Title: Project Personality

Author: Kelly Anne Blount & Lynn Rush

Pub. Date: May 17, 2021

Pages: 274

Pub: Entangled: Crush

Genre: YA Contemporary

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Goodreads

Hope Chambers has a major problem. She’s spent the entirety of her four years of high school focusing on being perfect—perfect grades, perfect extracurriculars, perfect essays—to the point that she forgot to get a life. And now she’s perfectly boring.

She’s got exactly two weeks before her admissions interview for MIT to spice up her life and get a personality, dammit. And she knows exactly who can help her: soccer star and Mr. Popularity himself, Landon Watkins. But how does a nerdy, socially awkward girl ask the most charismatic guy in school to help her become interesting?

Saving his life in the school cafeteria is a pretty good start.

No one is more surprised than Hope when Landon agrees to help her. But what he proposes they do takes her so far out of her shell, she’s practically in a different ocean. And when she starts falling for the last guy she ever expected to, it has her second-guessing every decision she’s ever made…

This will be a spoiler free review. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I inhaled this in one sitting. I’m thoroughly enjoying these Twin River High books. They’re kind of giving me JLA Wait for You series vibe (minus the NA classification). I’m such a sucker for these kinds of cute contemporaries that don’t shy away from harder topics and trauma.

My only complaint that I have is that these books – this one definitely – isn’t long enough. Just shy of 300 pages, there isn’t enough time to really connect and get to explore the trauma. By that I mean, the trauma and/or the aftermath is on the page, but the “getting over it” (I use that phrase lightly) is almost glossed over.

This book takes place over a few weeks, and while I know that the character who is struggling isn’t “healed” by any stretch of the imagination, it just felt a bit easy and convenient.

And don’t get me wrong, I still utterly loved this book, found it to be cute and adorable and I loved the ending – I literally squealed into my pillow after reading it. But I would like more.

But I will say, I also do really enjoy the fact that this book is a quick, relatively light read. I was just able to turn my brain off and enjoy the adorable moments. And omfg I loved the premise of this book – I swear YA contemporaries make me regret my high school experience. I want something this adorable, okay?

Hope and Landon are adorable and the way they navigate each other, how Landon was just on board to help her…it was great. Was it a little rushed? Yeah, but I was lost in the story, so I didn’t care that much. Hope was so adorable – I feel like I’m saying that word a lot – but this book was adorable! She really grew as a character and learned to stand up for herself. I loved that she brought out a better side in Landon, as he did her. They complimented each other very well.

I will say that I really wasn’t a fan of her two best friends. I get that they’re all insanely smart and somewhat lack the ability to discern social cues, but they irritated me. They felt manipulative and controlling and just honestly, annoying. Tbh, I think Hope was a better person without them. They felt naïve and childish and then what they did towards the end – that was horrible. Was not a fan.

Overall, I loved this book. I loved the first one, this one was great, and I really cannot wait to dive into book 3. It’s totally my next read. If you’re looking for a cute, quick YA contemporary, you probably want to check this out. If you want something in a similar vein as Brigid Kemmerer’s YA contemporaries, or Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Wait for You series (minus the NA classification), then you’re going to enjoy the stories coming out of Twin River High.