is to convince everyone that the stories are true, but he doesn’t have any proof. Then Drew walks into Noah’s life, and the pieces fall into place: Drew is willing to fake-date Noah to save the Diary. But when Noah’s feelings grow beyond their staged romance, he realizes that dating in real life isn’t quite the same as finding love on the page.

In this charming novel by Emery Lee, Noah will have to choose between following his own rules for love or discovering that the most romantic endings are the ones that go off script. 

My thoughts:

I really wanted to love this.
I really wanted this to be a new fave.
But it really wasn’t good.

The Good:

The Rep – Mixed race main character, trans rep, bisexual, mlm, anxiety/panic disorder

The Storyline – The story was interesting, I will give that to the author. It was very plot driven, there’s no likable characters to really latch on to. I only finished this book for the plot aspect, I’m usually more of a character driven person. It had so much potential! Fake dating is one of my favourite tropes, I wish the characters were better so that the plot worked better.

Trans joy – Yay! I’m so glad this was about trans joy instead of suffering and struggles – not to say that’s not important but I feel that joy is often left out.

Tumblr blog – I like Tumblr, like when Tumblr is included in books. I find it really relatable as someone who has been on that platform for like decade. (wow, when did I get so old?)

The side characters were way more likeable than the main character. I really liked Devin, e was the best by far. I also learned about the pronouns e/eir/em – which I had not previous come across. The topic of pronouns was discussed a few times, I learned a few things which is great!

The Bad:

To balance out the joy there was toxicity.
Toxic relationship between Drew and Noah, they are an awful combination.
But then again even though Drew was a terrible boyfriend, Noah was an awful person… so *sips tea*

The Ugly:

Noah.
When I say Noah is the most insufferable character to ever exist, that is an understatement. I don’t mind unlikeable characters, as long as they’re interesting and their motives and behaviours are founded.
Noah is just an entitled asshole. Very little character development happens. Noah lacks self-awareness completely and is just awful to everyone around him. He’s a brat, spoiled and thinks he’s too good for everything and everyone. I don’t think I’ve ever found a more annoying character to read from in my entire reading history. Noah is the literal worst!

It makes me laugh that the synopsis says, ‘In this charming novel by Emery Lee’ – when in fact it is not charming at all.

Rating: 2 Stars

Most disappointing read of the year so far.