This Time It’s Real by Ann Liang is a charming story of the fake dating trope. It’s an adorable YA rom-com that’s entertaining and hopeful throughout. The setting, the characters, the banter, and the storyline were everything I like in rom-coms.
My Overview
It’s been twelve years since Eliza Lin and her family lived in Beijing. They’ve been living around the world, and they’re now back in Beijing for a year. During that time away, Eliza has uprooted her life six times. Now that she’s back in Beijing, she can only hope to fit in to her new school and make the best of it. Unfortunately, she’s not having an easy time fitting in or making friends.
As if she needed more to worry about at school, her teacher has assigned everyone to write a personal essay. Specifically, she needs to write about the person in her life that she has a secret language with. The essays will be posted on the school blog, so all students can read them and comment. Eliza doesn’t want to share details about her close relationships with her parents or sister. What to do? She turned in an essay about her fictional boyfriend. She made up a story about her love life, for her non-fiction assignment. The fact that Eliza has never had a boyfriend isn’t a problem for her. She’s clever and imaginative, so she had no trouble writing about her fictional relationship.
Unfortunately, her story soon goes viral! Her only solution is to make a deal with a popular and handsome student at her school, Caz Song. In exchange for helping him with this college applications, he needs to pretend to be her boyfriend. The more time they spend together, the more she wishes a real relationship between them could be possible. It’s not long before she becomes hopeful that this time it’s real.
My Recommendation
I loved this story! I really enjoyed the clever and witty characters, and the author’s writing style. This is my first book by this author, and now I can’t wait to read more. I’m planning to listen to the audiobook to Liang’s debut novel, If You Could See the Sun. I’ll then be caught up and ready for her upcoming release in 2024.
If you enjoy light rom-coms of the fake dating trope, give this one a try. I highly recommend the audiobook.
Have you read this book yet?
Lindsey @ Lindsey Reads
This one’s on my TBR so I’m happy to hear you loved it! It does sound so good!
Lucy
I hope you’ll enjoy this story as much as I did 🙂.
Dedra @ A Book Wanderer
I’m so happy to see so many readers enjoying this book. It’s on my tbr! Great review!
Lucy
Thanks! Glad it’s on your TBR. I hope you’ll enjoy this story too.
Wendy
I’m adding this to my TBR it sounds like a book I would enjoy
Lucy
I hope you’ll enjoy this story as much as I did 💫.
Rachel @Waves of Fiction
The fake dating trope can be such fun. Love the cover! I’ll be sure to check out the audio version if I get to this one.
Lucy
Yes, the cover is so pretty! If you enjoy YA romance this will be an easy one to listen to 🎧.