Title: The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss

Author: Amy Noelle Parks

Pub. Date: January 5, 2021

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Caleb has always assumed that when she was ready for romance, Evie would choose him. Because he is her best friend, and he loves her, and he has almost kissed her 17 times…

Seventeen-year-old Evie Beckham has never been interested in dating. She’s been fully occupied by her love of mathematics and her frequent battles with anxiety (and besides, she’s always found the idea of kissing to be a little bit icky). But with the help of her best friend and her therapist, Evie’s feeling braver. Maybe even brave enough to enter a prestigious physics competition and to say yes to the new boy who’s been flirting with her.

Caleb Covic knows Evie isn’t ready for romance but assumes that when she is, she will choose him. So Caleb is horrified when he is forced to witness Evie’s meet cute with a floppy-haired, mathematically gifted transfer student. Because Caleb knows the girl never falls for the funny best friend when there’s a mysterious stranger around, he decides to use an online forum to capture Evie’s interest. Now, he’s got Evie wondering if it’s possible to fall in love with a boy she’s never met.

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This will be a spoiler free review. Thank you to Amulet Books and Book Terminal Tours for letting me read this early and review it! I love being able to hype it up and being able to be a part of the tour for it! I absolutely loved it. Make sure you check out the other tour stops for this book, and make sure you pick up your copy when it comes out and/or request it at your local library! You’re not going to want to miss this one.

I inhaled this book in a day. I couldn’t put it down. I started it while waiting in line at the mall to get new glasses – and then immediately picked it back up when I got home. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon thoroughly engrossed in it.

I’m so glad that I fell back in love with YA romcoms, because I would have hated missing out on this book.

Have I mentioned that I love books where best friends become more? Because omfg, I’m absolutely trash for those kinds of stories and it makes me desperately wish I had a cute boy next door who was in love with me.

Can I just say over and over and over again that I loved this book and leave my review at that? Because I did and my brain does not want to cooperate with me right now and give me actual reasons. I just want to fling this book at you and say READ IT.

I love Evie and Caleb. So much. Their friendship is wonderful, and the way they know each other is so heartwarming. And how wholly infatuated Caleb is – I was sunk from the first line.

Leo on the other hand – that boy could swan dive into a bottomless hole and I’d be okay. Granted my feelings changed a bit by the end of the book, but I was not a fan of his.

I’m fully Evie + Caleb = 4Ever.

Which kind of funnily brings me to the math portion. To be honest, a lot of it went over my head. I’m not a math person, and while I find some theoretical physics interesting, it’s not something I can really wrap my brain around – I was an English major for a reason lol!

But I loved the use of math and physics in this book. Like, absolutely loved it. It was charming, cute and while those might be weird words to describe those two topics, it was fresh and exciting! Not something you usually find in YA romcoms, and I’m all for the promotion of girls in STEM. I just loved the way the two focuses were used and how it’s based in real world maths and physics. I tend to love when books (contemporary or other genres) integrate real world STEM – I feel like it grounds it.

And the fact that Evie is unapologetically fucking amazing at it – watching her come into her own and grow more confident was so satisfying. But I also fully appreciated her journey and her friends loved her for who she was and not some “normal ideal”.

And in some ways, I could really relate to Evie. I definitely have some social anxiety and hate even the idea of talking in front of people – let alone actually doing it. But like Evie, I had people in my back corner that by the end of my senior year of college, I took part in a major presentation, spoke in front of people and the whole thing was filmed. If you’d asked high school me, or even college freshman me, if I would have readily volunteered to do that, I would have laughed in your face.

I actually didn’t put that together until just now, writing this review. No wonder I felt such a connection with Evie – now, if I could only have a real-life Caleb. That would be fantastic. I’m waiting universe…

I also really loved the various belief systems in this book – not necessarily solely religious differences, but just world views – how Evie is very scientific and believing in a higher power is strange, or Caleb who is more than happy to believe that sometimes fate is steering the car, and Bex who has the Church and Bible background. I think it’s just really representative of how people actually are.

Also, can I just gush about how much I love Caleb and how in love he is with his best friend. The fact that he has a list of his Almost-Kisses with Evie and even has favorite ones – y’all.

I can’t.

I love him.

I think this book is amazing and such a fantastic read, and I urge you all to pick it up when it comes out. I loved this book, ever moment of it – even when I was raging at Leo and how in the way he was – I loved it. You get sucked in and you don’t want to put it down. I just kept hitting the next page button because I could not stop reading. I didn’t want to stop reading. You’re just carried through the book, following Caleb’s journey on his quest to be with Evie, and her journey of figuring out how to be okay, who she is and what she wants. You get to watch their relationship grow stronger, you get to watch Evie and Bex’s relationship grow and hell, even Leo’s.

So, if you’re looking for a really enjoyable YA romcom that has best friends fall in love, a You Got Mail type scenario, math, physics and a bit of quantum entanglement and just a lot of fun, you should definitely pick this up. You won’t regret it. I promise.