Hehe I’m back at it again with another eARC review! I’ve been really loving Netgalley, and I’m so excited to be talking about You Were Made For Me by Jenna Guillaume. Even though this is an eARC, this story has apparently been out for awhile. However, it’s on Netgalley because I believe it was only available in Australia, but now it’ll be available in America on April 1. Please, don’t quote me on that though haha.

You Were Made For Me by Jenna Guillaume centers around a sixteen-year-old girl named Katie Camilleri. Her high school activities are limited to hanging out with her best friend named Libby, drawing and writing, and daydreaming about the perfect boyfriend. One day, Katie and Libby decide to mess around and make a little potion for a mini sculpture that Katie made of her ideal guy. However, they never thought that anything would come out of it, especially not a tall, charming, handsome teenage boy. After the initial mini heart attack from the sudden creation of Guy (yes, that’s what they decided to name him), Katie is extremely excited to finally find the boy of her dreams. Yet, even though Guy is absolutely perfect…something seems off. Not only that, but she also has to worry about Libby acting weird, her next door neighbor named Theo, Declan Bell Jones who she can’t get out of her head, and the girl who she swears is the devil’s spawn, Mikayla Fitzsimmons.

I liked the characters a lot, but sometimes I wished we got more from them. I didn’t have a ton of strong feelings one way or the other towards Katie, but I think she and Libby together are cool. In the book, the story is told as if Katie is keeping a document of everything that has happened. There are a few interjections from Libby every once in a while, and I found that to be quite enjoyable. I like seeing them interact as best friends, and it keeps things interesting and fun. They include this even after the serious scenes, so this book is definitely good for those who want to read something that’s constantly light-hearted. One of these serious things is Theo’s past. I really like Theo’s story about his mom and his relationship with Katie. Sometimes, I wanted to see more heartfelt interactions between them and dig a little deeper when it came to Theo showing his feelings. However, their friendship still showed to be an extremely special and precious one. Speaking of precious friendships, let’s go back to Libby’s character. In this story, Libby later reveals that she believes that she is asexual. While I wish the representation was even more prominent, I understand that it’s hard because, at that point, Libby doesn’t even fully understand her sexuality yet. She’s still trying to figure it out, and I assume that reading about a character that doesn’t have everything figured out can be just as rewarding and important.

P.S. This is just my personal opinion, and I’m not the best person to say whether Libby was good representation or not.

Perhaps it’s just me, but the humor in this book is kind of more sexual than I’m used to when it comes to YA books. This really stood out to me towards the beginning, and I found myself rolling my eyes a little bit. There were also a few moments that I found questionable. A few times, the book brought up Theo’s weight and the fact that he gained a little weight. I’m not really sure how much weight though, I just know that it’s been commented on a few times throughout the book. I’m not a huge fan of these fat jokes, and I felt like they were probably unnecessary, or at least some of them. Mikayla Fitzsimmons is portrayed as the mean girl in this story, so perhaps the weight jokes were apart of her role; however, it perturbed me a little bit when one of those jokes came from his sister. I’ll also never understand the reason Katie was so adamant on being called Kate, but then at the end she says it’s okay to call her Katie. Maybe I missed it, but I don’t recall the book mentioning the significance to being called Kate instead of Katie.

Overall, this was an easy, fun read. It was…interesting to see Katie go from someone who was freaking out about wanting a perfect first kiss to someone who has kissed three different guys in the span of months. I’m not totally positive about what they ended up doing with Guy, but he is a sweet character, so I hope he’ll be able to become his own person and find his own path. The plot was pretty interesting, and it’s a nice change since I’m so used to reading cliche scenarios (don’t worry, this book still has a few cliches if you like those).

Rating: 7.64/10 (Woah, that’s what I got for my last eARC review, too. Is this going to be a trend?)

Thank you for reading my blog, and I hope that y’all enjoyed it. How do you think I’m doing when it comes to review eARCs? Am I sharing too much or too little? Feedback is appreciated since I’m still pretty new at this haha. Anyway, see y’all next!