Book Review: I Hope This Doesn’t Find You by Ann Liang

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 320 pages
Author: Ann Liang
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Release Date: February 6th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Snarky and romantic, I Hope This Doesn’t Find You is Never Have I Ever meets To All the Boys if Lara Jean wrote hate emails instead of love letters.

Sadie Wen is perfect on paper: school captain, valedictorian, and a “pleasure to have in class.” It’s not easy, but she has a trick to keep her model-student smile plastered on her face at all times: she channels all her frustrations into her email drafts. She’d never send them of course — she’d rather die than hurt anyone’s feelings — but it’s a relief to let loose on her power-hungry English teacher or a freeloading classmate taking credit for Sadie’s work.

All her most vehemently worded emails are directed at her infuriating cocaptain, Julius Gong, whose arrogance and competitive streak have irked Sadie since they were kids. “You’re attention starved and self-obsessed and unbearably vain . . . I really hope your comb breaks and you run out of whatever expensive hair products you’ve been using to make your hair appear deceptively soft…”

Sadie doesn’t have to hold back in her emails, because nobody will ever read them… that is, until they’re accidentally sent out.

Overnight, Sadie’s carefully crafted, conflict-free life is turned upside down. It’s her worst nightmare — now everyone at school knows what she really thinks of them, and they’re not afraid to tell her what they really think of her either. But amidst the chaos, there’s one person growing to appreciate the “real” Sadie — Julius, the only boy she’s sworn to hate…

THIS IS ACADEMIC RIVALS.

You know when a trope is mentioned and when you read it, you feel like that trope was not actually there? NOT the case for this book. This was an intense and passion filled academic rivals and I loved that. Sadie and Julius were at each other constantly but you could also clearly see the chemistry between them.

I liked seeing Sadie grow over the book. Bless her heart, being so consumed by people pleasing and trying to make things right was eating her up. And I liked watching her understand that you just can’t please everyone, and that those who love you will stick with you.

This was pretty solid for YA in regards to content. I didn’t love the underage drinking house party, but language and romantic content wise it would be okay for teens. Which is always a plus for young adult books.

I have enjoyed this author’s previous books and will definitely continue to pick them up.

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Contemporary Romance
  • Language: low
  • Romance: kisses
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: parental abandonment, cyberbullying

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