“After Sharlot Citra's mother catches her in a compromising position, she finds herself whisked away from LA to her mother’s native Indonesia. It'll be exactly what they both need. Or so her mother thinks. When George Clooney Tanuwijaya's father (who is obsessed with American celebrities) fears he no longer understands how to get through to his son, he decides to take matters into his own hands. To ensure that their children find the right kind of romantic partner, Sharlot's mother and George's father do what any "good" parent would do: they strike up a conversation online, pretending to be their children. When the kids find out about their parents’ actions, they’re horrified. Not even a trip to one of the most romantic places on earth could possibly make Sharlot and George fall for each other. But as the layers peel back and the person they thought they knew from online is revealed, the truth becomes more complicated. As unlikely as it may seem, did their parents manage to find their true match after all?” (Description of Well, That Was Unexpected by Jesse Q. Sutanto was taken from Penguin Random House Canada’s website). Well, That Was Unexpected is a contemporary YA rom com invoking the fake dating and stuck together tropes. Some topics/ themes discussed in this book include love and heartbreak, family, culture, change versus tradition, growing up, travel, communication, technology, sexual orientation, female roles, social standing, and appearance versus reality. I believe that this book is best suited for teens and young adults who enjoy books like Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean, Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch, or To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han as well as movies like Crazy Rich Asians or The Princess Diaries. I believe that the moral of Well, That Was Unexpected is that you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, and first impressions aren’t necessarily accurate.
On the downside, I personally found this book to be slow to start and I found that, overall, the plot wasn’t super engaging to me; this could have been because I am older than the target teen/ young adult audience and/ or it could have been because I’m a mood/ seasonal reader (the tropical book cover and setting may have been better suited for summer reading instead of autumn).
Overall, I thought that Well, That Was Unexpected was a cute teen/ YA read perfect for fans of travel, the fake dating trope, and laugh out loud moments!
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February 2024
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